Goldenseal Small Business Software Topics-- Damaged Menu Array

Error Message-- Damaged Menu Array

When I open Goldenseal, I'm getting an error message about a damaged menu array!

For each class of account and transaction, Goldenseal small business software keeps a separate list of all records. This list (or array) stores the ID number, name, amount, and a few other frequently-used data fields for each record. Having this info in a single array makes it faster to fill in menus for clairvoyant fields. It also greatly speeds up the Find command when searching on commonly-used fields, and it enables us to fill in values for some reports and calculated fields more quickly.

Damaged Menu Array

When you open your company file, Goldenseal checks the integrity of the menu list, and gives an error message about a damaged menu array if there is a problem.

Damage may occur in any of the following cases:

Goldenseal was interrupted during a record save, and didn't fill in the menu array. NOTE-- This happens most often when Goldenseal runs out of memory (RAM) and can't load or save a large menu array.
There is a record with a duplicate ID number.
The company file has suffered data damage. In that case, usually other records will also be damaged.

Fixing the Damage

If there is a damaged menu array, Goldenseal gives you the option to rebuild the array. Rebuilding may take a minute or two, since Goldenseal needs to look through every record, and fill in the information again. If the problem is #1 above, that will solve the problem, and you won't get the error message again.

If the problem is caused by a duplicate ID, click the link for a solution.

If you are getting many error messages when opening the file, the file data stored on your hard drive has probably suffered damage of some type. This can be a very serious problem. To check the integrity of the file, choose Security from the View menu, and choose Verify File from the submenu. It will check every record in your file, and report problems. If the damage is severe, you will probably need to go back to a recent backup copy. Click the link for more details about data damage.

HINT-- A good backup system will make your life much, much easier, if data damage ever occurs. It can also reduce problems caused by human error (e.g. accidentally deleting records that you didn't mean to do).

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