Lost BeerSmith Files

[hirns]

After having not completed an AG for several months I fired up BeerSmith this arvo in anticipation for a weekend brew. Strangely BeerSmith asked me to enter my registration key, even know it's been registered for over a yaer. No problem so I enter the key and the program fires up but my recipes and notes are gone, no trace Anyone else experienced something similar? I fairly computer literate and don't think it could have been an accident by user as the program has unregistered, but not uninstalled. Dumbfounded, back up your BeerSmith files now.

Hirns

[barrelboy]

Sorry can't be much help. Do you need to reboot the computer?
BB

[warra48]

Bit of a bummer to lose your files.

Have you tried to find a solution on the BeerSmith Forum?
http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?board=5.0
If you can't find it there, you could always shoot off an email to Brad Smith. It's my understanding he is fairly accomodating in solving issues with people's programs.

[Bum]

I can't help you with solving the issue but I can tell you that even if you remove BeerSmith from the registry (protip) and "reinstall" the program your recipes and setting all stay the same.

Is it possible it was uninstalled through Windows by another user who didn't know what it was?

[hirns]

Bum, well work did set up another user profile to log onto my work's server and I think that that may have had something to do with it. I don't believe that they would have uninstalled anything?

[rotten]

Have you tried logging into your old user profile? or sharing programs between profiles?

[Bum]

Ah...okay, I'm not so familiar with system admin stuff but I'm wondering if your install is associated with the previous profile only and as such it doesn't recognise you? Just thinking out loud there - I have no idea if that is even possible, let alone likely. If it is the case (by some odd stroke of luck) your stuff might still be somewhere. Might be a good idea to talk to the administrator (if that won't bring undue attention) and see if the info can be recovered from your old profile. Be sure to open with "Some dickhead on the internet reckons..." so there's no fallout if I'm wrong.

[EDIT: yeah, pretty much beaten by Rotten]

[rotten]

I tried setting up a personal computer once with different profiles, one for me, one for the kids. Won't go into why oh so They didn't mess with my settings etc
Some programs would work on both, while others only if the administrator, me, let them. I don't think your files are lost, you just need to wotk out how to get them.
Good Luck.

[hirns]

Yep, I think you're both on the right track. Your thinking is in line with mine, but I've tried both log ins and even logging in as an administrator but no luck. The new profile may have partly corrupted the original, but why only beersmith, all else. Maybe virus protection softwhere, anyway thanks for the ideas anyway. Am still hoping that the files may have been moved to somewhere else on the harddrive.

Hirns

[Oliver]

Hi Hirns,

Did you find your lost files? If not, perhaps log on as administrator and search the c:\users\ (on Windows 7) or c:\documents and settings\user (on XP) folder for a files containing a work that you know was in the BeerSmith files. Perhaps a name from one of the beers.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Oliver

[hirns]

Thanks all for the advice. Ive had to start from scratch. Apositive is I've had to rethink all of my equipment scales and variables, which I hope will lead to fine tuning.

Hirns

[Bum]

You know what's funny? I was thinking about how you might be able to get your stuff back while I was setting up a new OS on my computer and realised I backed up everything BUT my Beersmith files. However, I do record everything I brew in a brewbook so I've only lost future brews, of which there were many, but none were finalised so I'll be right, I suppose.

[Planner]

You know what's funny? I was thinking about how you might be able to get your stuff back while I was setting up a new OS on my computer and realised I backed up everything BUT my Beersmith files.

Got a new puter on the desk at work recently, and did the exact same thing (backed up everything except beersmith), I also had a brew book so no damage done. Old computer is still sitting under desk so I can refire it to get future brews.

Planner

[hirns]

BACK it all up now guys!!! It's one thing to lose the misses, but the beer files OMG!

[squirt in the turns]

Sorry I'm weighing in a bit late, and without any advice that'll help anyway...

Beersmith stores all recipes, ingredients, water profiles, settings, etc, in its installation path (by default, this is the Program Files folder on your system partition). They're stored in .bsm files - for example, recipes.bsm includes all recipes. Beersmith also appears to take automatic backups of all the .bsm files, which appear as .bak files, e.g. yeast_1.bak (these reside in Program Files too, so will not help in the event of loss of that entire folder anyway).

These .bsm files are the ones you want to take copies of. Restoring them straight back into Program Files\Beersmith\ will get everything set up exactly as it was when they were backed up.

Logging in using a seperate user profile wouldn't make any difference, as the Program Files folder is by default at the very least readable by all users, so that they can run programs. An exception to this is if Beersmith was installed in a different location that other user profiles can't access, or if certain users have had access to Program Files\Beersmith\ revoked.

Beyond that, Beersmith allows you to export any individiual item, or a group of items of the same type, as a .bsm file, or a choice of other formats (xml, plain text) and save them wherever you like.

[hirns]

Thanks Squirt, tried that already and only the original default beersmith files are there. The program appears to have uninstalled itself and has removed all previously saved data.

Thanks for the suggestion

Hirns