Guidance on transferring data from Recorder 2002 to Recorder 6

Introduction

This document is based on Guidance on transferring Recorder 2002 data using Recorder 6104 V3SarahShaw.doc, a document written by Sarah Shaw for Recorder 6 v6.10.4.120 and made available via her post on the NBN Forum 24/09/2007. It was updated by Sally Rankin for v6.13.2 under contract to JNCC in March 2009. It is aimed at all skill levels and provides guidance on how to transfer data from Recorder 2002 to Recorder 6 version 6.13.2.

When Recorder 6 is installed, it is installed as a completely separate system from Recorder 2002, with a separate SQL Server database, separate Recorder folder(s) and separate registry entries. Recorder 2002 users then need to transfer their data from the Recorder 2002 Microsoft Access 97 database to the Recorder 6 SQL Server database, using the facility on Recorder 6 installation CDs.

In summary the procedure is:

• Install Recorder 6 using the Site ID and Verification key for your Recorder 2002 system.
• Compact your Recorder 2002 database. If this fails, clear the corruptions before proceeding.
• Copy your data from Recorder 2002 to Recorder 6 using the facility on the installation CD. If errors are detected details will be stored in UpgradeErrors.mdb in the Database folder in your Recorder 2002 system.
• Clear any errors related to user added data in UpgradeErrors.mdb in Recorder 2002 and copy your data from Recorder 2002 to Recorder 6 again. Repeat this process until no errors are reported in user added data

You can then test Recorder 6 to ensure you are happy to go live with it. The two systems can be run side by side for as long as necessary but Recorder 2002 must remain the ONLY live system until you are ready to go live with Recorder 6. The transfer process replaces the existing Recorder 6 database with an ‘empty’ one each time the transfer is run so any additions, edits or deletions done in Recorder 6 will be lost when data is transferred from Recorder 2002 again. Hence Recorder 6 should not be used as a live system until the transfer from Recorder 2002 has been done for the last time. Transferring data from Recorder 2002 to Recorder 6 is much more straight forward than Recorder 3 to Recorder 6 data transfers but you must clear as many errors as possible in UpgradeErrors.mdb to ensure a satisfactory transfer. You can copy your data from Recorder 2002 to Recorder 6 as many times as you like/need to, during which time you can continue to use Recorder 2002 for live running and Recorder 6 for testing purposes. When you are happy to go live with it, uninstall Recorder 2002 and start using Recorder 6 as your live system.

You are advised to do the transfer while your Recorder 6 system is at the version on the installation CD that you will be using for the transfer, i.e. before running any dictionary or software upgrades. This is because the process loads a new ‘empty’ database from the CD prior to transferring the data so if you ran an upgrade then transferred your data you would be using one version of the software with an earlier version of the database. This is not good practice. In fact, if the upgrade contains changes to the database the upgraded software may not run with an earlier version of the database. If you did run an upgrade prior to the transfer you would need to run it again after the transfer to upgrade the database to the same version as the software, as any changes to the database done by the upgrade would have been lost during the data transfer.

Please note the warning in the installation guides about only being able to transfer data from Recorder 2002 version 2.3.1 or later. Help – About Recorder 2002 will tell you the version of your copy of the system.

The Recorder 6 database is large before you add any data because the Recorder 2002 databases nbndata.mdb, nbndict.mdb, Index_Taxon_Group, Name & Synonym.mdb are all in the same file. Hence it is nearly 1.17 GB after installing v6.13.2.176 and before the user adds any data. Also, dictionary upgrades increase the size of the database and reduce the space available for user added data in the free run-time versions of SQL Server.

The current Recorder 6 installation CDs enable users to install MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine), the free run-time version of SQL Server 2000, to run the system if they don’t already have SQL Server. The next version will enable them to install SQL Server 2005 Express, the free run-time version of SQL Server 2005, from the CDs.

Users need to be aware that the maximum size of a MSDE database is 2 GB so they won’t be able to use MSDE for running Recorder 6 if their data takes them over this limit. They may, however, be able to use SQL Server 2005 Express as the maximum size of a database in that is 4 GB. In SQL Server 2000 and 2005 the size of the database is more or less unlimited – the size is only likely to be constrained by the hardware available. After transferring a database containing nearly 400,000 species observations to v6.10.4.120 the Recorder 6 database was 1.56 GB so it should be possible to run it with MSDE for sometime, if necessary. A Recorder 2002 to Recorder 6 v6.10.4.120 (MSDE) data transfer for a system containing about 700,000 species observations failed because the data wouldn’t fit into an MSDE database.

Time permitting, most users will be able to transfer their own data using the information in this document although they will need some Microsoft Access expertise to check the transfer and resolve any problems that may occur – a number of the more common problems are listed in Section 6. If you would like assistance with your transfer please contact the supplier of your copy of Recorder, or any of the Recorder suppliers for a quote.

The screen shots in this document were prepared when the current version was 6.10.4.120. They may differ in later versions.