"Months of Computer Records Lost"

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Another story from the Danish press. I believe the update was due to Y2K.

MONTHS OF OF COMPUTER RECORDS LOST: A programming error during a computer update for Vamdrup Town Council means that the records backup system has failed, and copies have not been kept of electronic transactions, for the past year. It's as if the town hall had burnt down, says the council's head of administration.

A human programming error has resulted in a computer glitch for Vamdrup Town Council, reported TV-South last night. For 14 months the Council's records backup system has not been keeping copies of transactions. Social Welfare is especially badly hit. Social workers can no longer find out why, in each case, social security benefits have been given or refused. For example, sickness benefits, home insurance, pensions. "It's as if, in the old days, the town hall had just burnt down", said the head of administration, Benny Thomsen, to the TV station.

The blunder happpened while a computer firm was updating the Council's system last summer ('98'). According to the admin. chief, a programmer made an error when he was transferring the setup for journal-copying to the new system. In consequence, part of the administration work has not been saved.

The Council has since been attempting to recreate the data on pending cases. The Council has - as the law requires - kept the paper documents that have gone in and out. So their employees can search the letter archive and see that " N.N. was promised home insurance on this or that day". But why N.N. should have the money is now - probably - only to be found in the case-worker's own memory.

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), December 08, 1999

Answers

Duh! There's a thing called the backup tape. I know of no object (on an AS/400, at least) that cannot be saved by a savlib command. I always do a savlib to a tape prior to conversion or major software change. That's just common sense.

The tape stays with me for at least a year.

-- Tim the Y2K nut (tmiley@yakko.cs.wmich.edu), December 08, 1999.


You don't need to do tape back-ups, MIS types have saved your dept. money because you don't need the extra equipment. Look computers are so realiable you just need mirrored hard drive or a copy on the same RAID. Computers always work. The stock market always goes up.

-- Squid (Itsdark@down.here), December 08, 1999.

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