There is no sure way to recover all data when a machine crashes...ever. There is always some point where a file is open and is missing new header information or just before it is updated from memory...

Why don't you put a button on the form to update the files...this way the user can control when he/she want to save his/her work?

Are you worried about the server crashing? You could then make an option to save to a temporary file on the local drive...and handle that (server crashing) specifically in your error-handling routine.

If the system crashes frequently, I would suggest finding a solution to that (ie. UPS, better networking hardware, whatever...).

Take care,
Joe

>I'm starting to work on an account receivables system and I'm looking for suggestions as to how to proceed. There is a large table that contains "batches" of A/R transactions. A user can modify existing batches or create new ones. I am thinking of using views for this. If the user is modifying an existing batch I can put that batch into a view and then update the table when they are through. There is one thing I'm not sure how to handle - if the user is entering (or modifying) a large batch and the system crashes, I need to be able to retrieve the data that was entered. Is there some way to do this easily, or should I copy the view to a temp file periodically? Any advice would be appreciated.
>
>Thanks
>Elyse