>VFP8 SP1, SET TABLEVALIDATE got new argument values. What would be the SET TABLEVALIDATE that is reasonably safe and doesn't slow dbf manipulation?

Any setting, besides 0 will slow access to a table. You've to decide which one is acceptable for you. I would recomend 7 or 15.

>Another question along the line.
>How does SET TABLEVALIDATE 2 (When records are appended (or inserted) and written to disk, the record count is validated) differ from SET TABLEVALIDATE 8 (Check table (.dbf) header before append operation is saved to disk and the header is modified. This affects insert operations)?

With SET TABLEVALIDATE 2 the check is performed after record is added. If record count in the header was -1 before that than corruption will not be detected because it'll be correct after append. SET TABLEVALIDATE 8 performs an aditional check before record is appended.