Backing up and threading

Hi, I would like to back up my database my creating copies of it while my program is running.. I co worker suggested threading it in the background and use a timer to make a copy of the database ever hour or so.. He's not sure how to do this in VB since he's more of a VC++ guy.. I'm not really sure how to create threads in VB.. Can someone point me to some links? Also, anyone knows any system calls to create a copy of a file and rename to something else in the same directory?

Also, can what I'm trying to do be hidden so the user doesn't know that a back up is being made?
Thanks
John

Unfortunately, you can't do multithreading in VB outside the IDE. The closest thing you can do is use a timer with an Interval of 1.

I disagree I have done 'multithreading' and background or asynchronous processing before. Do a search in the forums here on either of those subjects.

You can multithread WITHIN the VB IDE in apartment-style threading. But outside the IDE (i.e., compiled EXEs), multithreading is a no-no.

Like I said I disagree. Using ActiveX Exs you can at least accomplish the same thing, asynchronous processing. Its all the same to the user. Check out the Coffee example.

Edneeis is right. Createthread api fails with VB6, but active x exes are the way to successfully multithread in VB6.

Thanks.. I'll have to look into Active X Exes.. Will these work if I wanted to have a infinite loop checking for the time and if 1 hr have passed, copy the mdb into a backup directory? Would this have an adverse affect on the processor?
Thanks
John

Hmm.. I just thought of something.. Several instances of my app will be opened at once (usually 2).. If I created this Active X exe, both instances will call it and back a back up, right? Is there a way to prevent that? Also, what is the ramifications of copying a database when data is being read or written while the copy is being made?
Thanks
John

If you mean their will be mulitple instances of your program running on the same computer then you could take it a step further and have all the instances use the same data/info. You could use DCOM to do this over a network as well but I haven't successfully done it over a network without installing the component on the clients.

testing

Hi, I'm trying to put together an Active X EXE.. One thing, how do you refer to the path of where that Active X Exe is in? I tried app.path, but for some reason, it returns the path where the Active X exe was compiled to.. If I copy it to another directory, it returns the path that it was compiled to..
Thanks in advance.
John