KKPro 2.02 locks up when opening CD backup files in W98SE

[Rodney Fry]

I have found annoying problem with CD made backups of KKPro 2.02 database files. I use EasyCD Creator 5 on W98 SE. When burning the files to the CD and loading them onto the hard disc, I then found that KKPro locks with a Progress Updating tree window stopped at 0% and then a red cross warning message "Family table. Cannot modify a read only data set." Whilst I can cancel the red warning message I cannot close the program and it is necessary to press Ctrl+Alt+Del to close KKPro. I could not open KKPro again as it always reverts to the last opened DB file! Eventually the penny dropped that the burning of the CD masks the "archive" attribute of the files and folders and makes them Read Only on transferring to the hard disc for some unknown reason - why it doesn't retain the original state I don't know.

Looking at the attribute of the back up folders and files in Win Explorer and deleting the Read Only property is no good. One has to go into each family database folder, highlight all the files and make a global change to the properties deleting the Read Only tick box.

Can the KKPro be modified so that it will not lock up and allow itself to be shut down normally? I accept that I may then have to go into the folders and reset the properties which is tedious, but unless someone knows how to stop the EasyCD Creator CD burning process causing the change, one will have to live with it? (File/Properties in EasyCD shows the Read Only and Archive boxes ticked, but greyed out so that seems to be the cause?) Windows File Manager (which happily is still in W98) can be set to show the status of files and makes it simple to check, but I don't think it can be done in the W98 Windows Explorer?

[David Barker]

All files transferred from CD to hard disk are read only. Sometimes a problem but it's a fact of life. Or rather, a current fact of computers. It's reasonable that KK should expect to be able to modify it's data files and tell you if it cannot. It's also reasonable that KK will not change the attributes on data files since the user may have intentionally set them and not wish them changed. I don't know any programs using data files that will give you the option to change the attributes of the data files. There may be some but it's not a fault in KK that it does not do this.

To save resetting all your data files, one way is to first zip them all into one zip file and then copy this zip file to CD. When you restore, the zip file will have a read only attribute, which doesn't make a lot of difference to anything unless you try to change it, but all the contained data files, when you unzip, will have their original attributes.

Best regards

David Barker

[Rodney Fry]

Thanks for the comment - hadn't occurred to me to "zip" them - I'll try to remember to do so in future. No, I didn't expect KKPro to re-assign the attribute, but I would have liked it not to lock the application by looking at an attribute it can't handle (which it seems it must do to give the message) and exit from the program with an appropriate message and remove the file from the start up list internally . I was just wondering if it could be designed to bypass the problem when detected and not try to open the same database files when the application was opened again - that was all.