Hello All,

Sorry that this has to be my first post, but this is a subject that we
are all too familiar with.

Our PC was purchased to Finnigan specs at the time of purchase of our
DeltaPlus. We have the disk partitioned with C: being about 1 gig and
used exclusively for Real32/Isodat. Over the past 30 months, we have run
at least 4 different versions of Isodat 6.x and 7.x (currently on 7.2).
Every one of these has had some sort of problem with running sequences
and occasionally even single acquisitions. At times, more than 90% of
our acquisitions have had each of the various problems that you are all
talking about and have resulted in no usable data. We long since gave up
any hope of trying to recover data and no longer even attempt to log the
messages... I think we've seen them all.

One of the things that we have noticed is that methods or sequences that
once worked and are re-used at a later date may no longer run correctly.
Further, I recall hearing a comment that the ALT-T command can cause
Real32 or Isodat to lose track of clusters.

However:

There are some solutions to the problems (in order of decreasing ease,
but increasing permanence):

1) Do not try to simultaneously acquire and perform any other task. We
move all data quickly to another system for manipulation and workup.

2) Try creating new methods and/or sequences from scratch. Even if a
method/sequence printout looks ok, it can have hidden flaws that are
apparently transferred if you try to clone it as a starter for a new
method.

3) Use the isobase utility to archive your data frequently; do not allow
the number of files to build up beyond more than a day or two's work.
After archiving, delete all files from the current isobase, manually
clear out any remaining junk in c:gcdata, make a new data base (don't
just re-organize). Also, our principal operator has found that booting
to MS-DOS and doing a scan-disk and defrag after the above will help
some.

4) After a while, even with the above, you simply have to re-load the
software. All of the software. From scratch. No shortcuts. We go so far
as to reformat that partition, re-load MS-DOS, Real32 and Isodat. On the
average, I'd guess that we're doing this every 6 to 10 weeks. On
occasion, we've had to do this repeatedly to get everything working...
sometimes the fresh installs don't work.

5) Prevail upon Finnigan to put the manpower needed into the job of
getting IsodatNT finished!

Good Luck!