Inaccessible database

Question

I'm working on an rather small application (C#, winform) that is kind of front-end to MS Access database file stored on shared drive. While it is possible that drive could be down I am checking connection while loading Main Form.

I would like to know your opinions on how to deal with this problem.

I came up with ideas like:

• Application shows only MessageBox with an error message and close itself (before actually showing up), as it won't be useful at all.
• Application load itself and then display an error-message to not make users confused (if they click warning before reading the explanation).

What are yours best practices?

Answer 1

I think it's rather irrelevant whether the application is shown or not because in the end, you display the message box with the error anyway. The user clicks OK and you close your Application.

However, to me it's a bit nicer without the application showing in background, mainly because it makes no sense to fire it up when the database isn't available. Save yourself (and the pc) the time it takes to show it ;)