If you're having a problem with your Maximizer database, the following
instructions can help you get the affected file or files to Kyle for examination.
Let's get started...
The Maximizer database, for Version 3 and later (including 97i), consists
of one or more "address books" each of which is stored in a single dedicated
Windows folder. Each address book consists of more than a dozen individual
files. The first step in locating a problem file is to find the specific
Windows folder involved; Maximizer itself will tell you this. Once you
know the folder name, you can close Maximizer and use the Windows Explorer
(usually available from the Start Menu) to examine the folder.
What File's In Trouble?
It's necessary to identify the specific file that has the problem (sometimes
more than one is involved). The Maximizer error message can help you find
out, because it always tells you what file triggered the error. Use this
table to translate the descriptive name in the error message into the filename
you'll see inside the address book folder display:
DESCRIPTION
FILENAME
Accounts
MXZA.MAX
Address Book (main file)
MXZC.MAX
User Defined Fields: Data
MXZD.MAX
Expenses
MXZE.MAX
Control File
MXZF.MAX
Hotlist
MXZH.MAX
Letters and documents
MXZL.MAX
Macros and view layouts
MXZM.MAX
Notes
MXZN.MAX
Opportunities
MXZO.MAX
Appointments Calendar
MXZP.MAX
Opportunity Support
MXZQ.MAX
Selected Name (saved search lists)
MXZS.MAX
User Preferences
MXZU.MAX
Transactions
MXZTRAN.MAX
Strategies
MXZW.MAX
User Defined Fields: Definitions
MXZX.MAX
Strategy Links
MXZY.MAX
Strategy Components
MXZZ.MAX
Not all of these files will be present in every installation, and some
of them hardly ever trigger any errors. The heart of every address book
is the MXZC.MAX file itself, which contains the names, addresses, and phone
numbers for every entry in the book, together with an "IDentification"
field that forms the connecting link to all the other files. Because this
file is always in use, it's the most likely to be the culprit when an address
book becomes unusable, so it forms the starting point. Once the MXZC file
is repaired, other errors may become apparent, but often only this file
has suffered damage.
Finding the Right Folder
To determine the location of the folder that contains your address book,
open Maximizer and pull down the "File" menu. Then select "Open address
book..." or the similar action (the wording changes slightly from one version
to another), and you'll see a dialog similar to this:
Highlight the specific address book whose location you want to know, then
look at the lower part of the dialog (the red arrow in this image) to see
the drive and folder where that address book resides (in this example,
that's "d:\Maximizer\Data"). Write this down and move on to the next step.
Finding the File or Files
To locate the Windows folder that contains your address book, close Maximizer
and go to the Windows Start Menu. There, locate the Windows Explorer choice
and select it. Use the left-hand pane of the Explorer window to navigate
to the appropriate folder. Select the folder in the left-hand pane (indicated
by the red oval in the image) and the files within that folder will appear
in the right-hand pane.
In this example, red ovals indicate those files most often involved in
data error situations. You may not see the ".max" type flags on the filenames,
but the files you want will have a red M in their icons. The ".lck" files
also in this folder don't contain any data; they're used only by the data
manager engine to control shared access by multiple users.
Compressing the File
Once you've located the file (or files) involved in your error situation,
the next step is to pack them together into a compressed package that you
can attach to an Email message. While many compression utilities are available,
this example shows the use of the shareware utility WinZip (for a link
to its web site, see the Data Recovery page here).
When you install WinZip and tell it to add itself to the "context menu",
you can then just right-click on a file in the Explorer right-hand pane
as shown here:
One of the options in the resulting menu is "Add to Zip" (highlighted).
Choosing this one brings up WinZip, all ready to copy the selected file
into a new or existing compressed file. Your context menu won't look exactly
like this one, unless you've installed the same set of utilities, but the
WinZip lines will be in approximately the same locations. See the WinZip
help file itself for detailed instructions on using the utility; in general,
the suggested options that come up automatically will be adequate for this
purpose and all you'll have to add will be a filename to assign to the
compressed file. It's best to use your own name for this, to prevent confusion
in Kyle's mailbox (which often contains half a dozen or more files bearing
variations on the name "MXZC.ZIP")!
Sending to Kyle
The final step of the process is to send the compressed file to Kyle. The
simplest way to do this is to use his SendKyle program (see the Data
Recovery page here for details). However if you have an FTP program
and are comfortable with its use, you can use it to send the file to "jimkyle.dns2go.com/Incoming"
and it will get to the same destination. Expect the transfer to take about
4 minutes per megabyte. If you have problems, call Kyle at 1-405-728-3316
for help.
