Beware the USB Stick

Software: MoneyWorks accounting software

USB sticks are great way to backup your data, including your MoneyWorks files. However avoid the temptation to open a MoneyWorks file directly off a USB stick (you should always copy the file onto your hard drive and open that file). Apart from being very slow, here are a some “gotchas” that can affect you:

  • MoneyWorks cannot open a file off a Windows formatted USB stick (or drive) that is connected to a Mac, as the required Mac file systems calls are not available;
  • If you improperly remove a USB stick, as many people seem to do, the files on the stick may be corrupted;
  • On Windows, the MoneyWorks registry settings might get altered so that MoneyWorks needs the USB stick to be inserted to run properly (this results in MoneyWorks constantly displaying the error “Please insert the disk some removable disk”, which can only be fixed by deleting the Preferences for MoneyWorks in the Windows Registry).