I do it all the time, for years now, and I haven't noticed problems yet. But I consider it potentially unreliable (data might be corrupted - but this is only an opinion, not based on experience), so for safety, I keep the midnight backup as my "main" backup; the backup I do at noon is for additional safety, but I don't keep it long.
'Tis the same situation you have, of course: users may accidentally keep the program open, but they are unlikely to do a TableUpdate() while the tables are copied. (The first step of my backup is an XCOPY, to keep the time short.)
HTH,
Hilmar.
>I created an app that our 24 hour data center runs at midnight to backup our VFP database. I'm just using File System Object to copy the data folder.
>
>It appears that this folder copy works if users are active in the system. I know the backup is unreliable if created while dbf's are open. But, since there is not much the operators can do at 1:00am if users left their computer on, what is the worse case in terms of reliability of a backup created while users have left their pc on with an app open?
>
>Thanks,
>
>PF
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
