I'm returning to HCE after sometime away - I had created a new database and still have the res and rsr files but lost everything else in a hard drive failure - how do I access the data to start modifying it again.

 

Sorry for the bone question but old age is setting in.

 

[CV32: Edited your title to help others in a similar dilemma to more easily find the subject matter of your thread]

Have you tried opening the Platform Editor and doing an import? I believe that will give you access to everything you need from your .res and .rsr files.

 

Buddha

Yes - I'm trying that but failing dismally. Don't know what I'm doing wrong. Can you give me step by step instructions - eg files need to be in same folder etc.

 

Thanks

If you still have your commondb.res (the actual data files for your DB) and your commondb.rsr (picture files for your DB), you should be able to import your database using the "Import New Database" button in the Platform Editor (PE).

 

The *.res and *.rsr files should be in your main HCE directory when you do this.

Did you lose MS Access during your HDD problems? I recently had to replace a hard drive and reinstall everything, and at first I forgot to reinstall MS Office before trying to use the PE, resulting in it not working. The shortcut installed by Harpoon for the PE should point to a file with an MDB extension in your Harpoon folder. If MS Access is installed on your system, this should automatically open the MDB file in Access and allow you to work with it. You might also try opening your Harpoon folder in Explorer and double clicking the MDB file directly to see if it opens. Mine points to pfbuild2005.mdb, which I believe is the default when you install Harpoon. If you've done a lot of tinkering with different Databases, yours could have a different name. In any event, when you installed Access, Windows should have associated all files with the MDB extension with MS Access. If this got hosed somehow, try right clicking the MDB file, selecting Open With, and select MS Access, also selecting Always Use This Program to open this type of file.

 

If you haven't yet used the PE on a new installation of Harpoon, you should see something to the effect of "Blank Database, please import", or something along those lines. Clicking Import New Database will import the .res and .rsr files as Brad indicated.

 

Let not your heart be troubled Red. If I can master the procedures of this, anybody can. This group has helped me through more than one boneheaded mistake over the years, and I don't doubt for a minute we'll do the same for you, not that I'm sharing the title of Bonehead with you. You should've seen how badly I hosed up my ANW installation a few months ago, and the guys here bailed me out in short order.

 

Buddha

Thanks for the advice and guidance - I have now recovered my data. Had been trying to do it outside the main HCE folder.

 

The next question is is there a simple way of adding my old/new data (platform by platform) to the latest version of the commondb or do I have to do it by retyping each individual entry?

 

Thanks

Thanks for the advice and guidance - I have now recovered my data. Had been trying to do it outside the main HCE folder.

 

Glad to hear it was so easily resolved.

 

The next question is is there a simple way of adding my old/new data (platform by platform) to the latest version of the commondb or do I have to do it by retyping each individual entry? Thanks

 

Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this. The latest version of the official database will no doubt use different ID # for its entries than your custom DB, and will be incompatible.

Glad we could be of assistance. It's been my experience that these things are usually some simple problem that you just don't think of yourself, but some other user sees right away. I guess that comes from having about a century of Harpoon experience collected in one place.

 

Buddha