If PennyPerfect fails to start and reports an error with the data file, or asks for a password when no password has been set, this indicates that the data file has been corrupted. The solution for this is to load a backup file.
If the error message is about the Options file being corrupted, details on how to correct this are available on this page.
Starting PennyPerfect with a backup file
To start PennyPerfect with a backup file follow these steps;
From the Windows start menu open Windows File Manager.
Open the directory where you have installed PennyPerfect, (by default this is C:\PennyPerfect).
In this directory you'll see the PennyPerfect program (PennyPerfect.exe) with the blue and white 'P' icon.
This folder also contains your backup files named with the date they were created e.g. PennyPerfectBackup 24 Aug 2018.bak.
Find the most recent backup file, then drag and drop it onto the PennyPerfect icon.
This will open PennyPerfect using the data in the backup file rather than the main data file.
If you now select Save from the File menu (or press CTRL+S), this will overwite the corrupted data file with the data from the backup file. The data from the backup file is now the 'live' data.
When PennyPerfect starts again it will be using the data that was loaded from the backup file.
If the same error happens again when loading the backup file as described above, try loading the second most recent backup file. The most recent backup file and the main file can both become corrupted at the same time as the backup file and the main data file will be the same at the point the backup is created.