The Codebase Error -200 ”File Is Not A Data File” error suggests the data folder is corrupted.

If Codebase Error -200, is followed by the error, “The Configuration File Has Incorrect Structure,” and “Fatal Application Error in Efwin32.exe” means possibly a virus or malware has corrupted the program and data folders and a backup will have to be restored.

First, close the Updater, (red bowtie down in the system tray) by right-clicking and click “Exit.” And “yes” to your sure you want to close the Essential Forms downloader.

Go under Start>Control Panel, to “Programs and Features” choose Essential Forms (Premium) and click “Uninstall/Change”. Once that finishes, go under Start>Computer root-down to the Essential Forms Data folder and right-click on "Data" and rename it, to “DataCorrupt”.

Then, run the latest JC Update and reinstall the Essential Forms program.

Launch the program and you will see only Sample Client/New Matter. In order to get back the most recent data before the database corruption you will need to grab a complete backup of the Essential Forms Data folder, if you have one. Or, if you do not have a recent backup, you can restore the most recent backup provided in the “Release Backups” folder (….1901, 1907, 2101, 2107) which is in the current Data folder renamed as “DataCorrupt.”

Option 1: Restoring From A Complete Data Folder

If you're restoring a complete Data folder you can go under Start>Computer and place the Data folder where you want it shared again. Then, launch the Essential Forms program and click Configure>data Directory and click “Browse” to that Data folder location. Click “Ok” and “Use This Directory” it should prompt you it needs to now close. When you reopen you should be seeing your client database.

Option 2: Restoring From The Release Backup Folder Inside The Data Folder

Restoring from a “Release Backups” folder (….1901, 1907, 2101, 2107) from the original Data folder, renamed as “DataCorrupt” . In order to do this: Launch Essential Forms, click File>Restore Data From Backup, root-down into the “DataCorrupt” folder, open the “Release Backups” folder and click on the most recent release. For example, 2107 would be from July 01, 2021). Open the folder, in this case from the example ”2107” should have a “release01.efx” or a series of releases (01,02..).efx…” Choose the most recent one to “open” or the one with the greatest file size. Follow the prompts to restore data. You should see your client database again.

Note: Both restore options of the Essential Forms database are from the point when the backup was generated, not when the corruption began, so you may be missing the most recent client/matters/forms.