PokerTracker

Pat:

I recently switched over my OS to Windows 7 and have reloaded PostgresSQL. When I have attempted to restore the database I have run into an issue. When I try to load the most current backup files it says that "The selected file does not appear to be a PostgresSQL backup file". However when I attempt to restore the database with older backup copies from August 2009, it loads fine. I am pretty sure that I have always backed up my database in the same way so I am not sure why the files after August say they are not PostgresSQL backup files.

The one additional piece of information which could provide some clues is that in August I did have a hard drive crash. I installed a new hard drive and reloaded the database and continued as normal. It does appear that the files post hard drive crash are the ones that are not being recognized. Any help that you can provide as to why the new files are not loadable would be appreciated.

Thanks

Try to do the restore again. When you get that message, go to the c:\program files\poker tracker v2 folder and look for the file called ptpgrdump.txt. Open it and copy/paste the text of it here. This file, for good backup files, should contain the name of the database that is in the backup along with a listing of the tables, etc. If you are getting that message, the file is missing that kind of info.

Pat:

I have tried your suggestion with all (5) of the suspect files. When I look into the Ptgrdump listing in the poker tracker v2 folder it launches the notepad, but the notepad is completely empty. I noticed that the file extension .txt was not on the file but I believe that it was the file you were referencing. I also noticed that all of the backup files were of similar size, so I thought that the data was recorded correctly when I performed the original backup.

Any additonal suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

PT creates that file by doing a restore with the "list" option on the backup file you select. If it's blank then the restore isn't able to create the list of objects in the file so it can't do a full restore from it. You could try using the Start > All Programs > PostgreSQL > pgAdmin III window to restore the file via this PostgreSQL tool. Other than that, I don't know what else you can try.

Pat:

Thanks for your suggestions. I did try to restore via the pgAdmin III page. I right clicked on the database section and saw a restore command and inserted the backup file and the program returned the following error:

pg_restore: [archiver] unsupported version (1.11) in file header

I don't know if I executed everything properly as I admittedly have limited knowledge, however is the above sequence the proper one that you were referring to in your pervious post? If so, does the error message provide any additional information that might allow me to restore the database?

Thanks again for your help.

I didn't think you would be able to restore it that way either but it was worth trying. If neither option works, I don't know of any way to salvage the file.