> Admittedly CE isn't the same as server based versions but to me it seems pretty robust. Given that just about everyone with a Windows OS is using it (without knowing it) I'd expect to be hearing a lot more grief if it wasn't so.
>
>I'd agree that CE sounds like a reasonable choice. However, any database on a local PC or on a server with a flaky power supply can be corrupted- including SQL Server. Certainly a proper database with rollback can handle incomplete transactions when power is restored, but if damage occurs in a critical system table it will take this user down. In the 15 years I've stored customer data in SQL Server I've seen torn pages in a system table rendering the database unusable and a flaky disk doing "something" that had the same effect. And this was on properly managed servers managed by an IT department, not on a PC used by somebody who clearly isn't that computer literate. In fairness, this may have improved- I've not seen it for some years, not least because all customers now use clustering and mirroring. Unlike the customer described here, who wants it on his PC. ;-)
>
>No matter what database is chosen, IMHO the vendor needs to advise in writing that the customer needs a UPS and an automated backup at a minimum. The customer needs to understand that the vendor response to corrupt database most likely will be "restore from backup" - which is what Quicken users know to expect, fwiw. IMHO the customer also needs to commit to regular expert maintenance of their PC if they expect the vendor to provide more detailed support than this. I know that not everybody has required this for dbf tables, but those tend to go wrong one at a time rather than with a big bang and the dbf structure has been fairly easy to harvest when things go wrong.

HI,
Nothing to argue with there. A UPS and a structured back-up schedule should go without saying. And mirrored drives or a full RAID system is no big deal these days. But let's not lose sight of the fact that, in this case, Kevin is basically just porting a simple, single-user app from an Access DB - I'm not sure such a rigorous regime would be either warranted or needed......