minimate & loss of data

[mvend@beadles.org]

I have an end-user entering products with Minimate.  The products database
appears to have dropped (deleted) about 75% of the products without the
user deleting each item.  I don't see a way for the user to cause this,
unless they uploaded a database file, which they say they did not.

I've checked the httpd logs and the Minivend error.log, but found no clues.
I'm currently trying to pick through session.gdbm, but am not sure what to
look for.

Some details about my system:

Minimate v.3.14.0.3
  Using config/menu.html access (simpler version)
Linux/Apache
Database
  products.gdbm >352 Kb
  products.asc  >285 Kb
  number of records > 580 (long product descriptions)
Edit existing key, spreadsheet edit and auto-export options were not
visible (because mvc_too_large limit was met?).  The user was exporting
every few minutes.

Also:

1. What parameters should one look at when choosing a database format (eg.
SQL vs ASCII)?  Is the decision a performance issue or is database
integrity a concern?

2. Does the 100_000 for mvc_too_large in minimate/mmtags.cfg mean
products.gdbm < 100,000 bytes?  Do mvc_too_large and mvc_way_too_large have
significance other than changing the available editing features?

Any ideas about what happened to my database or how to figure out what went
wrong would be VERY appreciated.

Melissa Calhoun