PC Crashed, new install of PC Access won't open .pca files, Help!

[AnthonyZ]

Having lost my primary laptop last week to a hardware failure, I went out and bought a new one. I have installed PC Access 3 on it without issue. However, if I bring the many .pca files I have backed up over to the machine, PC Access won't open them and throws an error that they are invalid files or the Security Stamp is invalid. Having only used two different stamps in previous installs, I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling PC Access several times using those couple of security stamps. Still, no love. No matter what, it won't open them. Unfortunately, I only backed up .pca files and don't have any saved exports to work with. Any insight into how the hell I can salvage these VERY IMPORTANT files?

 

[electron]

What happened to the old laptop? Any chance you can take the hard drive out and recover the data?

 

[HAI_fjh]

I am about 99% sure it is the security stamp. The stamp is case sensitive and is used to generate a key that is then used to encrypt your files. We use AES encryption and without the security stamp there is no way to acess the files. There is no backdoor or secret master password.

I would suggest trying the ones (two) you suspect trying variation on case. You could also try these common security stamps "password", "1111" or just leave it blank. Users who are new to PC Access and unfamiliar with how it works, see the security stamp prompt and get confused. When this happens many of them either try to enter the default password, the default master code or just hit enter...

Also you don't have to uninstall PC Access to redo the security stamp. Just exit PC Access, delete the PCA01.CFG file and restart PC Access. It will ask you for the security stamp. When you figure it out, WRITE IT DOWN IN A SAFE PLACE.

Finally as Dan suggested if you can get the PCA01.CFG file off of the old PC and just overwrite the one on your new PC.

 

[AnthonyZ]

Thanks for the heads up on the PCA01.cfg. As I had also backed up that file, it was an easy fix. Thanks, y'all...

 

[michae1a1ee]

I'm in a similar situation. I can't open my PCA file. I missed the security stamp prompt that came up and can't get it to come up again. I do have my pass phrase noted down but can't enter it. I've tried deleting the CFG file, no difference. Tried installing Dealer PC Access over top of the existing, and no difference. I have a copy of my hard drive from last month, so replacing the CFG file with the copy from last month, no difference. What do I need to do to get the security stamp prompt to come up again and get access to my PCA file?

 

[michae1a1ee]

No need to answer - I sorted this out. Figured out that I had more than one copy of the PCA01.CFG file in my C:\Users folder structure due to Microsoft OneDrive. If anyone has ever installed the OneDrive backup you'll understand the headache this causes by relocating the user's personal folders including the My Documents folder. I of course figured this out after doing an uninstall and reinstall among other things before figuring out there was a newly created CFG file other than where I was originally looking. Replaced that newly created CFG file with the old one I have from nine years ago and I was back up and running.