Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
Nope. You didn't read my answer properly. I read your post and your follow up, and in neither case did you demonstrate that the original program behaved in a poor fashion.
Well then let's try another way: You're not supposed to delete the source folder, as it is the very core of the profile. So if you do, there's obviously something wrong. So the program needs to notify you that there is a problem, and in a way that makes sure you get the notification (it already does in case of other problems). It doesn't do that however. All it does is putting a note on top of the logfile (why there btw, when other error messages are put at the end of the file, and in red text?) that the source folder has been deleted, which most users probably don't see. And even if they do, it's too late anyway - their files are gone. The program has the ability to make copies of deleted files so you can rollback, but if the files are the size of several GB each (some of mine are are 20 GB or more), this is a bad solution as it requires a lot of extra diskspace (which simply may not be available) and takes a lot of extra time. It's much simpler not deleting the files, and notify the user of the problem so he can correct the situation. If nothing else, then include the option so users can choose whichever solution they find most appropriate to their situation.
Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
The last thing you want as a user is a program that should work without no interaction, stopping working because it's waiting on the user noticing that there's something they need to do.
It does not to have to stop working (I assume we're talking about scheduled backup of multiple profiles). It can simply skip running that particular profile so the backup files do not get deleted (they're not supposed to be deleted in this case anyway, remember), and continue with the rest of the profiles, and then set a flag in the program window and a tray icon notification as it does with other errors, so the user gets notified about the problem and can fix it.
