A good recovery strategy when something goes wrong is:
1. Ask yourself "When was I in control the last time" 2. What did I do since I was in control of the situation. 3. What might I have done wrong since the control. 4. What was I intending to do at the time when I felt no longer in control of the situation. 5. Do I think the "loss of control" is due to a software error, a hardware (e.g. harddisk broken) error or a user error ? 6. How much work should I repeat to continue working from my last backup of all data (I assume you do have a copy somewhere). 7. Can I repeat the steps from the "in control situation" to the "out of control situation" and the same thing happens every time.
If you can answer these questions you have a very good clue for the solution or the appropriate information to tell someone who can assist you - e.g. other users on this list.
Regards
Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association