ALL my reports are gone, Al a Mode can't tell me why

[Airstream]

I had this happen to me one time. They are there. I can’t remember how I found them, but I did.

You should have a back up hard drive that backups all your reports every hour. I suggest if you don’t do that you get the backup cloud from Total and after every report is done back it up to the cloud.

I had that for years. It was well worth the money.

 

[Tom D]

Now you have learned, which i did long ago. Every time i work on an appraisal i back it up to an external drive, every time. Seems easy enough when you learn you have lost appraisals. I do not like one drive at all. I have found google drive to be the best and easiest and cheapest online backup. There are plenty of back up to disk programs that make it a button to back up.

Did you try an undelete program. Looking at window explorer, did the file backups also disappear. Typically, it's not wintotal, but a conflict with another program. A needle in a hay stack.

Try running SFC / Scannow to make sure your window files are working correctly. One out of whack can mess things up. It's a needle in a haystack search.

 

[Mike Ault]

All your Alamode report files should have an *.zap extension. In reality they are zip files which Alamode renames for organization in the report manager. Just go to file explorer and search all drives on the computer for *.zap and it will display them if they exist.

 

[Surf Cat]

So what happened? Files found? Success?

 

[Zoe]

I would have to double my blood pressure meds if I lost my reports. Of course they may not be worth as much soon...................

If I can't merge them into a new report...............I don't know...........

Some appraiser yesterday told me these new reports are going to take longer..

 

[Zoe]

I finished up the 2 appraisal orders I was working on early on July 4th, I had a relaxing weekend, then when I logged back on after the weekend, almost all of my reports are gone from my My Reports folder, I spoke to the Wintotal support team, had them log onto my computer and they basically have no answer as to why they are gone or where they went.

I am seriously thinking about just quitting the appraisal industry as of today, I have had ALL kinds of problems with Wintotal the last several months and now this happens.

Me personally, I would take my computer to a local expert. That is just me. If was unable to get help from windows, alamode, manufacturer of computer, I would take it to a local professional to diagnose and find your files.

The odds are very slim that windows, alamode, manufacturer of computer can't find your files by logging into your system.

You have to give them permission to log into your computer. They will find the files.

 

[NC Hammer]

I finished up the 2 appraisal orders I was working on early on July 4th, I had a relaxing weekend, then when I logged back on after the weekend, almost all of my reports are gone from my My Reports folder, I spoke to the Wintotal support team, had them log onto my computer and they basically have no answer as to why they are gone or where they went.

I am seriously thinking about just quitting the appraisal industry as of today, I have had ALL kinds of problems with Wintotal the last several months and now this happens.

Don't allow total to designate where files are stored. Designate Total file storage on your hard drive and back up that location to carbonite or other. Total likes to control every aspect of your filing system so you are 100% dependent on their software. I save all my files outside of the Total system for these reasons:

1. when there is superior software available, i can switch and still access the necessary files without opening Total
2. I can search the files for data without opening or using Total user interface (UI) - for example find past photographs of pics i've shot over the years

Also, if you use Onedrive, beware. It will automatically move and save your files to onedrive. I deleted some files and didn't realize they were on onedrive and not on my hard drive. They disappeared but luckily, my wonderful assistant found them on a carbonite backup.

Good luck. I look forward to the day when appraisal software is simple and works. I don't need my appraisal software to be an accountant, mileage recorder, appointment maker, GPS system, or AI everything i'm doing.

David J. Cook
Cook Appraisal, Inc.
Western North Carolina

 

[Zoe]

Don't allow total to designate where files are stored. Designate Total file storage on your hard drive and back up that location to carbonite or other. Total likes to control every aspect of your filing system so you are 100% dependent on their software. I save all my files outside of the Total system for these reasons:

1. when there is superior software available, i can switch and still access the necessary files without opening Total
2. I can search the files for data without opening or using Total user interface (UI) - for example find past photographs of pics i've shot over the years

Also, if you use Onedrive, beware. It will automatically move and save your files to onedrive. I deleted some files and didn't realize they were on onedrive and not on my hard drive. They disappeared but luckily, my wonderful assistant found them on a carbonite backup.

Good luck. I look forward to the day when appraisal software is simple and works. I don't need my appraisal software to be an accountant, mileage recorder, appointment maker, GPS system, or AI everything i'm doing.

David J. Cook
Cook Appraisal, Inc.
Western North Carolina

I am like you. I like the external hard drive. I have two of them. The cloud and one drive slow me down sometimes so I have backed out of the onedrive. It is trying to back up stuff and I work on more than one computer. The external hard drive I can move to any computer. I think Total backs up some files automatically.

I have never really used total backup other than I think they backup like last 10 files or something.

I won't swear I don't need to do total backup. I don't know what they charge.

I operate on a home network that is secured.

 

[Zoe]

I hope he found the files. I can't really see how they are gone if his or her hard drive didn't crash. Some people can even get data off a crashed hard drive.

 

[Vermonter]

Don't allow total to designate where files are stored. Designate Total file storage on your hard drive and back up that location to carbonite or other. Total likes to control every aspect of your filing system so you are 100% dependent on their software. I save all my files outside of the Total system for these reasons:

Said it over and over for years on this forum to extensive pushback....NEVER use appraisal software as your main source for appraisal workfiles. The odds of losing access increases exponentially if you do.

Every appraiser should be keeping a complete workfile including zap files (or whatever proprietary file they use) outside the software. Could just be a folder on your C drive or a separate drive all together, server, cloud, etc.

Currently have a 1tb drive with almost 20 years of appraisal business files including workfiles that is a little over half full. It's backed up to my home NAS every shutdown.

Most likely your files are still somewhere on your pc, but the software may not be looking at the correct path.