thanks for the quick replies.

the .fbk file is in a folder without a .gdb file, so there's no issue with "create" "overwrite"

the fbk file is 7.3 gigs.

there's 151 gigs free

it's win7 64 bit.

that drive is ntfs.

thanks
kelly

--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, Helen Borrie <helebor@...> wrote:
>
> At 08:10 PM 15/05/2012, Norman Dunbar wrote:
>
> >> so, i:
> >> gbak -c aaa.fbk aaa.gdb
> >>
> >> i have move the fbk file into another folder and the aaa.gdb file doesn't exist there.
> >> but i can't get it to "create" the GDB?
> >
> >Do you, by any chance, have an entry in aliases.conf for "aaa.gdb"? If
> >so, you are most likely overwriting the original database. Although, if
> >I remember correctly, that depends on your version of Firebird.
>
> No, gbak -c would never overwrite a database, in any version of Firebird. It would simply refuse to create the new database if it already exists.
>
> >> error: size specification either missing or incorrect for file aaa.gdb
> >Are you creating, or attempting to, a bigger than 4 GB database on a
> >FAT32 fie system?
>
> I suspect this might be the case, too. On FAT32, if the database would be larger than 4 GB, gbak would look for primary and secondary file specifications in the gbak -c command and, in this example, find them missing.
>
> Another possibility is that the destination space might be too small to accommodate the database.
>
> ./heLen
>