Datapath

[mikePeachy]

Hello,

I was reading one of the posts regarding the "Unable to open Status.dat" error message the other day. A staff person in our office is receiving that error.

The post I was reading said to make sure that the Datapath was set to Peachw otherwise risk running into massive problems. I checked the datapath on our machines and it was set to
Y:\Peachw\data (network drive). :(

What sort of massive problems can occur? I think the reason the datapath was set to Peachw\data is that someone created some custom forms and they are in the data subfolder. Should I just move these or is there some way from within Peachtree 8.0 to "map" to these custom forms?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Mike

[TheWolf]

Move those forms to the Peachw folder. The only files that should be in the Data folder are faclass.dat, famethod.dat and periods.dat. Once you have everything else moved into the Peachw folder change your datapath to remove the data folder from it. After you change the ini file and you still get the error then try reinstalling from that machine (make sure to run any updates you have after reinstall).

[Jacky Tse]

I can't understand what does it mean for "massive problem..." We and many of our clients have set the datapath to a sharefolder in the network, without problems.

The advantage is share forms and also all users default to the same shared data for quick company browsing when open company.

For the "Unable to open Status.dat" error, check whether the status.dat file exists at the datapath set in the Peachtree's ini file. Very often it's the loss of a mapped drive that causes the trouble. Otherwise, may be the network is not stable.

One disadvantage I can think of setting the datapath to a shared folder is, when you uninstall Peachtree from one of the stations, some important common data files will be removed ( but not company data ), causing others can't access Peachtree. Another danger is, if you keep different versions of Peachtree and all set datapath to the same place, these common files will be overrided and so Peachtree can't start.

[dringstrom]

I previously wrote of massive problems caused by an invalid data path. I had a client that had their data path set to G:\ in their .INI file. This meant that the shared folder was mapped *inside* the PEACHW folder on the network.

They were using a 100Mb+ Peachtree company that seemed to corrupt itself at least once a week, i.e. file system errors in the JOURNAL.DAT and other files. The Peachtree company was even rebuilt from scratch once. Even that didn't resolve the ongoing problems.

This was on a Windows NT network with 3 to 4 Peachtree users every day. This client called Peachtree numerous times, had his network guy run a sniffer, etc. He tried everything, including a new switch and all new cabling. I had been troubleshooting this by phone in conjunction with his CPA. After a couple months of unresolved propblems, I made a site visit, and noticed the incorrect data path. I made the subtle change of remapping the network drives to be outside the PEACHW folder on the server, and changed the data path to G:\PEACHW. Instantly, all of the recurring data corruption problems vanished.

I subsequently confirmed this with a high level Peachtree suppport technician. As a result, one of the first questions Peachtree now asks users calling in about network issues is to confirm their data path and drive mapping.

The moral of the story seems to be that the software really wants to see PEACHW in the datapath. This occurred with Peachtree 8.0. I expect that since the underlying database engine doesn't seem to have changed, this requirement carries forward to the subsequent two releases. So, based on my experience, I always double-check that one's data path is set to x:\PEACHW, where x: is the drive where the data resides.

[dringstrom]

Originally posted by Jacky Tse
One disadvantage I can think of setting the datapath to a shared folder is, when you uninstall Peachtree from one of the stations, some important common data files will be removed ( but not company data ), causing others can't access Peachtree. Another danger is, if you keep different versions of Peachtree and all set datapath to the same place, these common files will be overrided and so Peachtree can't start. [/B]

Jacky,

To get around this, I always do a custom install to direct Peachtree locally to C:\PEACHW , then manually change the data path to the server location, e.g. G:\PEACHW. This prevents Peachtree from tinkering with the common files on the server and doing things like dumping unused check and invoice forms that I'd previously deleted back onto the server. Similarly, if you change the data path back to C:\PEACHW before you uninstall on a machine, you can then prevent it from deleting the common files.

Hope this helps,

David