[Info-vax] need help with corrupt MAIL.MAI file

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article
<b22059ad-cbae-40dd-bc8c-649249ad5fec at p19g2000vbq.googlegroups.com>,
Hein RMS van den Heuvel <heinvandenheuvel at gmail.com> writes: 

> On Nov 24, 3:02=A0am, hel... at astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---
> undress to reply) wrote:
> > I've had essentially the same MAIL.MAI file since 1992. =A0It has moved
> > across several physical disks, VAX and ALPHA machines and versions of
> > VMS. =A0I've occasionally done a COMPRESS (the last time on 6-APR-2009) o=
> r
> > PURGE/RECLAIM.
> 
> So the first opening line is BS. When you compress, you get a brand
> spanking new mail file with a brand spanking new (odd expression that
> is!) RMS indexed structure.
> You messages are the same, but the file is not.

Right; that's what I meant.

> So one time reading bucket 27201 it recevieved different results than
> an onther timer.
> That means either a hardware error,  or a shadow set out of sync.

I suspect the latter since I later noticed that a member had been 
expelled.  The mail file seems fine on the remaining member.  
Fortunately I have enough spare disks and will replace it tomorrow.  (I 
could have done it today, but the disk in the expansion box was the 
wrong size (slightly fewer total blocks) so I'll have to get out the 
screwdriver.

> >> I then RENAMEd the MAIL.SAV file back to MAIL.MAI. It now works as
>  expected, i.e. no errors.
> 
> Now _that_ is scary, about 1000 times more scary than starting to work
> on the backup. You are now working on the very blocks that have been
> know

By the time I renamed it back, I was down to just one member in the 
shadow set.