Actinic won't load, just crunches hard disk!

[GreyKnight]

Hi all

I seem to have terrible trouble with my Actinic Developer Everytime I leave it unused for a couple of days when I come back it won't start until I use MS Access to repair and compact the database.

Then today, Actinic won't start at all! The Actinic Developer screen appears and then it just stays there while the hard disk crinches away loudly and never stops. It's been doing this for ten minutes now, still with the start up screen displayed

I have to use task manager to shut the program down, however even after a reboot the same thing happens. I have just downloaded the latest patch and applied it, however this hasn't fixed the problem.

Is it just me or is Actinic really REALLY unstable!

[GreyKnight]

Okay, an update to this: After leaving the computer for 15 minutes it finally got into Actinic, however every click of the mouse on any button, tab etc results in a huge amount of disk crunching before the screen refreshes (we're talking 1 minute + for even the smallest action).

Something isn't right here - any ideas folks?

[jxm28788]

depends on the sound the hard disk is making - is it a thrashing sound or does it have a repeating pattern to it?

If the sound has a repeating pattern then it sounds like a hardware problem on your disk . If you only get the problem in actinic it could be because the large MDB file is accross the dodgy part of the disk. When the screen freezes - if the cursor stops moving then after a loooong pause suddenly jumps and starts moving again you are almost certainly looking at a hardware level problem.

If it is that and it was me I would take backups of everything imediately, problems like that tend to turn into complete disk failures in my experience! Start with the most important stuff first in case it fails while your backing up.

if I'm wrong, then hey, at least you'll have an upto date backup and a less important problem to worry about!

[jxm28788]

BTW : the above reply was my opinion only, so if in doubt consult a professional disk recovery company for advice, i'm not responsible for any loss of data to your disk should you choose to implement my suggestions, yada yada yada...

[mjohn]

I had exactly these issues (not with Actinic but with another program) turned out to be a hard disc on its way out.

I WOULD BACK UP THE SITE IMMEDIATELY !

I would ALSO get another hard disc and copy the contents across USING Norton ghost ( DOS version) then if it is you can just set this up as a master and be back up and running very quickly.

If and when you are sorted, I would always run a second disc as a back up disc and ghost the contents of the first disc over to the secon as a backup routine.

Rgds

MJ

[jxm28788]

Once you've resolved this issue, I would advise you to move to a RAID-1 (disk mirroring) solution. It is by far the fastest and most effective form of backup if one disk suddenly fails (no rebuilding, no copying, no re-installing, no faffing about).

With the price of hard disks these days compared to the time and effort it takes to recover from regular backup (or no backup!) you'd have to be crazy or very poor not too!

Always, keep an offsite tape backup of your data as well - RAID 1 isn't much use if your house burns down...

[GreyKnight]

Hmm, well I'd be surprised if it was hard disk failure. The drive "sounds" normal and the computer is otherwise totally stable and other programs run fine. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Actinic and I have the same problems

I'll have to install on a different PC and see if I can work from there. I have backups on th server so I shouldn't have to do too much work to retreive them...

[jxm28788]

how big is the .mdb file, and if big have you defragmented the disk? Has it ever worked, or is it just recently you are getting problems?

[mjohn]

Have you tried running scandisc ?

[GreyKnight]

Yeah I've run scandisk to no effect. The mdb file is about 20Mb, but having said that I have uninstalled everything and reinstalled Actinic from scratch and it does the same thing even when it just has the default demo site active! It just crunches the hard disk when you try and start the program and takes ages to do anything. I've even tried installing under a new folder name again to no effect.

I've put Actinic on another PC now and imported my sites and it works fine

I'd still rather have it working on my desktop PC though...

[mjohn]

My monies still on a hard disc on its way out, funny enough the program which would not run for us was access !

mj