Power Cuts

[dilwyn]

After about 10 short power cuts in the last seven days in the villages around here, last night I lost some open spreadsheets and my main QXL.WIN (files which were open during last night's power cuts).

The Excel spreadsheets (non-QL!) should auto-recover with the loss of only a few minutes of unsaved data if I'm lucky. The last backup of the QXL.WIN was a few days ago, so I can go back to that. But it would be nice to be able to recover the last couple of days' work which seems to have been lost. Anyone got experience of recovering damaged QXL.WIN files so I can try to recover the last 48 hours worth of work? Obviously, I'll make further backups of what I have got.

The power cuts are happening apparently due to either a micro-fracture in a high voltage cable locally, or possibly as a result of renewal work on cabling from a local hydro-electric power station to the local sub-station. Different people on local social media have been given differing explanations by SP Energy Networks, so it's hard to know who to believe and how long it'll go on for.

[Pr0f]

Sorry to hear you have had power troubles

I am off up to your neck of the woods for a week's holiday tomorrow, so perhaps we have that to look forward to

Anyway, thankfully the steam trains up there don't need lecky to make them work

In regards to the qxl.win, are they hosted on a PC? I wonder if you can do a difference on the current one and the backup copy and try and determine the changes that way? Not aware if there is any software to mount a damaged qxl.win file so that you can rescue as much as is readable?

[pjw]

<> Anyone got experience of recovering damaged QXL.WIN files so I can try to recover the last 48 hours worth of work? Obviously, I'll make further backups of what I have got. <>

Try QLWARTZ! (Its on your site somewhere.) Run it, and when its bombs out keep typing CONTINUE until you get past the broken bits.

Good luck! And perhaps get a UPS.. As the old Persian saying goes: Trust in God, but always tie your camel.

[tofro]

After about 10 short power cuts in the last seven days in the villages around here, last night I lost some open spreadsheets and my main QXL.WIN (files which were open during last night's power cuts).

The Excel spreadsheets (non-QL!) should auto-recover with the loss of only a few minutes of unsaved data if I'm lucky. The last backup of the QXL.WIN was a few days ago, so I can go back to that. But it would be nice to be able to recover the last couple of days' work which seems to have been lost. Anyone got experience of recovering damaged QXL.WIN files so I can try to recover the last 48 hours worth of work? Obviously, I'll make further backups of what I have got.

The power cuts are happening apparently due to either a micro-fracture in a high voltage cable locally, or possibly as a result of renewal work on cabling from a local hydro-electric power station to the local sub-station. Different people on local social media have been given differing explanations by SP Energy Networks, so it's hard to know who to believe and how long it'll go on for.

I have never tried that, but you might want to try RecoverX by H.-P. Recktenwald. You can download it from Thierry Godefroy's site. (which, BTW, has not seen an update for such a long time that it might be worthy thinking about whether it makes sense to preserve its (partially unique) contents elsewhere)

[XorA]

Anyway, thankfully the steam trains up there don't need lecky to make them work

Yes, but as dilwyn will tell you, they tend to break down or fall off the tracks (I got stuck at the top of the mountain when I one I was descending on broke).

[dilwyn]

Anyway, thankfully the steam trains up there don't need lecky to make them work

Yes, but as dilwyn will tell you, they tend to break down or fall off the tracks (I got stuck at the top of the mountain when I one I was descending on broke).

Fall off tracks? I think that last happened over a hundred years ago on that railway's opening day if I remember the history right, unless there's been lesser derailments since. But yes, XorA did get stranded on the mountain for a while when he visited a few years ago, and has never let me forget about it since.

If it's the Snowdon Mountain Railway (or being politically correct with Welsh naming preferences nowadays, "Rheilffordd Yr Wyddfa"), it's not far from here, PM me if you'd like to meet for a coffee or something while you're in the area.

[dilwyn]

<> Anyone got experience of recovering damaged QXL.WIN files so I can try to recover the last 48 hours worth of work? Obviously, I'll make further backups of what I have got. <>

Try QLWARTZ! (Its on your site somewhere.) Run it, and when its bombs out keep typing CONTINUE until you get past the broken bits.

Good luck! And perhaps get a UPS.. As the old Persian saying goes: Trust in God, but always tie your camel.

Managed to recover all but the actual file which was being saved at the time of the first power cut last night, thanks everyone. That file shows in the DIR as a zero-length file. It had only a minor change in that version which I can remember what it was, so situation now much better than I feared earlier today.

I think we'd better suggest that the mobile phone companies get a better UPS too, lots of people on local social media complaining even their phone signals went off during the power cuts (mine kept working, so I was able to report it at least).

Ten power cuts in a week is a bit more than my nerves and patience can manage

[XorA]

Ten power cuts in a week is a bit more than my nerves and patience can manage

That is why a lot of us use laptops

[dilwyn]

Ten power cuts in a week is a bit more than my nerves and patience can manage

That is why a lot of us use laptops

Yes, I agree with that.
The power cuts affected my local councillor's house. So I suppose he's likely to try harder to get this resolved quickly with SP Energy Networks (is that part of Scottish Power?) for his constituents, having had it affect him.

[dilwyn]

As if the power cuts weren't enough, the latest is most of the mobile phone networks down in the same areas this week. Including the MVNOs which use Voda and O2. Oh great!