Is My File Healthy

Obituaries are an inevitable part of being a genealogist. I have bookmarked three local newspaper obituary columns on the internet just so I don’t miss anything important to me. From time to time I see references to a death after the discovery of a disease in its later stages. These are deaths that might have been postponed. Regular medical checkups can lead to a longer and more fulfilling life.

So why discuss medical checkups on a website dedicated to Ancestral Quest? I thought you would never ask. (Maybe you didn’t, but here is the answer anyway.) Sometimes AQ files develop problems. You may not be aware of the problem yet, but AQ may need a checkup. It is a good idea to do this checkup on a regular basis, say once a month.

Click on the Tools tab and select Database Check/Repair.

From the menu select the Check Only radio button then click the Check button.

AQ is asking you to name the file which will contain the results of the search for database errors.

I append the -year-month-day-FileName-Version to the name of the file just before the .rpt. Click the Save button and the Check process will begin.

Check goes through all the parts of the file and looks for problems.

The report on what AQ found will appear. Scroll to the bottom of the report for a summary of what was found. If no errors were found, you will not see this file, and you have completed the task.

If there were errors click on Tools -> Database Check/Repair…

…but this time click the Check and Repair radio button, then click on the Check Button.

Now click on the Backup button.

AQ will ask you to confirm the name of the backup file it is about to create and to also confirm the location where you want the backup file.

I add -B4 just before the .aqz in the file name so that it will be easy to see the backup that was made just before a possible major change to the file. Click the Backup button.

The backup is complete…

…so click on the Check Repair button.

Create another checkfix file with the version number incremented by one from the last version number. In this case the version is 2.

When Check/Repair completes it will present the result file. Scroll to the bottom to see the Summary. This usually is sufficient to remove all errors from the file. However, sometimes one problem can hide a different problem, so I always re-run the Check/Repair function until I see this:

Don’t put yourself in a position where you need to write an obituary for your AQ file.

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