Internal gds software consistency check

This error message usually means that something is wrong with the database file. It happens when Firebird expects to read some value on some particular place, but finds something else. Severity of the problem could range from harmless things like inability to read old record versions (not needed to anyone anyway) or broken indexes (could harm your queries and primary/foreign key constraints) to corrupt data.

Reasons for this can be various, from bad RAM module in the server, malfuncion of hard disk drive, to bug in filesystem or in Firebird engine. It's a common consequence of power failure and forced writes being off at the same time. Also, there are known cases when suspend to disk/hibernate messes up the filesystem cache for the database file.

In any case, make sure you stop the server, make a copy of database file and do all the diagnostics on the copy. GFIX can help you fix some of the errors and get database to a state where you can back it up. After checking for hardware problems, you should visit the appropriate mailing list (see FAQ #65) and present the problem you have (especially the contents of your firebird.log file).