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Originally Posted by EPMike
Sure, there are pros and cons to every format and method. Corruption or other issues can happen with any system...it's not just dependent on the file format. With most of the contemporary email clients using hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands of files to store information, that exponentially raises the possibilities of single files getting corrupted.
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That's true, but the impact of such a corruption is very likely to be much smaller.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EPMike
If it's a system or index file, you could be facing a massive mess (and potential loss of considerable volumes of data).
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Usually email systems have (slow) processes which will rebuild index files by trawling through the contents of the data files.
It'd be unusual to have a "system" file that couldn't be fixed by a reinstall of the application itself.
Corruption is also (IME) more likely to happen when the files stored in each folder are compressed, especially if that's done in some proprietary-application way.
These days I'd rather store uncompressed data, not least because external file search utilities can search them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EPMike
And a system that has to manage that many files and locations has its own disadvantages and potentials for problems built in that a single file system doesn't.
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Does it? Usually such systems have complete sets of files per user-defined account or user-defined folder. The architecture is simple.
The bulk of the issue of looking after the files is down to the file system.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EPMike
And with most of these programs storing their data in hard to find locations ...
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What? Like C:\Program Data\vendor\Application ?
I don't see that the location is the biggest problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EPMike
... the average person is not going to easily be able to fix an issue if there is one. A single file format, like the .box method Calypso used, meant you only had one file to manage, and as long as you did periodically back it up you could easily maintain things.
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The "average person" stands no chance of fixing anything in any broken software. I absolutely don't know how anyone, even techy, could fix a problem inside a single-file system, except by replacing the whole file. On the other hand, editing a plain text configuration file, or deleting a single folder's index so it's rebuilt is not too hard for a tutored user to do.