"Could not open query file" error

Hi. About 7 users use Paradox in a shared environment. Today we saw a new error which we are having trouble resolving. We have backups.

When the user opens a *.qbe using Paradox 11 the error is  "Cannot open : WORK:Invoice_Jobs Closed THIS year.qbe". Could not open query file. The same error dialog box reads "Do you want to replace: WORK:Invoice_Jobs Closed THIS Year.qbe in the". That message is truncated.

• What can cause this error?
• What files are necessary to restore? It seems there is a related *.rsl file and *.db file
• What is the reference to "WORK:filename)? There is no WORK in the actual file name.
• Some users access this file using an older version of Paradox. Those users see a different message: "Record_Band is too big to fit in report".

We don't do much Paradox support and have been directed here in the past. Any clues would be appreciated. Thanks!

Tim

tim@greatdivideit.com

many generic possibilities.. not in the right directory, table or one or more of its' component files damaged or missing, incomplete process

"work" is the default current directory/folder.. when that word gets appended to a file name, it simply means that the file isn't in some other named folder

other than that, if the user is able to manually manipulate queries (qbe), reports (rsl) or tables (db), it really could be any of a gazillion different things

can you be more specific about context? is this something they do all the time? something that hasn't been done recently? a different user and/or different computer?

Steven Green
Senior Software Engineer
Paradox Support Specialist DOS/WIN

Not more than 5 mins after I posted, another user called who admitted to have made changes to the query file at some point yesterday. What we then decided to do was restore the entire database folder to a point in time from yesterday and order was restored. They do have a follow up question but it's for a different topic which I'll post separately. 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

glad you figured it out.. a word of warning, tho.. in theory, one modified file does not necessarily require that you replace a whole folder.. you might be over-writing changed data that must be then replicated.. I would have replaced the qbe file only, at first

Steven Green
Senior Software Engineer
Paradox Support Specialist DOS/WIN