Q: When I try to post a batch, it won´t put any more transactions in the Year-To-Date file.

Q: When I run a Trial Balance it prints up to a certain account then stops, or it skips over a certain range of accounts.

Q: When I try to add a new account to the Account Master file it won´t let me add any more accounts.

Q: When my batch gets up to a certain number of transactions it won´t let me add any more. If I delete a transaction I can add another.

Q: I get an Error 22 reading every record of the file...

A: All of these and many others are symptoms of index file corruption. In the first two cases it is the ytdglt file, in the third it´s the glamas file, and in the fourth it´s the glwork file that is involved.

When things like this happen, the best thing to do is to unload, edit (if necessary), and reload the offending file. I know it sounds scary, but if you are a bit careful you won't have too much trouble.

The following example is for ytdglt. If you need to work on another file, just substitute its name in place of ytdglt.

1) Run CHKDSK/F or SCANDISK on your hard drive to repair any problems in the directory or FAT structure.

2) Make a backup of the GLFILE directory, in case anything goes wrong.

3) Go to a DOS prompt.

4) Run the MENU once at the DOS prompt and exit. This should leave DBLDIR set in the environment. (If it doesn´t run, include the path to menu.bat, e.g. c:\bat\menu or c:\menu).

5) Go to the glfile directory:

 cd \buspkg\glfile

6) Run the ISLOAD utility and unload YTDGLT:

 dbr dbldir:isload

(If it doesn´t run, include the path to dbr.exe, e.g. c:\dbl\dbr dbldir:isload).

 OPTION: unload

 Enter name of ISAM file to be UNLOADed: ytdglt

 Enter name of sequential file into which to UNLOAD: ytdglt

(If it says Cannot open ytdglt [32: superseding existing file], you already have a file by that name (ytdglt.ddf) in the directory. You can either delete the old file or choose a different name for this one (e.g. ytdglt1).

 What progress reporting interval? 1000

This creates a file \buspkg\glfile\ytdglt.ddf which contains the unloaded records.

7) Now you need to replace the ytdglt.ism and ytdglt.is1 files with known good copies. These may be from backups or from the original diskettes or perhaps you have a copy in another directory on your hard drive.

8) Clear out all the data records in this new copy of ytdglt. Do this with the ISLOAD utility. To do this:

 dbr dbldir:isload

 OPTION: clear

 Enter name of ISAM file to be CLEARed: ytdglt

You now have a good ytdglt file with no records in it.

9) Reload the new ytdglt file with the records you unloaded above. To do this:

 dbr dbldir:isload

 OPTION: load

 Enter name of ISAM file to be LOADed: ytdglt

 Enter name of sequential file from which to LOAD: ytdglt

 What progress reporting interval? 1000

It now loads the file. When it has finished it asks:

 Enter name of continuation input file: <Ctrl-Z>

(That is, press Control Z to terminate the utility).

10) Now test the reload by running a Trial Balance. Everything should be normal. If it isn't correct, you need to manually edit the ytdglt.ddf file, then go back and redo steps 8 and 9 above.

Q: The Business Package freezes when we choose an option that requires reading the glwork file.  I assume that this file is corrupted in some way.  Unfortunately, it's not even possible to UNLOAD and edit it with the ISLOAD routine so our solution has been to CLEAR the file and start over.  Ever had this happen?  Are we unknowingly causing this problem ourselves?  Any suggested solution other than clearing the file?

A: Generally CLEAR doesn't clear the problem when there is corruption. Corruption usually means there is something wrong with the index of the file, and it often occurs in only one portion of the index. If you do a CLEAR and your work doesn't touch that part of the index you wouldn't see a problem at first until later on when you happen to get into that part of the index.

My suggestion is to delete both parts of GLWORK and find a new clean copy. Any known good copy is ok, for example from an old backup. You probably want to CLEAR it before you use it, in case there are any old batches in it.

As to what causes the corruption, it's usually a system crash or power failure.