Irrespective of being a PC or a Mac the computer system behavior and consistency are dependent upon certain factors. These factors are broadly divided into software factors, hardware factors and the surroundings.

The common software factors leading to a logical failure are:

i.) System files responsible for handling control to the operating system missing or corrupt

ii.) Unsigned drivers or drivers trying to access read only system area

A decent application can make your day but it’s important to know the difference between products. When your system or hard disk fails, you should not run to Google, do a search and purchase a application from the top site result. That, naturally, creates potential for permanently lost data, as well as a real hazard for your wallet.

When selecting this sort of product, it is critical to be aware of many different options before making a final decision. Price is always something to think about, but it is not the best direction when making a decision. Just because a software is expensive does not automatically assume it will be the “killer app” when it comes to recovering your partition. It’s possible to check out some free programs that do a good portion of what some of their pricier competitors do. Download and use any free demos you can. Finding reviews will give you a good feel for the product but seeing it actually work is even better.

Look at software reviews that give you an idea of whether the application works or not. Do not rely on reviews found on the vendor site because you will have no way of knowing if any bad reviews have been deleted from the site. Find a truly independent website that offers unbiased reviews by actual customers.

There might be several scenarios, where you need data fixing or recovery in Great Plains.  Let’s review these scenarios, and please know that they reflect real cases in our consulting practice.  As excurse into the history of this Corporate ERP application – it was historically available on several database platforms: Microsoft SQL Server, Pervasive SQL 2000, also known as Btrieve, and Ctree.  If you are on historical version, you need to understand what is database.   We can get the answer from Microsoft Business Solutions, but this would need some time.  Let’s begin with recent versions 2010/11.0, 10.0, 9.0, 8.0:

1. Microsoft SQL Server Recovery.  Since the version 8.0 this ERP application is available on MS SQL Server exclusively.  We believe that your consultant implemented or recommended to your IT department SQL Backup.  The simplest way is to create SQL maintenance job, where you backup all the databases, place backup files into separate folders and keep each file as long as server hard drive space permits.  Second strategy is to include these backup directories into tape backup.  There is also an option to do direct SQL DB tape backup, where you need to purchase special add-on from your backup application provider.  If you have backup tapes, you are in the safe zone.  Sometimes we see customer IT folks do not watch backup log and when disaster happens, they finally look and realized that SQL Server agent was not running, meaning that nothing was happening.  If this is your unhappy case, and your server crashed on the hardware level – you may try to remove hard drive, attach it to another server or mount it into USB enclosure and reconnect to your computer.  When you remount your old drive, find your SQL database files: GPSDynamicsDAT.MDF is the file of the Dynamics database, company files have similar naming convention.  On the new SQL Server you should be able to attach these databases and remap user computers to the new destination