"The program cannot start. Failed to connect to GENDATA on server..."

This fix is for Genesis version 9.12 and Food Processor version 10.13 only.

This error typically means there is need to update an INI file for Genesis. This file is found in 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Esha Research\GenesisSQL\'.  If Windows 7 or Vista, this can also be found in 'C:\Users\[UserProfile]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Esha Research\GenesisSQL\'. 

Specifically, in this file is a line reading AttachDBFilename={some path}, change that to equal nothing.  Like this:  AttachDBFilename=

You will also want to check the ServerName= line and make sure that the name of your server is correct and check to make sure the line Provider= is correct. For a network install it will need to be Provider=SQLOLEDB.1 and for a local install you will need Provider=SQLNCLI11

If both files exist, make the change in both INI files

This error also happens when you do not have permissions to access the database. This Knowledge Base article details how to grant users permission to the database.