Replies

Hans, many thanks.

A first look at the site was a turn off – “Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills” !!! Never managed scripting (hair too thin & grey – will stick with Fortran, albeit f95 now). Did not even know where to start to add a “script” that included “Field: …”.

Later I played a bit with a query & realised that no scripting was required – just the Build tool to add in the Format spec & all worked a treat. Only one minor mod from the site example (“##0.0000” to “0.00###”). They would serve their customers better if they removed the ” .. macro, coding, …” line. Even better, if they would fix the problem.

In the interim, I discovered an alternative, very simple solution. After all these years!!! Just imported the .mdb into my GIS program (Manifold) & re-exported as csv. No truncation issues – not even format issues. A couple of minutes & it was done.

Very puzzling that the field format set via the field properties is not respected during export to csv, while the alternative above is. Seems a fundamental flaw. The mind boggles as to the thinking behind rounding everything to 2dp, and especially that the FLAW has not been fixed after all these years (sorry, this does NOT qualify as a feature). Bet this has cost some users big bucks – well beyond the not insignificant time I have lost over several years trying to circumvent the problem or find a solution.

Many thanks for the pointer
David

Edited by Bigaldoc to add URL code.[/i] Please see the Quick Guide or 1-Click TagPanel.[/size]

Thanks to both re the TI comments. Was the Ghost you tried v9.0 or an earlier version?

Main complaints about TI seem to be around customer support, network issues?, no RAID support?, some “Secure Zone” issues, & backup disk errors – eg.
http://www.pcmag.com/member_ratings/0,1757…a=126133,00.asp%5B/url%5D & http://reviews.cnet.com/Acronis_True_Image…21.html?tag=box%5B/url%5D

Ofcourse, there are also some very positive comments, but the network issue concerned me.

Also http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,117255,00.asp%5B/url%5D – “Not for general backups”.

Most magazine reviews are positive though ( http://www.siliconpopculture.com/reviews_c…nts/55_0_2_0_C/%5B/url%5D )

David

Edited by Bigaldoc to add URL code.[/i] Please see the Quick Guide or 1-Click TagPanel.[/size]

Thanks to both re the TI comments. Was the Ghost you tried v9.0 or an earlier version?

Main complaints about TI seem to be around customer support, network issues?, no RAID support?, some “Secure Zone” issues, & backup disk errors – eg.
http://www.pcmag.com/member_ratings/0,1757…a=126133,00.asp%5B/url%5D & http://reviews.cnet.com/Acronis_True_Image…21.html?tag=box%5B/url%5D

Ofcourse, there are also some very positive comments, but the network issue concerned me.

Also http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,117255,00.asp%5B/url%5D – “Not for general backups”.

Most magazine reviews are positive though ( http://www.siliconpopculture.com/reviews_c…nts/55_0_2_0_C/%5B/url%5D )

David

Thanks for the quick responses

Two (or possibly 3) targets

1. HD on a networked (peer) PC for scheduled (weekly?) incremental backups – perhaps monthly full backup(?).
2. Less frequent (well maybe monthly ?) probably selective backs to DVD RW (on my PC)
3. Maybe also to a third HD on my PC

I have 2 – 60GB HD’s (near full), plus a new 160GB about to be installed

For 1 &/or 3, I am attracted to the idea of a standalone “networked disk” (if such can be had), as I have a network connection to a detached workshop / rumpus. Something that can be left unattended for long periods, preferably “wake on lan”). I like the idea of having “off-site” backup, but the (imagined?) cost has put me off seriously looking at this option.

For 2, the intention is to provide “backup of the backup” / longer term & especially portable backup that I can hold “off-site” (see above). I already do this to some extent manually, but I am not highly disciplined & it is somewhat irregular. Also, the manual backups are primarily targeted at data relating to projects I have recently worked on, plus (some?) critical “system” files (mainly stuff from Doc & Settings, incl .pst etc, but not registry ones – out of comfort zone). In addition I do have more permanent (CD or DVD R) backups of “fixed data” (eg GIS related such as DEMs & orthophotos, as well as completed projects) that mostly do not change over long periods, but which would be a pain to have to “re- acquire”.

