JTDX/WSJT-X directory deleted? How to solve...

The option you shouldn't choose...

  Well, at some point everyone is going to make a mistake somehow. My mistake did occur yesterday. I downloaded the newest JTDX update to install. Normally in W10 I uninstall the normal way via apps. But recently I downloaded a very powerfull uninstaller from IObit. Mainly because I had a few WSJT-X installs that couldn't be removed the normal way. Unfortunately I thought I knew all as a experienced user and automated the deletion of all files related to a software package. Normally, if you don't automate,  the uninstaller will ask you if you want to delete such. Anyway, before I knew I lost my complete JTDX directory with the whole setup, QSO data and logs. Now, normally you download a datarecovery software package and just undelete the deleted. However, I could find the files I needed with certain commercial free to download software but had to pay a considerable amount of money for undeleting. Other freeware packages, I tried 5 of them, unfortunately didn't find the files. So, what left is to configure JTDX again. That's not that difficult, although it occured to me that JTDX did change a bit. But overall I configured everything in 5 minutes. The problem though is that the log was lost as well, so all the data about worked stations and DXCC was lost. Every station received came up as a new one! According to the WSJT-X manual the software reads this from the "wsjtx_log.adi" file, which is just a normal ADIF logformat. Luckely, I always backup my station log in ADIF format and all the information is in there. But how to transfer the data back into JTDX? 

Reading the WSJT-X manual I became aware of a option "rescan adif" which is somewhere in the options menu. The manual tells it is to scan your ADIF log from any electronic logbook. But it isn't that simple. I've tried but WSJT-X is unable to find any data, same for JTDX of course since it is based on WSJT-X. I was a little lost and searching on the internet didn't give me a satisfying answer. It was time to call for help from a JTDX expert, luckily I know one ;-). DB6LL Hartmut told me to use "ADIF2XLS2ADIF.xlsx" to convert my station log to the format WSJT/JTDX likes to see. I've used that software in the past converting WSPR data to ADIF format so I know how it works. He send me the file since you can't download it anymore on the internet. But a problem occured, you need to have Microsoft Office to run the XLSX file. And of course I don't have MS office anymore. Free packages like openoffice or libreoffice will not run this file. So, Hartmut offered to convert the file for me and succeed of course. I was happy again but wondered if it could be without any commercial software. In fact it is just a case of modifying the ADIF file. Searching for that on the internet I found ADIFmaster, a tool to modify a ADIF file, just what I was looking for. Hartmut and I did some research to see if this was a usable piece of software. And so far the only thing we noticed is that you have to add some modes like FT4, PSK31, PSK64 etc. to the modes list which is easy to do. The columns you need for the correct ADIF format are:

<call>,<gridsquare>,<mode>, <rst_sent>, <rst_rcvd>, <qso_date>, <time_on>, <qso_date_off>,<time_off>, <band>, <freq>, <station_callsign>, <my_gridsquare>

If you load your ADIF log you probabely get more columns, just delete what you don't need. My log didn't have the "qso_date_off" column, not shure if it is really necessary but you can just duplicate the "time_on" column and rename it. If you like to put the columns in right order you can just grab them by put the mouse pointer on the column name and click and hold it then move it to another place. The output will look like this:

Save the file as "wsjtx_log.adi" and put it in the right directory. If you can't find the directory you open WSJT-X or JTDX and click in the "file" menu on "open log directory". Close the program again and after you saved the adi file open your software again. Done...

Of course this is also the solution if you had a computer crash and lost everything. ADIFmaster is certainly a very handy program to do tasks like this...