[Dx4win] Accidental deletion of log?

[Jim Reisert AD1C]

Thanks for all the comments.  Here are some follow-ups:

The computer is virus and spyware free.  I think he's running Norton
Internet Security 2009 now.  The computer is not used for E-mail or
general web surfing, only logging and DX cluster, with *occasional*
trips to the Internet.

Microsoft updates are downloaded but not installed automatically.  The
most recent loss of the log file was at least one week before January
2009 "Patch Tuesday".

Acronis backup runs once/day when he turns the computer on.

I wrote a .BAT file which he can click on to backup his DX4WIN data.
It copies all the log files that exist (.DXL, .~XL, .DXB and .~XB) to
a USB drive.  It also uploads the files to an area on my FTP server.
There are 5 backups there, the newest backup replaces the oldest
backup.

When the log is lost, ONLY the .DXL file is lost, not the .~XL file.
My suspicion is that when saving a log file, DX4WIN first moves .DXL
to .~XL, then saves the data from memory into the new .DXL file.
There can be a small window during which the .DXL file doesn't exist,
and if somehow the computer is shut down or DX4WIN stops running
during that window, the log can be lost.  This is only a theory,
however.

It seems like this is an isolated incident, not a widespread problem.
I just wish I knew what the cause was, so we could avoid it!

73 - Jim AD1C

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 10:44 PM, Jim Reisert AD1C
<jjreisert at alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> About once every month or two, my father W1JR loses his log.  The
> W1JR.dxl file just disappears from the SAVE directory.  Does anyone
> else share this experience?
>
> I have never lost my log in the many years I have used the program.
>
> The *only* possible cause I can think of is shutting down the computer
> before the log has been written from memory cache to disk. (I leave my
> computers on all the time, sorry Al Gore.)  It's NOT a slow computer -
> Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, 7200 RPM hard drive, etc.
>
> I'd love to figure out how to prevent this problem, as panic usually
> ensues until I can restore the most recent copy of the log from one of
> the many backup locations (the log is backed up at least three ways,
> not counting the ways DX4WIN backs things up).
>
> Thanks & 73 - Jim AD1C

-- 
Jim Reisert AD1C/Ø, <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.us