At 07:34 AM 26-09-02 +0100, you wrote:

>A real beginner question but why is it not ok to backup a Firebird database
>by just making a copy of the database file?
>
>It is okay isn't it if no-one is logged in?

It is ok if the database is shut down - not the same thing.

Why is it not OK to rely on a file-copy as a backup? Because file-copying
utilities lock the sectors of the disk they are copying which prevents the
DB engine from completing writes to the disk structure within its database
files; or, if writes are possible, causes the image of the file to be
different at completion of the file-copy that it was when that sector of
disk was copied. The result is that the saved file image is corrupt; and
having the database active when a file-copy utility is operating on it one
of the few known, tried and tested (!) ways to corrupt a Firebird database.

>How do you schedule the Firebird backup? Can you do it with IB Console? I'm
>using Firebird 0.94 (also, someone tell me why I should upgrade to Firebird
>1, which has problems on Windows 98 and doesn't work with IB Console).

0.94 was a beta. Firebird 1 is a full release. The difference is a few
hundred bug-fixes. There are better desktop admin tools around than
IBConsole. You could, for example, go to the Contributors' page of
www.ibobjects.com and get a link to Sr Mengoni's IBOConsolel; or download
IB_SQL; or look in the Tools listings at www.ibphoenix.com

There are IB Backup scheduler utilities around. A good place to start
looking would be the Contributed Downloads pages at www.ibphoenix.com

As for Win98 problems - what are they? - other than the usual ones
associated with trying to run Fb/IB on a non-server OS?

heLen