Genealogy Chat

hi, I tried to get into FTM, clicked on tree icon thing, message came up as follow's... FMT2005 cannot find your file, please check directories and drive field to ensure that you are supplying the correct path. Can anyone advise me on what has gone wrong please. My son put in a CD with photos to show me, has he mucked something up lol. Update... I , well husband had tried to load it again and start from scratch,by removing it first. Cant do it for some reason. Has this happened to anyone esle and how to you fix it. Is it something to do with the correct path??? whatever that is lol. I will need to wait till he comes in to get him to give it another go. Can some of you kind folk out there with PC knowledge advise? Thanks for any help Marion

I had this happen to me Marion, went directly into panic mode. I had opened another tree file and mine had 'disappeared'. Go to START, Find files or folders, scroll through and you will find yours. I HOPE. That's where I found mine, just double clicked and it was back. Good luck with that. Jan

hi Jan, still no luck. i am going to come out and go on again, see what happens. Marion

Marion, look for an .ftw file or just Ancestry or if you remember what you'd called it. Like I call mine Jan's Twigs. J

Yes, I had this happen too. I had two files open I believe - have you backed up to rewritable cd? If the worse comes to the worse you can put it all back with that info. Actually it may be something to do with son - as I had something similar when my eldest boy came home and put a cd on to show me pics. All my photos on the FT disappeared. Luckily I went to my website and clicked and copied them back but I understand it was something to do with him changing the path (??) from my pictures to my documents or something. So check by clicking on start and bring up my docs and see if the FT is lurking there. Or click on start and then 'search' for files.

Still no joy, it says it does not exist. it's gone!! the Icon is there though. I did not have it backed up. Am I right in thinking I will just have to start again, most of it is on this site. I had added a few thing's on to the FTM, but not a lot, as I was still working it all out. thanks Marion

Marion I'm amazed if it has gone. Before I discovered how to find mine when I lost it, when I tried to open my tree FTM gave a message that there was a saved version, did I want to open that. I said No actually because didn't know what was on it. If you have your tree on GR you can export the GED back into your own computer. Good luck with that too. Jan

Just had a thought, did you look for .fbk files as well, they're back-up files for FTM. JAn

Thanks Jan, but still no luck, I asked my son what he did and he said Nout lol.

That'd be right Marion LOL. Do you have your tree on this site. Looks like your best option. Export the GED back to yourself. Sorry you seem to have lost everything. So frustrating isn't it. Best wishes. Jan

And then get a rewritable cd and back it up now and every time you add something.

thanks to you all for help. If this site crashes tonight I will 'GREET' lol. marion

Do it now, Marion, do it now. Better still get the Son to do it LOL. Jan :-))

updated

Marion, A couple of people have already touched on the problem. FTM has somehow 'forgotten' which folder your family tree data file is in. If you can't remember where the file is saved then you need to do a search to track it down. Try this again - Click on the Start button, then Search, then files and folders. Type in .ftw in the box which says 'all or part of the filename' and start the search.

have a browse thru questions people are asking about FTM ... http://genforum.genealogy*com/using/

Thank you Peter, I go to start, see my tree logo , the ftm scream comes up but there nothing in it. I think he deleted it, with the intention of starting from scratch. I will need to wait till he his here,then if I may get back to you. Thank you Marion

Marion, no what you are describing is the FTM program itself - that should be ok. What you need to do is to find the file that has all your personal data in it. After start, click on search, then follow my instructions to find the .ftw file If you have no .ftw file on your computer then you will need to start from scratch.

Hi Marion, yes I agree with Peter. In the search box type *.ftw and this will list everything with that file ending, just the same as *.doc for Word files. Jan

Phew, thank's everyone. I started from scratch, and it seems to have worked. husband was in a bit of a rush lastnight, but a clear head today and it was done in 2 mins. Thanks very much for your patience. cheers Marion