A morality tale of why it's ESSENTIAL to BACKUP your Tracker Database more often!

alienat3d

alienat3d

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In the beginning, i want to say, that i'm using PokerTracker 4 already for about 2,5 years and the problems started to occur only since last 6-7 months. And before the problems started i been doing Backup at least every month.

The first bothering issue was following: Someday i wanted to start my monthly Backuping Database process, but it was going and going for hours! At the first moment, as i realized something is going wrong, i didn't dare to stop it, as i was worried, maybe my whole Database works not well after that emergency stop. But as it didn't stop after 5 hours, i had to stop it. Well i wanted to play some games too and i needed HUD. Okay well.. pretty suck. I clicked on cancel button, but it didn't want to stop process either. It just added in the log "Cancelling..........." And added a new dot after that word every few minutes. But nothing else changed even after half hour. So i had to go to Task Manager and shutdown PokerTracker by "End the task". Not the best way to shutdown any software, but i had no choice.
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At another day i tried it again. After 1,5 hours Backup wasn't finished i lost my patience and shut it down again and again over Task Manager. Probably my main mistake was, that i didn't contact PokerTracker Support Team instantly, but postponed Backup for later. Maybe it will work then proper again.. So i tried after a week again to run it over the night. In addition i checked "To Shutdown PC after Backup is complete". So i had no idea if it worked proper or not, if it took 30 minutes or the whole night, but my PC was off at the next morning. So i thought: "Phew, hopefully it worked this time." I gave up to make Backups for next 2 months or so, as i didn't want to suffer my PC over hours again.

Have to say in addition here, even more often, than Backup i was doing Rebuild Cache and Housekeeping options at Database Management menu, as it helped to keep my PokerTracker running faster every time i've done it. But someday i clicked on Rebuild Cache and short after got this Error Message below.
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The same Error came out, no matter what i clicked to do "Reindexing", "Vacuuming" and for several times during the process.. "Wow.. now that looks really bad!" - i thought. Couldn't avoid to contact PT Support this time. Here want to say, they have really great Support Team, i was amazed how quickly they gave me response and how they went deeply in details with it. Thanks a lot Mike from PT Support and Flag_Hippo the PT Forum Moderator for your help! :wavey:
Here you can read my post about that Issue by the way.

So Flag_Hippo meant, that my Database seems kinda crushed. So he recommended to me export my hands & Notes from actual Database. To create a new one and import these all. The best way were of course just to restore Database. My problem was, 1st - i wasn't sure if my last Database Backup been properly done (look earlier issues with neverending backup process), 2nd - it was already a whole 2 months about since i did last Backup.
So i did the way he advised me to do. And yeah.. it solved the problem with that error, but surprisingly i had a new one. The whole my tournament results looked totally messed and any of my player merges were gone too.

Then i tried to copy my PT4 Database and restore it from earlier points in order of trying to get back my older Database back and try to import newer hands after that. The result was - surprise! Never ending Restoring Database Process! :banghead::dontknow:
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Now i had really enough of that and 0 motivation doing anything further couple of days. I just wanted to play some poker and use my HUD, instead of waiting for hours and hours until process will complete.

However, i have a new idea right now, which i try to implement, probably tomorrow morning. (As i don't have much to play at that time anyway, so it can be running for hours if it needs.) The idea is to uninstall PT4 completely. I even got a special software "Revo Uninstaller Pro" for that, so it will be deleting even any traces of it from everywhere, including Registry. And then i try to restore my older Backup Database and then import newer hands to add into. I really hope it will help this time. :stickyman

Conclusion: Don't be lazy to Backup your Database more often, as it can be you landing on my place and meeting a lot of difficulties to recover your Database! Also don't hesitate to contact PT4 Support instantly, if you have any Issue with the software! It also can save you time and nerves! They are really helpful and ready to following you step-by-step to help you repair your Tracker.
By the way, it suits not only for PT4 users, but everyone who use Tracking Software & HUDs!
P.S. It's also a smart way to do, creating more than just one Backup File. If something goes wrong with latest Backup file, you still could try to restore Database from earlier one.
 
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