Our company uses an accounting software package to access past sales histories.
The M-Dos based software is approx 20-years old.
The company that produced the software is-
Integrity Management Services Pty Ltd.
582 St Kilda Road,
Melbourne ,Vic, 3004.
Tel-03 95294500.
This company is no longer registered or trading or contactable

Qu--We require a software consultant or programmer proficient in
MS-Dos to assist in rebuilding some corrupted files on
Accent-[Integrity Business Software]
Ideally the person or company would be located in Melbourne Australia.

Thanking you for past assistance.

jennyo-ga.

Dear jennyo,


Since you are troubled by corrupted data files, you should consult a
company that specializes in data recovery. I have identified three such
firms that operate in the Melbourne area.


Technetics has the capability to restore files from older operating
systems such as MS-DOS, and promises that they will not charge you unless
they can recover your data.

    - Data Conversion from Many Current and Older Operating Systems
    eg. Novell 3.x to Windows 2003 Server.

    - We have a strict "No Data - No Charge" policy. Simply If we
    can not get your data you pay NOTHING.

    [...]

    Want to know more about this data recovery service - Call Toll
    Free 1300 853 453 or email us [info@technetics.com.au]

    For you convenience we are located in:

    Suite 205, Level 2
    530 Little Collins Street
    Melbourne Victoria 3000

Technetics: Hard Drive Recovery & Data Recovery
http://www.technetics.com.au/services/drp/


Another Melbourne outfit that makes a similar promise is Payam Data
Recovery.

    - No Fee unless we recover your data

    [...]
    
    Melbourne: (03) 9510-5753
    
Payam Data Recovery
http://www.payam.com.au/


From what you have said, I deduce that you are dealing with logical
data corruption, which is a gradual degradation of file structure,
rather than the physical corruption that results from catastrophic
hardware failure. A firm in Mount Waverley called Image Data Recovery
states explicitly that it can perform logical data recovery. It also
claims to have expertise in MS-DOS specifically.

    IMAGE Data Recovery performs physical hardware and logical 
    recoveries [...]
    
    All MS-DOS and PC-DOS versions (Fat12, Fat16)
    
Image Data Recovery: Data Recovery
http://www.imij.com.au/datarec.html

    Phone: +61 3 9889 8688

    Fax: +61 3 9888 7497

    E-Mail: info@imij.com.au

    Address: 8 Andrew Street. Mt. Waverley , Victoria. 3149

    Office Hours: Monday to Friday 9:00am to 5:00pm or by Appointment

Image Data Recovery: Contacts
http://www.imij.com.au/contacts.html


I recommend that you contact one or several of these firms for a
consultation about your problem. For the fastest diagnosis, you will
want to drop off your hard disk and discuss your difficulties in person
with a data-recovery technician.


Regards,

leapinglizard

---

Request for Answer Clarification by jennyo-ga on 26 Sep 2005 00:39 PDT

We require a programmer who is familiar with IMS accounting software.
Someone that has operatede with IMS,knowing file codes.
The corruption is in the software, not on hard drive or disc/tape.

Regards,

Jennyo.

---

Clarification of Answer by leapinglizard-ga on 26 Sep 2005 18:26 PDT

Of course, I understand that the files were not corrupted by a
hardware failure. When data files incrementally degrade over time so
that the software application can no longer read them properly, you
are dealing with what is called logical corruption. Good data recovery
firms can handle logical corruption as well as physical corruption.
Often, the trouble lies not in the application but in the operating
system's file structure. The first step of diagnosis is to determine
whether the file system or the application itself is responsible. Most
often, it is the file system that needs to be repaired. This is done
at the software level, not at the hardware level. I have often done it
myself.

leapinglizard

Also - whatever you do - don't turn the machine on again

The chances are that your FAT (File Allocation Table) has been damaged
due to a power outage

The more the drive is used, the worse the problems will get.

Fortunately (usually) that sort of problem mainly affects newly added
data as Bill Gates (personally) designed the FAT system to do minimal
'data shuffling'

I think that you should describe the symptoms of the 'corruption'
ie: what do you see that makes you think it is corrupted ?

a) Does the program crash ?
b) Does the program display garbage ?
c) do you have backups ? Do they work ?

Your chances of finding a programmer with experience of that IMS
package are about zero - but that is not necessarily a problem.

The only thing that is of value to you is the data.
A good programmer should be able to unpick the data structure and
build different files that can be viewed by a 'new' system.
I've done the same several times in the past.

If the data files are corrupted (and they can be corrupted by someone
simply switching the machine off while not at the DOS prompt) then you
may have lost some data, but that could possibly be restored from old
backups.

The reason why both LeapingLizard and I reckon that you need to get a
disk recovery expert in first is because one needs to 'save' as much
of the data as possible. Any use of that disk is very dangerous, until
file system 'creeping corruption' has been eliminated.

There is another possibility that the software has run into a date
problem (like Year 2000) or that the data files have grown to a size
that is no longer manageable.

It is not just Y2k that can create problems - for example that system
was almost certainly written on a maximum 60mb hard disk - most likely
30mb - some old programs crunch when they check free disk space and
find 2gb.