I do not see DVD as a sole solution, as I have 120GD of HD space near full (+ the new 160HD waiting to be filled ). I presume any sensible “full backup” would be multiple DVD’s, which necessarily would involve a fair bit of intervention. I need a more automated process. There is a lot of stuff that does not need to be backed up (even a directory or three on c: drive – hence the interest in “selective” backup). But I still would like the option to do a full backup (disk clone?).

I do not have a “system” back-up that would allow me to reinstate my c: drive. I used to consider that I could always reinstall programs if worst came to worst, but I am becoming increasingly conscious of the amount of time that could involve. One recent (new) program installation took multiple hours & then there are all those multiple Windows & Office updates that would have to be attended to.

BTW this is a “work from home”, engineering consultancy / software development situation (specific use engineering programs – not mass use)

David

Thanks for the quick responses

Two (or possibly 3) targets

1. HD on a networked (peer) PC for scheduled (weekly?) incremental backups – perhaps monthly full backup(?).
2. Less frequent (well maybe monthly ?) probably selective backs to DVD RW (on my PC)
3. Maybe also to a third HD on my PC

I have 2 – 60GB HD’s (near full), plus a new 160GB about to be installed

For 1 &/or 3, I am attracted to the idea of a standalone “networked disk” (if such can be had), as I have a network connection to a detached workshop / rumpus. Something that can be left unattended for long periods, preferably “wake on lan”). I like the idea of having “off-site” backup, but the (imagined?) cost has put me off seriously looking at this option.

For 2, the intention is to provide “backup of the backup” / longer term & especially portable backup that I can hold “off-site” (see above). I already do this to some extent manually, but I am not highly disciplined & it is somewhat irregular. Also, the manual backups are primarily targeted at data relating to projects I have recently worked on, plus (some?) critical “system” files (mainly stuff from Doc & Settings, incl .pst etc, but not registry ones – out of comfort zone). In addition I do have more permanent (CD or DVD R) backups of “fixed data” (eg GIS related such as DEMs & orthophotos, as well as completed projects) that mostly do not change over long periods, but which would be a pain to have to “re- acquire”.

I do not see DVD as a sole solution, as I have 120GD of HD space near full (+ the new 160HD waiting to be filled ). I presume any sensible “full backup” would be multiple DVD’s, which necessarily would involve a fair bit of intervention. I need a more automated process. There is a lot of stuff that does not need to be backed up (even a directory or three on c: drive – hence the interest in “selective” backup). But I still would like the option to do a full backup (disk clone?).

I do not have a “system” back-up that would allow me to reinstate my c: drive. I used to consider that I could always reinstall programs if worst came to worst, but I am becoming increasingly conscious of the amount of time that could involve. One recent (new) program installation took multiple hours & then there are all those multiple Windows & Office updates that would have to be attended to.

BTW this is a “work from home”, engineering consultancy / software development situation (specific use engineering programs – not mass use)

David

Problem was “fixed” by swapping the drive over to IDE4. Unfortunately, the original problem (not able to open drive Properties) has returned.

We now suspect that one of the programs on the affected disk is causing the problem – most likely one for copying CD images an HD!

David

Problem was “fixed” by swapping the drive over to IDE4. Unfortunately, the original problem (not able to open drive Properties) has returned.

We now suspect that one of the programs on the affected disk is causing the problem – most likely one for copying CD images an HD!

David

Not in Standard CMOS settings – only IDE1&2 (Master & Slave) show there. Where do you find IDE3&4 in BIOS?

David

Not in Standard CMOS settings – only IDE1&2 (Master & Slave) show there. Where do you find IDE3&4 in BIOS?

David

A further result – since I am now monitoring the situation.

Today I have taken care to keep the number of workbooks open to a minimum. Despite this, the problems have persisted, even with only two small workbooks open (183kB & 2.3MB respectively). Even went to the extent of rebooting, opening only the two workbooks & leaving Outlook closed. Still problems persist.

One point I forgot to mention yesterday, was that despite say 5 workbooks open (two around the 30MB mark), Excel remains responsive (other than the lock-ups); ie. no noticeable slowdown – just as responsive as when I have only one small workbook open (other than things like open & save etc, which obviously take extra time with multiple MB’s involved. Also sometimes RE-applying an Autofilter can bog down on a big spreadsheet). Which is another reason I have never considered that Excel was struggling.

