Hard Drive
                                    and 
                    File Allocation Table [FAT] issues:

It takes 10 to 15 minutes for the hard drive and controller to warm up.  If 
you  power  the computer on and off every day,  eventually  you  will  have 
read/write problems.   Either give the computer at least 15 minutes to warm 
up  before going in the program,  or leave the computer running around  the 
clock,  but  turn off the monitor when you leave at night.   If left on day 
and  night,   the hard drive and mother board will actually run better  and 
last longer.  

Anticipate hard drive problems.  If a bad sector exists on your hard drive, 
the  operating  system  has  no way of avoiding  doing  read/write  to  the 
corrupted area.  Any database program will, by definition, access much data 
during the execution of its main program.   If a bad sector resides on your 
hard  drive,  the operating system may periodically and at random write  to 
that area.   Corrupted data, indexes, and memory files often come from this 
one cause.  

A number of utilities exist that will test every sector on your hard  drive 
for corruption.   Once identified,  those sectors are 'marked' inactive  in 
the directory and will not be accessed anymore.   The best among this group 
is Peter Norton's [TM,  Peter Norton Computing,  Inc.]  DISKTEST.COM.   You 
will  find  this utility when you purchase his Norton Utilities  - Advanced 
Edition  [TM,  Peter Norton Computing,  Inc.].   Any active  database  user 
should use this utility at least every month, if not every week.

Let's say your hard drive is C:.  The syntax to check for bad sectors is:

                           DISKTEST C:

If  the  utility asks you for 'Disk test or File test',  indicate that  you 
want  a  'Disk  test'  by entering a  'D'.    [note  that  DISKTEST.COM  is 
sometimes identified by its' short name of DT.COM.]

For more information on this product, call Peter Norton Computing, Inc.  


                    File Allocation Table [FAT] issues:

Maintain  a  clean  File Allocation Table [FAT]  in  your  directory.   The 
operating  system  is continually opening and closing files.   In  a  large 
database  program,  this  activity  is intensified.   If  you  restart  the 
computer  while the operating system has some files open,  it 'forgets'  to 
close them.   These 'forgotten' file closings can cause a problem when  you 
later  continue  the cycle of opening and closing files.   The  command  to 
'close' these files is:

                                 CHKDSK /F    

Good  directory and FAT hygiene dictates that you do this weekly if you use 
a database program often.