[mythtv-users] WAF through the floor, with lost database!

[Michael T. Dean]

On 12/30/2013 07:34 PM, Paul Gardiner wrote:
> tortise wrote:
>> On 31/12/2013 12:00 p.m., Paul Gardiner wrote:
>>> So the dreaded disaster has happened, so now how can I populate
>>> mythtv's recordings from all the orphaned files I have. I realise
>>> the best I can probably do is make names from channel, date and
>>> time, but what tables would I need to update to do so? I'm guessing
>>> there are some risks involved if you don't ensure consistency
>>> between the various tables.
>>>
>>> Also, given that I have another separate mythtv system that has
>>> been running mythfilldatabase relentlessly for years,
>>> is there any way I might turn channels, dates and times back into
>>> titles? I'd imagine that past listing info is forgotten, but
>>> I've never looked so, just wondering.
>> Did you put your database backups on a data drive??? (!)
>
> I did, but that wasn't the problem. Somehow mythconverg_backup generated a less than 1k file containing just a few headers, with no actual data, and I noticed only when I came to restore. :-(

If mythconverg_backup.pl was running against an empty database, it would 
do that--and doing that would not result in an error, so it would also 
rotate backups.  If, instead, there were an error reported by mysqldump, 
mythconverg_backup.pl does not rotate backups (attempting to ensure you 
don't delete valid backups to "make room for" a broken/invalid backup).  
So definitely look for other backup files, as Mark suggested.

When you originally set up mythconverg_backup.pl, did you verify it was 
working at that time?  If so, I can't see how it would stop working 
/and/ delete existing/good backups.  So, if you don't have any valid 
backups, about the only thing I could imagine is the backup script's 
being run against an empty database as you're cleaning up the 
mess/fixing the system, and running enough times that it rotates out the 
good backup files. ???

Mike