>>>>Don't hear so much about which db to migrate to that fits the "crash safe" criteria I have for using VFP tables:
>>>>
>>>> * very difficult to harm the tables in power failures, random reboots, voltage spikes etc
>>>> * easy to strip out and rebuild table headers (and an app can sense and do this automatically)
>>>> * yet high performance ...
>>>>
>
>>
>>Why are you interested in stripping out and rebuilding table headers? Is that just to fix corrupted tables?
>>
>>Not an ssue with SQL Server.
>
>It may not be but folk who use my app are very unlikely to want to install SQL Server.
>
>* few would want install anything that needs any fiddling with at all (I guess this includes me re other people's apps)
>* I'm trying to reduce the download from the current 36Mb (My app + VFP runtimes + Common Controls)
>
>If I didn't have 150,000 lines of VFP I wouldn't mind using IronPython or similar (tiny runnable + framework support already on a >=XP Sp2 Windows machine). Someone said use Firebird - but when I looked at the web site, it excludes support for Vista and Win7 , unless my eyes deceive me.
>
>Your direct question is why would I want to strip out and rebuild table headers - it is to fix corrupted tables without resorting to telling the user to restore from the last backup. I'm sure the administrator of a fully supported SQL Server set-up would never say this but, I repeat, my users are out in the wilds where there are no administrators or, if there are, I can guarantee they are going to say "restore from the last backup" ...

In general, SQL Server or Express will require a lot less user intervention than VFP tables until you get to an application far in excess of anything VFP could handle. For instance, I have about 40 liquor stores in Kansas alone running SQL Express with a combination of applications from Microsoft and my company. These are mostly mom-and-pop one or 2 cash POS stores that we usually only hear from when hardware breaks or they decide to splurge on an upgrade. The database just keeps on running.

Corrupted tables? We left them with VFP tables back at the turn of the century. Seriously.