I, too, believed that I had full copies of Guide folders for this occasion because I have experienced it rarely. Late at night I am too tired to fault-find anything. I shall prepare duplicate folders in future. It is utterly wierd though seeing these bizare settings that do not relate to equipment that I have!

I started with Guide-2 - a long time ago.......... but have not recently upgraded because money is getting tighter. I dread to think what I'll do when my RCX fails.

Lawrence

--- In guide-user@yahoogroups.com, "P. Clay Sherrod" <drclay@...> wrote:
>
> Hello Lawrence....
> Welcome to the middle-of-the-night mystery club. This happens to me all too
> frequently for no apparent reason, the most recent just two nights ago where
> Guide came up with a warning message after using it for two hours and locked up
> the telescope computers completely. I actually had to uninstall Guide, get rid
> of all the files and links and then reinstall and overlay all my backup Guide
> files in order to get back to proper operation.
>
> It wiped out my dome sync, the telescope operation and of course any use of
> Guide at all. This happens without warning at least 2-3 times each year and it
> is a real pain to go through in the middle of the night. I keep a backup of all
> pertinent folders to copy and paste into the NEW Guide after it is installed to
> make things transition quickly.
>
> I have no idea at all why this happens. I am one of the original Guide users
> from over a decade ago, and this has happened at the most inopportune times.
> As many folks have told me: "You must really love that program to put up with
> that".......and I do, or I would not.
>
> Dr. Clay
> _____
> Arkansas Sky Observatories
> MPC H45 - Petit Jean Mountain South
> MPC H41 - Petit Jean Mountain
> MPC H43 - Conway West
> http://www.arksky.org/
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Lawrence" <lawrence@...>
> To: <guide-user@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2012 7:56 AM
> Subject: [guide-user] Mysteries.....
>
>
> >I have been using Guide(-8) without any problems other than the minor
> > hiccups regarding quasar display recently discussed. I have had an
> > amazing event happen today. Only yesterday evening I was checking on
> > galaxy location etc as usual, and there were no problems.
> >
> > This morning I started the program as usual - but it told me Guide was
> > missing from the CD-drive.... After some further checks I copied
> > guide.dat and startup from my observatory computer, only to find that
> > masses of settings have been changed beyond recognition! The toolbars
> > had disappeared so I re-instated them. The CCD display was now reading
> > for a different focal length scope (!) and a different CCD camera (!)
> > and different settings as well.
> >
> > The grids came on set to 1 minute (I have grids off but set to 1 hour!)
> > etc etc.
> >
> > I have no idea how this might have happened. I decided to go to my last
> > computer backup (external drive) only to find that it appears to be an
> > incremental backup and I cannot locate the original guide folder
> > (grrrr). It may take some time to reinstate all the settings but I would
> > love to know what actually caused this (overnight while the laptop was
> > off!).
> >
> > One thought has occurred to me; the last event last night was a crash
> > with a different program. Hmmmmm.
> >
> > Lawrence
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send an empty email to:
> > guide-user-unsubscribe@...! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
>