Range Check Error upon PVD startup followed by application error

[Data1001]

I downloaded the latest beta of PVD a few days ago, since I needed to add a whole bunch of titles from an Excel file, and the beta's features made that much easier. I've spent a number of hours since yesterday, doing the confirmations on the added titles, and then starting to download full info for them (over 2,000 new entries).

It actually went very well, until now.

This is what I was doing just before the code gremlins showed up: I had an old movie serial that I initially entered with each chapter as separate versions of the same title, then altered each entry to match the titles of each particular chapter in the serial. Here's where I may have gotten too clever for my own good...

I decided to use the "copy" and then "paste as episode" feature, to put all these chapters as if they were episodes of a regular series -- and that also seemed to work very well. But I still had the original chapters all existing as separate, unique entries, so I figured I'd delete those and then they'd only exist as "episode" entries.

But hold on, I thought. I'd better make a backup of the database before I delete anything, in case it screws something up. So I did. Then I reloaded the original database, and began to delete those entries. Here's where my trouble began.

Forgive me for not recalling the exact sequence of events, because I've since tried numerous things and I can't remember exactly what happened first. I think I got an application error. Then upon restarting the app, I got the "range check error".  I clicked OK and it continued to load the program, but no database, so I tried opening the one I was working on, and got the dialog "An error occurred in the application" with the "continue/restart/close" options. I tried all options, to no avail.

Okay, maybe a database which I know is good will work -- nope. Same problem.

Alright, how about ditching the beta version for now and going with v0.9.9.21? Nope. Same issues, no matter which database I'm trying to open.

Rebooted my system, and still the same errors. So now I can't load either version of the application, and none of my databases, even my backups.

Help. 

Running 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate, with 24GB RAM. Lots of processing power. This seems to be a new problem for me with PVD.

The one thing I'm wondering about is whether I have enough free space on my hard drives? (I know nothing about databases, but thought I'd mention it, in case it's relevant.) I have about 5 gigs free space on each of my two drives, but perhaps that's not enough, since each of the databases I'm trying to open are in excess of 850MB in size. And I did actually fill up my drives quite a bit in the past 24hrs, while I had PVD open.

Okay, this post is sufficiently bloated...

Much thanks in advance for anything you might be able to do, and for slogging your way through the above ramblings.

[Data1001]

Hmm... it seems that maybe I messed up my configuration file. Was reading a few more posts about working with the beta version (I know, it's a bit late now, but I've beta tested lots of software before, so I made my database backups and thought I'd just dive in  ), and came across Rick's caution to use the "-portable" switch when using the preview version of the application. Trying this, I can now load the latest beta, and my database.  (A cautious) Whoo-hoo!

So what the heck did I do to corrupt "pvdconf.ini"? Was it simply running the beta (preview) release and the latest stable version back-to-back? More importantly, can I undo the error somehow? Perhaps do a clean install of the stable version and then make sure I always use the -portable switch when running the beta?

[Data1001]

I can now load the latest beta, and my database.

Just want to clarify, that although I'm able to load beta v1.0.2.2 (thanks to the "-portable" switch), I still cannot load the latest stable release of PVD (and presumably wouldn't be able to load the preview version without that switch).

Any suggestions for how I can fix my configuration file? I do like the beta version -- and have been using it for day-to-day entries since I encountered the issue noted above -- but obviously I'd like to be able to run the stable version, as well.

Muchas gracias!

[rick.ca]

If you delete the configuration file, the program will create another default one. If the problem is the program cannot open the database because you opened it with the beta version, all you can do is restore it from backup. A newer (major) version typically converts any old version database it's asked to open to a new structure that cannot be read by the older version of the program.

[Data1001]

Thanks. Weirdly, the other day I found the thread here that discussed deleting the configuration file and letting the program create a new one, but when I tried that, it didn't seem to work -- and now (moments ago) it does work... the stable release started up fine, and loaded up a backup copy of my database with no problems.

I guess I wasn't aware that the database structure wouldn't be backwards-compatible, however. I'm disappointed to hear that, because I've made literally thousands of additions with the beta version (not to mention about 10-15 man hours of doing manual updates), and so there's really no going back to a prior version for me. But since v1.x has been running fairly well, overall, I'm not in horrible shape.

Let me ask you this, Rick -- is using the "-portable" switch a good long-term solution to running both versions? Or is there something I can change in the settings to have the beta version create a unique configuration file in another folder? It doesn't really matter to me, as long as I can continue doing what I'm doing and have a reasonable expectation that it will continue to work.

[rick.ca]

I guess I wasn't aware that the database structure wouldn't be backwards-compatible, however.

That's normally the case with any application. Although I suppose you might assume someone who goes by the name Nostradamus capable of writing one that could understand a file structure created in the future. Sadly, there are limits to his talents.

Or is there something I can change in the settings to have the beta version create a unique configuration file in another folder?

No. Portable Mode does the job.