One of the more common and dangerous problems we see is people loosing their data because they didn’t remember where they saved it. When they can’t find it, usually they make another database and start using that. That can be costly and dangerous because you then have data spread across many databases. It is for this reason that we recommend that you have only One database instead of several.
Sometime people will have a database for prospects, one for customers, one for marketing. This will get confusing real fast. So stick with one database and use fields within the database for differentiate your contacts.
On a more technical note, you may be looking for your databases wondering where they are. there are two ways to do this.
1) search your computer for .adf files. These files make up your ACT database (along with the .adl and supplemental files folder)
2) Open ACT diag (start, run, ACTDIAG) and under the databases tab, you will see a list of the databases that are attached to the SQL Instance on your machine. If your database is on a server, you would need to execute this search on the server.
For other files that Sage ACT uses, here is a great KB article produced by Sage listing all of the default locations for Key Files used in Sage ACT. (Click Here for KB Article)
Here is a list of the most commonly used file locations:
Sage ACT! Demo Database:
Windows XP/Windows Server 2003: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Act\Act Data\Databases
Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows Server 2008: C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Act\Act Data\Databases
New Database Default
Windows XP/Windows Server 2003: C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\My Documents\Act\Act Data\Databases
Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows Server 2008: C:\Users\*username*\My Documents\Act\Act Data\Databases
Preferences:
Windows XP/Windows Server 2003: C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Application Data\Act\Act Data
Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows Server 2008: C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Roaming\Act\Act Data
