I have a customer with a database of appr. 5 Giga, split in 3 files. Not having worked much (yet) with large databases, I’ve run into a problem with copying the databasefiles to another disk - subsequently not being able to open the files, due to the paths of each file being written, if I understand correctly, within the first file. Can I change the file-names within that file, or should I handle the problem in another manner.
When you open the database (the copy) you will have to specify all database parts. Eg.: server database=c:\db1.fdb+d:\db2.fdb+e:\db3.fdb /Soren
Doesn’t work (the one about specifying the databasename when starting the server). At least, when I have tried, I get an errormessage regarding the syntax of the line (I should mention that the customer is working on version 2.00C, I do not know if these things were changed with 2.60). We have trie to enter all sorts of assisting characters (’,",etc), with no luck. The filenames of the databasefiles is written in system-table 2000000010, which I guess resides in the first file. So, when opening that file, it expects all the database-files to have exactly the names listed in that table. So what is neede is some tool for changing the database-name. It could be of great use. Imagine a database of 20 Gbytes, split in 10 files - over an array of disks (lets just say some on disk C, some on D and a couple on E). To test an upgrade, you want to make a copy of the files, but are not able to in any practical manner, give the new 10 database-files the exact same names as they had before. To do this today you have to: 1: Make backup of the database. 2: Create new database with 20 G’s (10 files) 3: Import backup. This takes a heck of a time, because it will have to recreate keys and so on. Let’s just say one day to be very optimistic. 4: You’re running. Now, with a small tool for changing the names in the table, you could do the following: 1: Copy the 10 files to their new destinations. 2: Re-engineer the first database-file, to hold the correct names. 3: Be up and running ! I can imagine, that some problems could arise with the versioning, but nothing that a real wizard cannot handle (I think). - Morten
I have had a similar problem. There is a maximum lenght of the targetline (on the shortcut property) that can course the problem. I solved the problem by changing the names (short names) of the files a put them in c:.
Hi Morten,
you can change the filesnames this way:
1. Shut down your server
2. Always make a backup for safety 
3. Change the filenames with your explorer
4. Start the database locally with a client:
fin database=“path+filename1”+“path+filename2”+… 5. Stop the Client
6. Now you can start your server again with
server database=“path+filename1”
The info, where the next databasepart is stored, and what name it has, is placed inside the databaseparts. You can change this only by accessing the datebase locally (without server). There you can add all paths and filenames as a starting-parameter. Starting the server you can only use the first databasepart as a parameter. Have fun