Techniques for writing critical text data

Question

We take text/csv like data over long periods (~days) from costly experiments and so file corruption is to be avoided at all costs.

Recently, a file was copied from the Explorer in XP whilst the experiment was in progress and the data was partially lost, presumably due to multiple access conflict.

What are some good techniques to avoid such loss? - We are using Delphi on Windows XP systems.

Some ideas we came up with are listed below - we'd welcome comments as well as your own input.

Answer 1

Use a database as a secondary data storage mechanism and take advantage of the atomic transaction mechanisms