In a message dated 11/8/99 11:47:40 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< But if you choose this programme, you
have to know that you should make regularly archive backups of your work.>>
You should do this with *every* program, actually, especially when upgrading
your operating system (going from Windows '95 to '98, Mac OS 7 to 8, etc.).
The software products developed by smaller companies (this includes all of
the QDA software) don't have the benefit of the resources the larger
companies can put into testing and re-testing the reliability of the software
on various platforms and computer configurations.
We've only had one case where a user lost *all* data with HyperRESEARCH 1.65
(a system crash apparently caused an "empty" study file to be written over
the original study file) and there were no backups to fall back on. We've had
a dozen or so incidences (over the course of several years, with a pool of
1000+ regular users) where a HyperRESEARCH study file has become "corrupted"
-- some of the information incomplete, or written out to the file in the
incorrect order, rendering it meaningless to HyeprRESEARCH. In the majority
of these cases we've been able to recover all of the data.
HyperRESEARCH 2.0, having been re-written from the ground up, may very well
eliminate these occasional (infrequent but nevertheless annoying!)
"corruption" problems. There were no reports of corrupted study files in the
year-long betatesting.
But we still recommend, *strongly,* that our users keep daily backups of
their data. Ideally, save the files to floppy disks with names that include
the date in the name, so they end up with more than one backup (in a few
cases a HyperRESEARCH 1.65 study was actually "corrupted" previously and
additional work with it just further jumbled the data up -- when this happens
the previous day's backup may still have the problem present).
Best regards,
Ann Dupuis
ResearchWare, Inc.
[log in to unmask]
http://www.researchware.com
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|