newsbin.com

I am running my registered copy of Newsbinpro v6.90 build 5524 -- yes I know that's not the newest, but it has been running without any problems until just now. Particularly it ran fine the last time I used it, about 2 days ago.

Tonight when I tried to start newsbin it popped up a screen I had never seen before saying that it didn't have any news server.

It also popped up another window that (that I have seen before) telling me that another copy of newsbin was already running. This has happened before if I am clumsy about double clicking the icon, I have always just closed that one and let the first one start. (This old Windows 7 box is slow enough that it takes a few seconds for newsbin to actually start).

This time I closed both the error messages, waited a few seconds then started newsbin. (I am now afraid that this may have resulted in a problem that can't be fixed because apparently each time newsbin tried to start it overwrote the .bak and .old copies of the nbi file)

With newsbin up I found that it has apparently lost the news server configuration and all the groups. It still remembers all the other settings, but everything about the news server and groups appears to be gone.

I've been using newsbin for years but I've never had any need (or reason) to poke around inside the files so I don't really know where the missing data ought to be. I looked at the nbi and nbi.bak files. They appear to be identical and I see the other settings but I don't see any place for the server and groups. I can't tell if those settings are stored elsewhere or if the server and groups settings just disappeared somehow.

I can rebuild all the server and group data from scratch if I have to, but I was hoping there might be some other way. Also any ideas about what went wrong and how to keep it from happening again would be appreciated.

Do a search on your hard drive for .nbi files and see if there is one with an earlier date and then just double click on that and Newsbin should start ok again.

Failing that, if you do backups of your hard drive, you should find the old .nbi file in the backup.

I myself have taken a lesson from mobile phones which recommend having an ICE contact (In Case of Emergency - contact ....) and have an ICE folder on another drive containing most of my absolutely essential info in case my PC goes kaput.

Newsbin keeps backup copies of the NBI too as long as you don't run it too many times between the loss and restoring.

In the options menu select "Restore Backup Configuration in Restart" then restart. You might want to pick the oldest one. You can actually do this multiple times and pull out multiple different NBI's. You just need to copy them away each time you do it.

I really suggest you manually maintain a backup copy too.

As for why it happens. I don't really know. I never lose mine and I'm in and out of the debugger 100 times a day. If your PC crashes, all bets are off.

If Newsbin is in the middle of writing the NBI during the crash this can zero out the file. Newsbin makes special efforts to prevent this but, there's only so much it can do when the bottom gets yanked out from under it.