What damaged Tally data looks like
Most offices meet damaged data in one of these ways:
- The company will not open, or Tally stops with a message that the company data is corrupted, or that a repair is required.
- The company list shows "Repair Required" against a company.
- Reports stop working or totals look wrong, although the company opens.
Tally's own help notes that data can be damaged even when no status is shown, so a company that "feels wrong" deserves a check too.
Why it happens
Tally keeps its files open while it runs. Anything that stops a save half-way can leave a file half old, half new. The usual causes are:
- A power cut or a hard switch-off while Tally was writing. A UPS that keeps the PC up long enough to close Tally prevents most of these.
- A failing hard disk or SSD. Damage that keeps coming back after repair often means the disk itself is dying.
- Data kept on a network share with an unstable connection, or on a pen drive or USB disk.
- Copying the data folder while Tally is open, then using that copy later.
Step 1: take a copy before you touch anything
Before you repair, back up the damaged company as it is (Alt+Y > Backup & Restore > Backup) to a different drive, and also copy the whole data folder somewhere safe. Tally's help asks you to take a backup first, and the repair screen offers to do it for you.
This matters because repair can remove data it cannot read. If the result is worse than you expected, you can go back to where you started and try another way, or hand the copy to an expert.
Step 2: run Repair
In recent TallyPrime releases, Repair is on the Data menu. Per Tally's help page on repairing data:
- Press Alt+Y (Data) > Repair, or F1 (Help) > Troubleshooting > Repair. From the Gateway of Tally, Ctrl+Alt+R opens the same screen.
- Select the company.
- Leave Backup Company Data before Repair set to Yes, and set where the backup goes.
- Press R to repair, and wait. A large company can take a while; do not switch the PC off.
Save any unsaved vouchers or masters before you start, and make sure nobody else is working in the company.
Step 3: check what the repair changed
Tally's help is clear that any data that cannot be recovered is removed to protect the rest. So a repair that "works" may still have dropped vouchers. Check before you carry on:
- Open the Statistics report (Alt+F5) and compare voucher and master counts with what you expect, or with a recent backup.
- Look at the Repair/Migrate Exceptions report (Alt+X) for anything Tally could not fix.
- Check the last voucher date, the bank and cash balances, and last month's GST summary against your filed returns.
If the Edit Log is on for the company, note that repair removes its Edit Log information.
Step 4: when to restore instead
Repair is the right first step when the damage is small. Restoring a backup is the better fix when:
- The repair removed vouchers you need, or the counts do not match.
- The company still will not open after repair.
- The same damage keeps coming back. Fix the cause, often the disk, first.
Restore the newest good backup into a new folder, beside the live data, never over it, then check it (see how to back up and restore Tally data step by step). Then re-enter only the work done since that backup. This is where a daily backup pays for itself: one day's entries to type again, not one month's.
Prevent the next one
- A UPS on the PC that holds the data, and close Tally before shutting down.
- Keep the data on the PC's own disk, not a pen drive.
- A daily backup kept away from the PC, with copies going back several weeks, because damage is often noticed late and last night's copy may already hold it.
- Test a restore every month. Our 15-minute monthly restore test shows how.
How JS1 Vault helps
JS1 Vault backs up your Tally data folder every evening. Installed on the PC that holds the data, it takes the copy even if Tally was left open. Only the files that changed are sent, and earlier versions are kept, so when damage is found late you can go back to a day before it started. Copies are encrypted on your PC, kept in India, and cannot be changed or deleted from your PC. To get data back, the PC's Windows administrator brings the folder back from the JS1 Vault icon, or our technician does it with you, always into a new folder beside your live data.
See how JS1 Vault backs up your Tally data, or start a free trial.
TallyPrime is a trademark of Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd. JS1 Software is not affiliated with Tally Solutions. Menu names are from Tally's public help pages and may change between releases.
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