File : Repair collection makes it possible to recover from errors in your collection. Repair collection goes through all data in the collection, looking for errors and plugging the holes. As much as a spell-checker can fix a badly written text, Repair collection can fix some problems produced by hard disk malfunction, viruses, or errors in copying files. If Repair collection cannot fix a problem, you will have to return to your most recent backup. Remember to backup often!
You can quickly execute Repair collection by choosing Ctrl+F12 or clicking the red-cross icon on the Actions toolbar.
Note that recovery is only possible in the full access mode in an unlocked SuperMemo. If the full access is turned off, use Tools : Options or press Alt+O and select Access : Access mode : Full access.
Integrity problems in a collection may appear in case of hardware or system software problems. Bad clusters, lost sectors, data corruption, etc. can often be remedied by replacing affected files (e.g. corrupted Mpeg file, etc.). However, if the problem occurs in SuperMemo index files or files storing optimization data used by repetition spacing algorithm, only File : Repair collection can remedy the problem.
Important! Unless you have a recent backup handy, you should check the backup option before running Repair collection. You should never abort SuperMemo manually (e.g. with Ctrl+Alt+Del : Task Manager : End Process). This is particularly true during Repair collection. If you abort the repair operation while files are being rebuilt, your collection may be damaged beyond repair!
Before you begin the recovery, choose appropriate recovery options in Recovery options dialog box.
Repair collection does not recover from some error types. Here are some errors that are not remedied with Repair collection:
- damage to binary files such as JPG, MP3, AVI, EXE, etc. Replace these file from the original CD-ROM or from your back-up storage. If you do not have a backup of these files, you will have to remove them by using Delete in the relevant registry, or recreate them in another way.
- damage to OF matrix, RF matrix, Cases matrix, etc. These matrices are stored in the file named sm8opt.dat. In case of errors indicating damage to these data structures, use Tools : Statistics : Reset parameters : Optimization matrices. You will lose some of data collected by SuperMemo about your performance with a given learning material, but you will be able resume your work without losing the learning process. Alternatively, you might restore sm8opt.dat file from one of your earlier backups
- damage to text files such as TRA, SCR, INI, etc. View these files in any text editor and change their contents. You can also edit legal TRA files with Tools : Options : Language : Localization table
- Read more: Files used by SuperMemo
Note: If you encounter problems that could not be remedied with File : Repair collection (except for those listed above), please report it. Remember to make a backup of copy of the damaged collection, e.g. with File : Tools : Quick backup (Shift+F12) or better yet with File : Copy collection (Ctrl+Shift+C).