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How To Use The Act! Data Diagnostic Tool (ACTDIAG) to Scan and Repair a Database

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You have determined you need to use the Scan and Repair function of the ACT! Data Diagnostic Tool (ACTDIAG) to repair a database and would like to know how to proceed.

Disclaimer: This article was written about products for which Sage Software, Inc. no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered “as is” and will no longer be updated. If you need assistance with issues pertaining to an unsupported product, please refer your questions to the ACT! Online Community or to an ACT! Certified Consultant. For more information regarding currently supported versions of ACT!, please see our Obsolescence Policy

If you believe your database is damaged, it is recommended that you first refer to the following document for more information about repairing your database:
The ACT! Data Diagnostic Tool can be used to perform several functions. This document will focus on using it to scan and repair an ACT! database. The information in this document is intended for use with version 5.0.4 (or newer) of the ACT! Data Diagnostic Tool. For information on other features of the ACT! Data Diagnostic Tool, or information on how to update your version of the ACT! Data Diagnostic Tool, please refer to the following Knowledge Base document:
Note: To acquire the latest version of the ACT! Diagnostic Tool, refer to our Updates and Documents Page at www.act.com.
Use the following steps to scan and repair a database:

Note: These steps are for ACTDiag that come with ACT! 5.0.4.x through 6.0.2.x. If you do not have one of those versions you will need to update you ACT! software.
    1. Exit ACT!
    2. Click the Windows Start button, and then click Run. The Run dialog appears.
    3. Type actdiag into the Open field, then click OK. The ACT! Data Diagnostic Tool appears.
    4. Click the Maintenance menu, and then click Scan and Repair Database.
    5. You will see the following dialog. You must click Yes to continue. The backup will be created automatically once you open the correct database.



    6. You will then be prompted to open the database you want to scan and repair. Select the 'problem' database, and then click Open. (If the database is not in the default database directory, you will need to navigate to the database first)
    7. A backup of the database will be made. The backup file (in ZIP format) will be placed in the same folder as the database. The filename of the backup will be the name of the database followed by some numbers and a .zip extension. (the numbers represent a time stamp)
    8. When the backup is complete, the Backup completed dialog appears (as illustrated below). Click Close.



    9. The next dialog box asks you to click the appropriate User as the Record Manager for the ACTDIAG repair records. ACTDIAG repair records are contacts created if ACTDIAG finds any records that have an incorrect or unknown record manager. The user you click in this list will become the record manager of the ACTDIAG repair records. After selecting the appropriate record manager, click OK, then click Yes to continue. ACTDIAG will start the process of scanning and, if necessary, repairing your database.
    10. When the Scan and Repair process has completed, you will see the following ACT! Data Diagnostic Tool message. Click the link to see the repair log of your database if desired. The repair log will open as a text document in Windows Notepad. The repair log contains all of the issues that were found in the Scan and Repair process, and what (if anything) was done to fix them. Clicking the second link will take you to the ACT! Database Services, Database Repair Web site.

    11. Click OK. The following ACT! Data Diagnostic Tool dialog box appears.

    12. If all green check marks are displayed, click Close, and then exit ACTDIAG. If any red checkmarks are displayed, repeat the Scan and Repair procedure until all green check marks are displayed.

      Note: If red check marks remain after three repetitions of this procedure, it is unlikely that continuing to repeat the Scan and Repair will manifest further repairs. Please click the link at the end of this document for information regarding database repair:
    13. Launch ACT! and open the database. You will see the following ACT! dialog box (because the scan and repair also deletes the index files). Click Yes and ACT! will rebuild the index files and open your database. This may take some time depending on the size of the database.

    14. Once your database open, click the File menu, point to Administration, and then click Database Maintenance. The Database Maintenance dialog box appears.
    15. Ensure the Compress Database check box is enabled, and then click Reindex. Your database will compress and reindex.
    16. Once completed if your this had not resolved your issue, you may need to contact an ACT! Certified Consultant (ACC) for information regarding ACT! 6.x or prior database repair. A listing of ACC's that specialize in these repairs can be found on our website: Database Services

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