Backup failure ;(

[geoffmurray]

Hi All,
Recently my weathercat data file became corrupted
"WeatherCat has detected corruption in the file:
'/Users/geoff/Library/WeatherCatData/Location1/2015/6_WeatherCatData.cat' - couldn't read the version number (VERS).
Please quit and restore your WeatherCat data from a backup or press 'Initialize' to create a new data file."
Hitting initialize doesn't work and the only way I could get WC to backup was to delete the current Weathercat data file. WC would then start and allowed mr to apply a backup....but that hasn't worked either.
I'm an unhappy chappy. If I don't try the backup I can restart from now but all past records are gone.
Help!
Geoff

[geoffmurray]

I can get WC to start ok by deleting the weathercat data folder and restarting, it creates a new folder and runs. But then if I try to restore from a backup I get the data corruption message again.
Geoff

[Bull Winkus]

If you have more than one backup, you may need to go to an older version. Of course, some data could end up lost, but it is better than losing all. 

Good luck?

[WCDev]

As per Herb's suggestion - try an older WeatherCat backup to restore. If they all contain the corrupt file then you'll need to restore your WeatherCatData folder from TimeMachine.

The problem is with your June 2015 data file so try restoring your WeatherCatData folder from the 15th of June. If that's good, try restoring from later in June, say the 22nd. If it's bad, earlier in June, for example the 7th. In each step, step half way between the old date and the new date so you aren't sequentially stepping through days until you find the latest file that works.

But before doing any of that, run disk utility (Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility) over your hard disk and check it for errors.

[geoffmurray]

Back in business. I restored an earlier backup from Time Machine and I now have my data back  (with a slight hole, no problem). Thanks for the suggestions.
Geoff