Of course I do have the usual things running in background – AVG, WinZip Quick Pick, Quicktime, Creative Taskbar (ex Audigy), Winamp Agent, Network & cable modem NICs, etc. Also – I just noticed InterVideo WinCinema Manager that I do not recall putting there! (though I have played the occasional DVD on the PC). Some of the media stuff I am happy to dump (if I work out how to).

Otherwise the PC is fairly clean. I do not play games on it (though my children have played one or two on rare occasions – their own PC’s are better spec’d for games), or visit dubious sites (if I can avoid them). I checked the PC with Spybot only a few days ago. Only thing that it objects to is a few Creative “NewsUpdate” Registry Keys (presumably ex Audigy) that Spybot considers “Adware/possibly Spyware”. I doubt they are causing any problems or pose any threats (Windows Media Player, which I do occasionally use, is probably a bigger “issue”!).

David

I cut the colour depth back to 16 bit from 32 bit but it made no difference (nor did changing the mouse – as per other post). Not keen to cut colour depth further, nor to cut resolution (Viewsonic P95f would be wasted). As far as I am aware, Excel is the only program I have this problem with.

Behaviour is “intermittent”. Went a couple of days with few if any problems. But today it has been quite a pain – multiple lock-ups.

After several dozen lock-ups today, I realised that I was pushing Excel harder than I had been over the last few days. I had 5 workbooks open – three of them around the 7MB mark, but the other two coming in at 27MB & 33MB (have them all open as I am cutting & pasting between them). Plus Outlook and a text editor open. Also at times IE & one or two other programs – none being actively used at the same time as Excel though (& lock-ups were still occurring when these other programs were not open).

Is this an excessive load to place on Excel? I have quite a number of workbooks of up to 30MB & larger (consequence of quite a bit of data + a few pivot tables). Have been working with workbooks of that size for several years, so it had not occurred to me that the load on Excel may be causing the problems. Also the problem completely disappears (if only briefly , sometimes) if I minimise then restore Excel (which scarely seems likely to affect the load placed on the system).

I would be interested to hear whether 30MB workbooks are considered unusually large or not. Do others work with workbooks this size or bigger? Would be a pain for to have cut them down further – have already split the original data in 3.

FWIW I checked the system performance in the system monitor. CPU usage was only running at c. 17% & PageFile usage was about 227MB (cf. 0.5GB physical ram). Both figures were pretty stable – did not appear to change when a lock-up occurred. Minimising & restoring Excel had not apparent effect on either CPU or PF usage.

Currently PF usage is running at 165MB without Excel open – not all that much less (OL + Text editor + IE open).

Be interested in any further comments on this.

David

Have just tried a near new MS mouse & had exactly the same problems.

See my other post today for further details.

Thanks for the suggestion.

David

A good point – unfortunately I am not an expert on video settings etc, & am not certain what I should look for. PC is now about 18 months old, so some parts are getting a bit “dated”.

Video card is a GF2 MX400. (Cardex MX400 Twinview VIVIO Golden Sample 32MB)

Details of drivers etc as per attached

Many thanks
David

Not specific to any one workbook.

Hardware (mouse) could be the problem, except I am fairly certain I had these (intermittent) lockups when still using Excel97. That means on a completely different PC (including mouse), since I upgraded to OfficeXP / WinXP (from 97/ 98SE) at the time I bought my current PC. Except, I just remembered while writing this, that I did get the mouse a few months before the new PC!

Perhaps I should give the “different mouse” idea a shot. I wonder which of my PC addicted teenagers can be convinced to swap mice with me for a couple of months? Hmm, on second thoughts it might be easier just to go buy a new one now.

David

No.

I just changed the Association to Photoshop & it opens in Photoshop from both Windows Explorer and from the Hyperlink in Excel (2002).

I have never noticed the behaviour described by HansV. On my system (very similar to his), files open in their associated program when accessed from Windows Explorer.

AFAIK I do not have MS Photo Editor. Is this a separate program? Not that I want it. Quite happy with Photoshop for editting & with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer for quick viewing. The PhotoDeluxe thing is an anomaly, reflecting the fact that I rarely if ever bother with BMP files. The program came with my scanner & grabbed the extensions when it was installed.

David