I think that this error may have to do with the ST_DATA.MDB file in the Metastock directory. This file size right now is 2.09 GB(seems too big).

Before I try to open/alter this file can someone confirm that this is the likely source of the system test error message. What do I need to do to clean/shrink/purify this file??

Thnx,

O.K.

There have been a lot of posts on this and I'm surprised Equis doesnt resolve the issue- it doesnt seem a difficult programming issue to resolve. I had the same problems and after reading some of the forum posts, I opened the ST_data file , a .mdb file found in the metastock directory.

What worked for me without having to reload metastock etc was pretty simple.

There are 3-4 data tables in this access file. Use your microsoft access program to open the file. Youll see a list of tables in this access file. There are 5 data files in this ms access screen. All of them begin with "analysis" in the name. If you open the tables, you will see they are crammed with old explorations and logs. Go to the upper left hand top of each table. You'll see a little square with nothing written on it. Right click on the square and you will see the option to delete. Click yes. Your screen may go white and seem to hang up- let it run. It may take a half-hour even to delete- let it run, eventually it finishes. Go to the next "analysis" table and do the same thing. After clearing all 5, mine works fine. Im not a techie person, but it seemed to have no ill effects. Shame on equis for not correcting the issue, and leaving it to users to figure it out. Surely not the way to keep the explorere running long term, since this needs to be done every few weeks apparently. It seems the explorer doesnt actually succeed in deleting explorations when you tell it to, or do your cleaning. Doing it yourself temporarily this way isnt too dificult and seems better than reloading everything.

kadip,

Thanks much for the info. I again ran into this problem after I installed and used MS on a new machine. This time the st_data.mdb file was only around 55,000 kb and I started to get a similar(but not the same) error message. I exported all my custom indicators & systems, deleted ST_DATA.MDB and re-installed. It now seems to be working but I am sure it will not be the last time I will have to re-install..

Looks like I am going to have to get & learn MSFT access.. We can all hope for a patch someday..

Hi all..

Just a quick note about the ST_DATA.MDB file....

It isn't entirely Equis' fault there are errors when this file gets too large. Micro$oft, the 'inventors' of the Jet database (which the ST_DATA file is) have a limit on the size set at (guess what?) 2GB. No Access file (database) can be larger than 2GB. It doesn’t matter who creates the application, no .mdb file can be bigger than 2GB. Period.

See http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP051868081033.aspx or the other squillion websites complaining about this limitation.

Now, what does this mean to us the MS users?

First, read through the posts of this Forum and see how many posts want to have MORE information from the System Tester recorded. The more information that is recorded, the faster the .mdb file will fill up and reach its maximum size. This is the cost of having more data available for analysis. There is a fine balance between the limitations of the user, the limitations of the hardware and the limitations of the software. Equis have drawn their line in the sand, recording the information they do now; it’s not enough for some people and it’s too much for others.

The next issue is how Equis have chosen to write the information to the database. They could have written the data into binary files which compresses the data, meaning that more data could be stored, but the cost of this is, you wouldn't be able to open the .mdb file in a database application (like Access) and read the tables like you can now. I believe this would lead to more complaints about conspiracy theories and hiding information from the user. Have a look at the comments in this forum about the MS data format... so writing the data in the fashion they have chosen is acceptable to be read by the human user. It might not be as efficient as it could be, but its certainly more user friendly than hex/bin data files!

I guess this means it up to you, the user, to have a look at the size of the data files over which YOU HAVE CONTROL. Equis may have been remit by not issuing a proper 'cleaning tool', but these tools have been created by others and released into the public domain. Get one, there a few. But, if you don't hoard the data by keeping the results of a system test conducted three years ago and never reviewed since, then you will not have any troubles and will not have to resort using these tools at the eleventh hour. EVERY database needs to be cleaned out occasionally; it has very little to do with Equis and a lot more to do with the individual user as when the cleaning needs to happen.

Maybe in the next issue of MS, Equis might decide to write each system results to its own .mdb file? But then users will complain they don’t have enough HD space to store the 50 x 2GB database files for their 50 systems. Do you have 100GB to spare on system test results? Again, it will be up to the user to clean up after themselves. Read through the Forum again to find all posts about the work people are doing trying to speed up data access on their computers to improve the speed of the system tests and explorations, adding another 100GB of information to the HD is not going to resolve this issue.

If you can think of a better way to record all the information that users want from their system tests

• whilst minimizing the physical storage space on the users system, and
• maintaining the transparency of the data to other software and the user, and
• within the limitations imposed by the software commonly available to the majority of the users (like Windows OS and MS Office etc), and
• without resorting to other (expensive) third party systems, and
• without the user requiring to purchase the latest hardware components or install their own SQL servers at home

then please let us all know that you have found the Holy Grail.

The ST_DATA.MDB file may not be the greatest but it does serve its purpose... if and only if you clean up after yourselves!


My $0.02

The thing is that this type of system tester message does not only come up when the st_data.mdb file goes over 2 G. It came up with the file only over 55,000 k on a new machine. I saw at least one other post claiming the same situation.

Not every person using MS has an extensive computer background, and when one gets an error that incapacitates the system tester that is a big problem. One could also argue that this type of error could be foreseen by Equis, and steps could have been taken to fix/prevent the problem.

Anyway using the JETCOMP.exe does help, but one needs to keep compacting the database on a regular basis.