Date:         Tue, 19 Nov 1996 18:56:38 +0200
Reply-To:     Magnus Jansson <magnus@LEMUR.SE>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Magnus Jansson <magnus@LEMUR.SE>
Subject:      Re: HELP: Is SAS eating my data sets?
In-Reply-To:  <01bbd5a2$e9b397e0$c57f0a26@u-bahn>

SAS(r) Discussion:
> Hi everybody:
>
> Here is a serious problem that I have encountered for the third time.
>
>...
>
> What is happening is that all of the sudden SAS will start producing very
> strange data step error messages, will stop executing and ask me to contact
> technical support. Yesterday I used this big data set with no problem
> whatsoever and today I get these error messages. Now comes the interesting
> part: When I restore the file that I am using in my SAS job from tape and
> use this file as input for my data step, things are working again. When I
> compare the restored file and the dysfunctional file there does not seem to
> be a difference between the two.
>
> ...
>
> Of course, the problem might be related to my hardware, yet, SAS is the
> only program that makes these kinds of problems. Has anybody of you out
> here encountered a similar problem? Do you have any clues as to what might
> be going on? Do you think there is a problem with my hard ware setup?
>
I have encountered a perhaps similar thing. I have recently switched from OS/2 to
WIN/NT. I have large datasets written pa SAS for OS/2 version 6.10. I have one set
which is also compressed by SAS. After swithing to WIN NT I ran CONVERT to change
from HPFS to NTFS. A month later I tried to use this dataset. When I tried
 
Data temp;
  set in.data;
  run;
 
a message box popped up which said 'Unknown Exception' and an address.
After clicking OK on 4 or 5 message boxes sas finally crashed totally.
This thing happes both in batch and dm mode.
I can repeat it after rebooting. I have sent this particular dataset to sas tech sup.
On my other machine I run SAS for WIN-95. I have copied this dataset to that machine
using PKZIP (it is 61 meg big) and SAS for WIN-95 can use it ok. BUT!!!!
When I try to copy the same dataset back to NT it still crasches sas.
But when I first run a data set to uncompress it and then copy it to my NT machine I
can use it without any problems.
This message, Unknown Exception, have followed me since I installed TS040. In base,fsp,af.
 
Magnus Jansson