Notes:
Well here it is, the new build with extended error information. I should warn that this build features sweeping changes in the code and therefore might not be as stable as the last build, but you never know.
So what does extended error information mean? It's really a twofold change:
- Errors are now reported with much more detail (with extended ASCII). They all feature extended descriptions telling you exactly what went wrong, and in many cases have relevant data from where the check failed, such as a file offset.
- Before this version there were 2 types of errors, an Exception and a check Error. When encountering either the check would abort and both meant that your data is most likely corrupt. Now there is a new type of error, well it's not really an error, it's a Warning. A Warning means that there was an inconsistency found within the database files, but the problem does not directly affect the integrity of your data. Unlike an Error or an Exception, when a Warning is encountered it will be noted on the screen, but the check will continue to run. All Warnings, Errors and Exceptions will be displayed at the end of the check in all their glorious ASCII detail.
As you can imagine, both of these required a severe overhaul of every check’s logic and were pretty significant changes.
So in summary, WhdDbCheck tries to be as detailed as possible as it performs hundreds of checks on the backup database, depending on the size of your database really. But it will only register an Error if it is sure that the problem detected is causing data loss.
Also, you should be aware that just because WhsDbCheck considers something a Warning that does NOT mean that the Windows Home Server backup engine will be able to open the database. That will depend on how resilient it is to database problems.
So what use is a Warning you might ask? If you can’t open the data with the Windows Home Server, then shouldn’t that be an Error? Yes, it should. Except that the next utility that I will release is called WhsDbDataDump which will be able to open up damaged databases and extract backed up files from them. So that is how I decided what to make an Error and what to make a Warning. If WhdDbDataDump will be able to get the original data with 100% integrity, then it’s a Warning, otherwise it’s an Error.
In general, if a database is registering any Warning/Errors then it should be considered compromised. But if it’s a Warning, then you did not technically loose any data.
As for WhdDbDataDump availability, it’s in the planning stages now, and I will only give a very rough estimate of months until the first build surfaces.
There will be another build of WhsDbCheck soon adding another crucial feature and maybe fixes to .
Changes:
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