Several Forms tabs Missing on all Computers

[Bill]

I've been using Groove 2007 since January of 2008.

It is Groove 2007 4.2.0.2623 SP1 MSO. We have three users in various home
offices and all three of us can add data to and/or view data on tabs that
contain form tools. For example, "Podcast", "Intl Books", "Seminars", "Air
Credits". We also use the built-in calendar and file tabs. All three users
are managers.

This morning, our office manager went in and discovered that all of the
custom tabs are missing. The calendar is there with our appointments. The
Files tab is there, but all files are missing. There is a Forms tool, but it
is "Welcome to the Forms Tool". We immediately checked all three computers,
and the tabs were missing from all three. One computer is somewhat new - it
is a netbook running Windows XP. This computer has had Groove for at least a
month.

I dusted off an old laptop that used to use Groove. I made sure that it was
not on the network, fired it up. That Groove installation has the four
custom-built tabs, but unfortunately, the date is 12 months old.

1) On the networked computers, if I do Files, Properties, Workspace, it says
that there is 33.5 MB of data there. This leads me to believe that the data
might still be there. On the disconnected laptop, the file size was only 7.4
MB.

2) I was hoping there was something like Excel's Format - Sheet - Hide that
had simply hidden the tabs (Sorry - I am an Excel MVP). However, when I show
the Workspace List and ask to see the tools, there are only built-in tools
listed.

It looks like you can delete a tab, but it warns you that it can not be
undone. Someone would have had to do this four times, so it doesn't seem
accidental.

3) I am grasping for straws here. Any log files that might show a list of
who did various updates? It would be painful, but we could potentially use
that to start to rebuild all of our data files. Any other ideas of how we
might be able to recover the data in the lost tabs?

4) If the data is truly gone, then is there any way to take the forms from
the offline laptop and get them into the networked laptops?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Bill Jelen

 

[Frances Selkirk [MSFT]]

Bill,

There is no way to hide a tab in Groove. The data is gone. The workspace is
probably bigger because the deletions have not yet been purged from the
workspace record, but there is no way to retrieve them.

You can save the design of the Forms tools (without data) off the old laptop
by right-clicking the tool tab and then clicking "Save as" and "Template."
You can save the data (without the design) using the Export All Entries item
in the Files menu. Then, one one of the more current computers, restore the
design by double-clicking the template file and choosing the workspace when
prompted, and then import the data.

You can also save the entire workspace (with data) off the old laptop by
using "Save as Archive" and then creating a new workspace from that archive.
That might be quicker, because then you would only need to do an export and
import of the newer Calendar data.

 

[Bill]

Thanks for the bad news. We will make sure backing up the data is part of a
daily process going forward.

Are there any known issues which would cause all custom forms to disappear?
I mean, it would have required 12 specific clicks to delete four tabs. If you
don't have a known issue of what would cause this, I need to figure out which
employee to terminate!

 

[Frances Selkirk [MSFT]]

Honestly, a group of us brainstormed on this for a while and couldn't think
of any other way for the Forms tabs to disappear. If they were there and
blank it could mean that someone made a bad design change, but that wouldn't
delete them. Also, the "Welcome" message is a new instance, so someone
clearly installed a new Forms tool (perhaps hoping to undo the delete?).
It's possible someone felt they had no need for the data and didn't realize
that deleting it from their computer would delete it from the entire
workspace, but I really think someone must have deleted it. In that case the
empty Files tool is probably also new. Check the Properties of the Root
Folder and see when it was created.

 

[Frances Selkirk [MSFT]]

"Properties" on a tool will also tell you who created it.