Don't start me talking about stone age software like Progress 9.1d ...
The before image is a vital part of the database - is it gone or corrupted, so is your database. Therefore if you lose the before image the only way to recover is a restore from the last good backup you have. You might try to create a files with the names of the before image extents so that there are files existing in the file system and truncate the before image with the -F option. If that succeeds then you are able to access the database, but, still the database is damaged and your data is not consistent any more.
The precaution's are:
- Have a sufficient disaster recovery strategy in place that involves backing up the database with the Progress backup utility and utilizing the after image in the first place.
- Make sure you backup the latest version of the structure description file (.st) - you will need it when you need to restore the database.
- Unless you are 100% positive about what you are doing, don't ever touch the files that make up the database with OS utilities - most prominently, of course, delete.
Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.
