All; Wednesday when I arrived at our Family History Center one of the patrons was finishing a data entry session using PAF. She had spent several hours entering information from paper records. Her mentor was leaving and I tried to take over. To our dismay PAF would not do a Backup to the USB Flash Drive. I checked the bottom of the monitor screen and the Flash Drive was not shown as "Connected". We were not very worried as we assumed that when she arrived she had "Restored" her database from the Flash Drive to the C Drive in the computer. A search of the directory where all the PAF Data files are stored did not find the file. We tried to examine the Flash Drive using Windows Explorer but could find nothing. As far as Windows was concerned the Flash Drive was not connected. We took a chance and unplugged the Flash Drive and moved it to another computer. That computer found the Flash Drive, but the file she was working on was NOT present. Today I talked to the individual who had been helping the patron. We are still not certain what happened. I strongly SUSPECT that the connection of the Flash Drive to the computer had been disturbed. Perhaps one of the connectors was momentarily disconnected. Regardless of the exact nature of the problem, these consequences can be avoided as follows. 1. Do NOT use a Flash Drive as the primary repository of a database. Instead use it as a backup repository. It MAY be more reliable than a floppy disk, but it is not as reliable as a hard drive. 2. When you begin a work session Restore the database from the Flash Drive (or floppy disk) to the hard drive. 3. Work using the copy on the hard drive. 4. Periodically Backup from the hard drive to the Flash Drive (or floppy disk). The rule I use is "When I have done enough work that I do not want to risk losing it, then I do a Backup" -- it only takes a few seconds and that is cheap insurance. 5. Take the backup USB Memory (Flash Drive) or floppy disk home. Before you begin another work session Restore the database from the backup medium to the hard drive. I have occasionally seen disparaging remarks about the reliability of floppy disks. My experience has been otherwise -- when they are used properly. It is true that they do have a high "infant mortality". So. . . I watch them closely when they are young. I listen to the floppy drive when I am making a Backup. The drive has a regular sound pattern when it is recording. If I hear a disruption in that sound pattern I listen carefully. When a floppy drive cannot record then it tries again and again. I hear this as a series of short "buzzes". When this occurs I throw that disk away. One of the reasons that I like floppy disks is the large label. Every time I use such a disk I record the date (in tiny letters). Those disks are designed for 100 uses. I have a number of them that are over five years old and that have been used over 100 times. (I will replace them soon -- as soon as the label is full). I have changed the Configuration (Preferences) of my PAF program so that the default location for a Backup File is the "F:" drive; the one that my Flash Drive uses. I backup my files to that location several times an hour. At the end of the session I make another Backup to the Flash Drive AND then to a floppy disk (on which I write the Backup date). I have been using a set of five floppy disks to backup each of my PAF files for over fifteen years It has never given me a problem probably because I weed out the bad or marginal disks. About three years ago I began also backing my PAF data files onto the USB Memory. I have heard several reports of problems with them, but have had none myself. My motto is: "Better spend a little time being safe than a lot of time trying to recover data from a damaged record.". May all your backups be good ones and all of your ancestors be identifiable, Richard "If the Lord wanted a perfect job he would not let me help. "However, that is no excuse for not doing my best."

