protecting data when updating/importing

[Guest]

I have text files that are updated every day via a mobile link (SIM card).
Each text file is also automatically imported into an excel spreasheet (upon
opening the spreadsheet) so that I can look at graphs of the data when I want
to.

This all seems to work fine, but one day half of the data failed to be
updated via the mobile link. Could it be that I happened to import the data
into excel just as the data was being updated from the mobile link, and the
update was interrupted? If so, is there a way that I could create a mirror
image of the text file so that one copy is used for the mobile update and the
other copy is used for the import into excel? Or is there a better way to
protect the updating process?

Any help is much appreciated.....

 

[Dave O]

When you say....... do you mean you dial in with a GSM phone and modem?

If that is the case you may have had radio interference that caused
the call to drop, interrupting data transfer. If timing of the
transfer is or becomes an issue, you might determine an "update
window" with whomever provides your data: they provide the information
only during a certain time of day, during which you will not attempt
to download information. That would avoid conflicts.

 

[Guest]

I think that you're right, it would be best just to try to avoid importing
into Excel while the download is occuring. To be on the safe side, I may
just turn off the logging machine while I am working with the data.