I/O Error in UserPref.Dat

[Aziz]

Hi,

My office is running on a Windows 2000 server administered network with clients running on Windows 98, ME and 2000 Professional, all connected via a network switch device using TCP/IP. We are using Peachtree Complete Accounting Software version9.

The company files are shared on the server in a shared folder mapped as a drive on all clients.

Problem Description:

So far, it is observed that the at least twice a week, we would receive error messages indicating errors in either of the following files : company.dat, jrnlrow.dat or UserPref.dat.

Sometimes errors would be reported upon an attempt to change the accounting period.

I believe that the only way to solve the problem is to restore the latest backup available. As such I have always done that but it seems that the problem would re-occur just a few days later.

I have downloaded the latest update for version 9 from Peachtree's main site. The problem still persisted.

Does anyone know of a permanent solution to eliminate this problem? Please share/comment.

[Robert Walraven]

If you reboot all systems after an error occurs, is the error repeatable? That is, is it really a corruption of the Peachtree data or just a temporary problem reading the data?

In either case the problem is almost certainly your hardware. Some things that are known to cause data corruption:

1. Mismatched brands of network cards.

2. Crimped network cables.

3. Flaky network switch.

4. Running ME on your clients.

5. Badly fragmented server.

6. Running other applications on 98 and ME that step on your data.

The problems may be caused by just one of your clients. I'd recommend taking one system at a time off-line for a few days to see if the corruptions go away.

[Aziz]

Hi Robert,

Thank you for your reply.

FYI:

The problem persisted even after a reboot of the server and clients. That was why I decided to restore the latest backup everytime I faced such problems.

I am very keen to discover the root of the problem and will try out your other suggestion. I'll let you know as soon as I've had it confirmed.