If she had previously worked with her file on that computer, is it possible that rather than doing a restore, that she opened it from the File menu and used a copy on the hard drive (which may not be in the default location)? The full path is shown at the top of the window when the file is open in PAF. What happens when you launch PAF again, or if you go to File and select her file name from the recent file list? If PAF can't locate it then it was probably on the flash drive which got corrupted. If PAF can open it from the recent file list you will be able to easily see the location. It is also possible that here flash drive is one of the brands that has to be run the first time under an administrator login for Windows to find it, which could explain why it could be explored on another computer but not that one. The fact that it worked on the other computer also indicates that the drive itself is not faulty. Another possibility which we had happen was on a computer with two USB ports on the front, where two drives had been plugged in (becoming drives E and F for example). When one of those got plugged in on a different day in the other port, it couldn't be found, because apparently Windows tried to remember the previous drive letter and also apparently assigned a new letter, which created double drive. I had to go in to Administrative Tools_Disk Management to see that the drive was actually connected. After manually changing the drive letter it went back to normal. I really suspect that the admin issue or a drive letter conflict was the cause of it not showing as connected (unless the USB port itself is fried, but that would affect ALL drives plugged in there). Gary Templeman ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Halliday" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 4:33 PM Subject: [PAF-5] A Problem with a USB Flash Drive (Thumb Stick, USB Memory, Flash Drive, etc.) > All; > Wednesday when I arrived at our Family History Center one of the > patrons was finishing a data entry session using PAF. She had spent > several hours entering information from paper records. Her mentor was > leaving and I tried to take over. > To our dismay PAF would not do a Backup to the USB Flash Drive. I > checked the bottom of the monitor screen and the Flash Drive was not > shown as "Connected". We were not very worried as we assumed that when > she arrived she had "Restored" her database from the Flash Drive to the > C Drive in the computer. A search of the directory where all the PAF > Data files are stored did not find the file. We tried to examine the > Flash Drive using Windows Explorer but could find nothing. As far as > Windows was concerned the Flash Drive was not connected. > We took a chance and unplugged the Flash Drive and moved it to > another computer. That computer found the Flash Drive, but the file she > was working on was NOT present. > Today I talked to the individual who had been helping the patron. > We are still not certain what happened. I strongly SUSPECT that the > connection of the Flash Drive to the computer had been disturbed. > Perhaps one of the connectors was momentarily disconnected. Regardless > of the exact nature of the problem, these consequences can be avoided as > follows. > 1. Do NOT use a Flash Drive as the primary repository of a > database. Instead use it as a backup repository. It MAY be more > reliable than a floppy disk, but it is not as reliable as a hard drive. > 2. When you begin a work session Restore the database from the > Flash Drive (or floppy disk) to the hard drive. > 3. Work using the copy on the hard drive. > 4. Periodically Backup from the hard drive to the Flash Drive (or > floppy disk). The rule I use is "When I have done enough work that I do > not want to risk losing it, then I do a Backup" -- it only takes a few > seconds and that is cheap insurance. > 5. Take the backup USB Memory (Flash Drive) or floppy disk home. > Before you begin another work session Restore the database from the > backup medium to the hard drive. > I have occasionally seen disparaging remarks about the reliability > of floppy disks. My experience has been otherwise -- when they are used > properly. It is true that they do have a high "infant mortality". So. > . . I watch them closely when they are young. I listen to the floppy > drive when I am making a Backup. The drive has a regular sound pattern > when it is recording. If I hear a disruption in that sound pattern I > listen carefully. When a floppy drive cannot record then it tries again > and again. I hear this as a series of short "buzzes". When this occurs > I throw that disk away. > One of the reasons that I like floppy disks is the large label. > Every time I use such a disk I record the date (in tiny letters). Those > disks are designed for 100 uses. I have a number of them that are over > five years old and that have been used over 100 times. (I will replace > them soon -- as soon as the label is full). > I have changed the Configuration (Preferences) of my PAF program so > that the default location for a Backup File is the "F:" drive; the one > that my Flash Drive uses. I backup my files to that location several > times an hour. At the end of the session I make another Backup to the > Flash Drive AND then to a floppy disk (on which I write the Backup date). > I have been using a set of five floppy disks to backup each of my > PAF files for over fifteen years It has never given me a problem > probably because I weed out the bad or marginal disks. About three > years ago I began also backing my PAF data files onto the USB Memory. I > have heard several reports of problems with them, but have had none > myself. > My motto is: "Better spend a little time being safe than a lot of > time trying to recover data from a damaged record.". > > May all your backups be good ones and all of your ancestors be > identifiable, > Richard > "If the Lord wanted a perfect job he would not let me help. > "However, that is no excuse for not doing my best." > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message