Article ID: 264867 - Last Review: January 28, 2005 - Revision: 3.6

Possible causes of data corruption in Visual FoxPro

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This article was previously published under Q264867

SUMMARY

This article lists the possible causes of data corruption in Visual FoxPro. The article also includes some tools for fixing data corruption.

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Although this is by no means a complete list of every possible cause of corruption, it is meant to be a starting point for troubleshooting data corruption problems in Visual FoxPro.

Possible causes for data corruption are:

Abnormal termination of the application while manipulating data. This would include loss of power, voltage spikes, internal consistency errors, page faults, and fatal exception errors.
Substandard or faulty network components: Because FoxPro handles data so quickly, it can stress the network. These components may include network drivers, network interface cards, cabling, hubs, and switches.
Data storage components: Storage devices should be checked regularly for errors and fragmentation.
File locking issues: If one user performs an action that results in a table's memo file being locked, and a second user attempts to open the same table and access the memo field information, the second user may open the memo file with an incorrect blocksize, resulting in memo file corruption. See the "References" section in this article for details.
Conflicting software: Software such as Antivirus packages, screen savers, and terminate-and-stay-resident applications (TSRs) can cause conflicts with Visual FoxPro that could cause data corruption.
Incompatible video drivers: Certain video drivers can cause FoxPro to become unstable and terminate abnormally. See the "References" section in this article for more details.
Network Settings and Service Packs: Make sure that your servers are running the latest service packs, check client settings (such as caching), and even try switching network client drivers (such as from the Novell Netware client to the Microsoft client for Netware).

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REFERENCES

For additional information on the causes of corruption, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

195405 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/195405/ ) FIX: Corrupt record added in grid using view with default value

95232 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/95232/ ) PRB: Video card causes GP faults or display problems

195623 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/195623/ ) FIX: Index corruption when table is used in read-only mode

164385 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/164385/ ) BUG: Large result sets may become corrupted in VFP

For additional information about specific methods for fixing corruption, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

193952 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/193952/ ) How to troubleshoot to resolve suspected corruption

168762 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/168762/ ) How to fix Index corruption at run time with Visual FoxPro

189458 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/189458/EN-US/ ) INFO: Third Party Utility Repairs FoxPro Record and Memo Data

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