Knowledgebase

Analyzing and Repairing Data Damage in QuickBooks Point-of-sale  - Part 1: Analyzing Data Damage

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The QuickBooks Point-of-sale Verify Data utility is designed to identify many types of corruption in a QuickBooks Point-of-sale data file. The utility analyzes the data file for damage based upon the sub-routines programmed for the utility. The utility is designed find the following types of data damage in your data file:

• Transaction damage,
• List damage,
• Computational errors,
• Table structure damage

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Before Running Verify

Never run the Verify utility on a QuickBooks Point-of-sale data file that is located on a remote drive by accessing it over your network. If the data file is on a network drive, copy the file to a local computer before running this utility.  Attempting to run the utility across a network can result in irreparable corruption. 

Shut-down all unnecessary programs, including email and other minor programs that run in the background of your computer.  Any programs that reduce available system resources risk the possibility of crashing the rebuild process while running

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While Running Verify

The time required to verify the database can vary depending on the size of your QuickBooks Point-of-sale data file, and the system resources of your computer. The process of two-stage process of verifying the data-file is intensive, taking from a few minutes to several hours before completion.

When verifying your data file, it is extremely important to permit the utility to finish completely.  Frequently Windows may show QuickBooks Point-of-sale is Not Responding; however, the program is usually working, even if it does not respond to Windows. You can monitor the QuickBooks Point-of-sale processes under Windows Task Manager. Never reboot your computer or cancel the verify utility during the process as this can result in unrecoverable data damage.

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Steps to run Verify

1) On the Main Menu Bar, select Help

2) When the Help Menu opens, choose About Point-of-Sale

 

3) The QuickBooks Point-of-Sale information window appears,

 

4) The Verify utility is hidden on a special 'Debug' menu, in order to access the menu you must depress the Left CTRL, Left ALT,  D, and B keys simultaneously. (Note: After depressing all 4 keys simultaneously nothing may appear to be happening; however, a change is actually taking place on the back-side of QuickBooks Point-of-sale.)

5) Close the Point-of-Sale information window

6) Repeat steps 1 and 2 above.

7) On the Help Menu, a new  item “Debug” appears at the bottom of the menu

 

8) Click on the Debug menu option to open the Debug menu,

 

9) Select the option to ‘Verify Data’ from the Debug menu.

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Results of Verify:

• If the verify completes without any errors QuickBooks Point-of-sale will display the following message:

 

• If Verify returns any other message:

               - Record the message returned at the end of Verify Data

               - Run the QuickBooks Point-of-sale Clean-up Company Data Utility.

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What about Part 2 of this series

In Part-2 of this series we will look examine the Clean Up Company Data Utility which is designed to repair transaction and list damage in your QuickBooks Point-of-sale data file, but it is limited to damage it is programmed to fix.

Note: While the Verify Data utility is located on a 'hidden menu', the procedures outlined in this article (including access to the 'hidden menu') are public knowledge having been published in Intuit Technical Support (KBA) Knowledge Based Article SLN88278.