The effect of network servers and common drives on DB

[corai]

Hi All,

I've been designing my Access DB on a common drive (my reasoning is that this drive is backed up automatically every 24 hrs). Recently one of our IT guys was making some changes to our server and this coincided with certain queries, which were previously working, producing errors.

This may just be a coincidence as I made a few other changes to the DB in this period, but was just wondering whether changes to the network could have an effect on an access database. If so I may consider building the database on my personal drive and backing it up automatically.

Regards,

Corin

 

[Mr. B]

I would never do development with the file on a network drive. My reasoning is simple. Network connections can and will ofter fail. If this happens while I am developing, I could loose a lot of work.

During development, save often. If you are making serious changes, backup often.

I always have the development file on a local drive but I also have a development folder on a network drive that is backed up nightly by IT. The network folder has at least the two latest version of my development file.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The question about whether a network change will affect a query depends on the query.

For instance, if you have a split front-end/back-end situation and the network change happens to change the path to the back-end, you have to be sure to update the linked table manager with the new connection information. Even if the change is (apparently) invisible but alters, say, the file protections on an intermediate folder in a more complex path, that can hit you hard.

I NEVER develop on a network drive. My production system HAS to be shared on a network drive, but we are working on creating a dedicated server that doesn't require our network to leave the site to make its connection. Before anyone asks, I work with the U.S. Government and things are NEVER as simple as you think they should be.