Wiz.bin: Database Format?

[PeteCress]

There's probably a FAQ post on this somewhere, but Search "Wiz.bin database format" didn't turn up anything, so....

Does anybody know what they use to create Wiz.bin?

I'm hoping it's some third-party tool like B-Trieve and maybe there are tools available to look into Wiz.bin and see if it's healthy.

[stanger89]

It's proprietary binary is all we know. The API is how you access the contents.

[Fuzzy]

the most important thing to know about the wiz.bin file, and it's health status, is that you should have about 10 days of backups on hand at all times. Whatever format they use, is VERY easy to screw up apparently, and there is NO way to rebuild/recover that information once it's corrupted...

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

the most important thing to know about the wiz.bin file, and it's health status, is that you should have about 10 days of backups on hand at all times. Whatever format they use, is VERY easy to screw up apparently, and there is NO way to rebuild/recover that information once it's corrupted...

That's the bottom line I was trolling for.

Knowing that, I just set my backup to keep 25 versions of Wiz.bin on hand.

Thanks.

Is gradual corruption an issue?

With MS JET DBs, for instance, things can start going South long before any overt symptoms present themselves.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Whatever format they use, is VERY easy to screw up apparently, and there is NO way to rebuild/recover that information once it's corrupted...

Define "VERY".

Originally Posted by PeteCress

Is gradual corruption an issue?

I don't think so.

[tmiranda]

I've been using Sage for years and I still have the original wiz.bin. I think the days of frequently corrupted wiz.bin files are over, although occasional corruption problems may arise.

Having said that, I always keep a week's worth of backups

[Ryokurin]

If you are having a lot of corruption issues I would look into your hardware. I had similar, but I figured it out a year or two later to be due to a dieing mainboard. I'm not saying that that is your problem, but it would be the first place I look.

[GKusnick]

Just FYI, Nielm's XML file generator automates the export of recording metadata to external XML files, which you can then import into a fresh Wiz.bin using the web server. I believe there are other third-party tools that perform similar functions with .my files and .properties files.

Beyond that, the SageTV API gives programmatic access to the contents of Wiz.bin if you'd rather create your own tool for exporting/importing data. So if you're paranoid about the stability and/or closed format of Wiz.bin, there are ways of getting the data out to some more transparent format for safekeeping.

[ToxMox]

My wiz.bin has been extremely stable. I'm still using one I started in 2003.
I also keep at least ten backups of it.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

My wiz.bin has been extremely stable. I'm still using one I started in 2003.
I also keep at least ten backups of it.

me too. (SecondCopy is what I use for automated file backups among several PCs and NAS)

The backup wiz.bin will definitely be needed on occasion, when you make a mistake or get a surprise, as I did when I added more RAM and it somehow proved incompatible and corrupted some files.

[heatvent]

This may be a stupid question but what does the wizbin file do? Is it just epg data? I don't back mine up and I'm wondering if I should?

[cslatt]

BACK IT UP! BACK IT UP! BACK IT UP!

It stores your entire viewing history and all of the EPG data for the recordings you currently have. If I understand correctly, this means should you lose it to a hard drive crash or something then any recordings that you managed to save would appear as just imported videos with no indication of which episode of the TV show they were and Sage would start recording episodes of your favorites that you've already watched.

Originally Posted by heatvent

This may be a stupid question but what does the wizbin file do? Is it just epg data? I don't back mine up and I'm wondering if I should?

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by heatvent

This may be a stupid question but what does the wizbin file do? Is it just epg data? I don't back mine up and I'm wondering if I should?

Based on my own experience with it's going South two times in less than six months, it is essential for both the Program Guide and the list of recorded programs.

Corrupt it and

• Scheduled recordings are no longer scheduled
• Program Guide is populated with "No Data" for all programs.
• "Recordings" are no longer shown

I suspect there is more, but those two considerations suffice for me to back up Wiz.bin daily: both to a local repository so I can restore right away; and to a series of repositorys that get cycled between home and work in case of something like a fire or destructive burglary.

[APillowOfClouds]

Can one back it up while Sage is running? I would love to see Sage go to individual files for each show like BeyondTV uses (I'm an ex-BTV user) - they allowed you to drop a show anywhere on any drive and have it picked up instantly, and the info stays with the show. Maybe I'll try to write an add on that will create metadata files for shows that are recorded and display them in the interface. Heck, I guess I could even have it check the wiz.bin to see if the info's in there and add it if it's not, then reubilding wiz.bin would be very easy. Been wanting a reason to start looking at the dev kit anyhow.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by APillowOfClouds

Can one back it up while Sage is running?

That's what I have been doing - using a very simplistic file-copy backup utility called "SecondCopy". No ShadowCopy or anything like that - although I'd like to tweak WHS to make the local copies if I ever figure out how to tell it to back something up that's already in it's own vitrual data drive.

I've restored twice from such backed-up-while-in-use copies and haven't seen any problems. That doesn't mean there won't be any in the future.... seems like it's always risky to take a copy while something is in flux..... but then again, with 25 backups I hope I'll be covered one way or another.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by cslatt

BACK IT UP! BACK IT UP! BACK IT UP!

It stores your entire viewing history and all of the EPG data for the recordings you currently have. If I understand correctly, this means should you lose it to a hard drive crash or something then any recordings that you managed to save would appear as just imported videos with no indication of which episode of the TV show they were and Sage would start recording episodes of your favorites that you've already watched.

Even more important to me, is that all your favorites are also stored in the wiz.bin.

[tmiranda]

FYI. I use DeltaCopy, which works just like SecondCopy but it's open source (free).

[freedml]

To put it simply, wiz.bin has all the user data for your particular system that isn't in one of the 'properties' files.

SageTV automatically makes a copy named 'wiz.bak' and you can safely back this up any time with any method that will back up a file. There is a batch file posted in one thread that keeps 9 rolling backups and can be scheduled using Windows, or you can use a 'backup program.'

[enaumchuk]

I'm using WinXP built-in backup service and so far it's working for me. Check out Accessories>System Tools>Backup

[stevech]

I guess the most important data in Wiz.bin is your history of what episodes of what shows have been watched. Lose that, and it's a major PITA.

SecondCopy here is set to keep the last 10 days/versions, in case one is corrupt.