Mike... Are the "removable flash ATA devices" that you are using the little flash drives you plug into a USB port? If not then disregard the rest of this message.
I have a rather simplistic question, but considering one of your criteria that <1. It should be easy to use (non technical users) > maybe it will point out a simple problem... I use these types of "drives" on a daily basis, usually, just copy files to transfer from one pc to another. I own and have used several "brands", and have used them with WIN98, WIN ME and WIN XP machines, unfortunately I don't have any WIN 2000 machines though. The drives I use all require specific drivers for use on the WIN 98 and WIN ME machines, but are just plug and play on the XP machines. I have experienced problems when not properly "ejecting" the devices before pulling them from the USB port. I have found that if I don't go through the "eject" process to shut down the connection that the last file I have copied to the drive is not completely transferred. If your non-technical users are just pulling these from the USB port without "ejecting" them through the driver interface, it may be possible that, even though Cache has been stopped, that there is still data in memory that needs to be flushed to the drive.... If you are using more than one brand of flash drive, have you tried to determine if the problem occurs on one brand as opposed to others? Just a thought, as we all know of a typical user which could surely benefit from a large "User Brightness Adjustment Knob" being installed.... Mike Minor Z-Code Systems, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 407-656-4990 Fax: 407-656-5875 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Gordon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Newsgroups: intersystems.public.cache Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 6:21 AM Subject: Intermittent Integrity problems > A bit of background : > > We use a number of laptops on remote screening units to allow information to > be directly entered at whatever location the unit is at. On a daily basis > an extract is performed from the main server system to removable flash ATA > drives which are subsequently sent to the mobile location. On return these > updated disks are imported to the server. > > This is performed by having a cache database residing on the removable disk > (100Mb Cache.Dat). At the server side this is either connected using ECP or > by programatically mounting/dismounting the database as required (server is > configured with a local namespace which points to the removable drive). > Transfer is done using the merge command ie M ^local=^|remote|local. > > We have a number of intermittent problems where the disk appears to be > created ok but then generates windows BOOTEX logs when loaded at laptop or > back at server which results in corruption of the Cache database. My guess > is that this may be a caching issue which leaves windows thinking that the > file/volume was still in use etc > > Ok, questions : > > 1. Does a call to ^DISMOUNT ensure buffers are flushed before database is > actually dismounted. If not is there a way to ensure this ($ZU(51) > perhaps). > 2. Is this scenario sensible ie having a Cache database residing on a > removable disk which is moved between more than one Cache system ? > 3. Any miscellaneous settings that may ensure all writes to this database > are updated before unmounting/disconnecting > > General system settings are Win2k, Cache Versions 5.0.2 (5.0.5 on one > server). Removable disks are formatted as FAT, each holding a 100Mb Cache > database. Each disk is built using the same 100Mb Database file. > > Any ideas much appreciated. Also if anybody has similar applications I'd be > interested in how you update / synchronise the main database. I've seen > some info on the new 5.1 object syncronisation but at the moment this > application is straightforward COS. > > Cheers, > > Mike > > >
