Drobocopy fails to complete scheduled tasks if any files are open. It is not supported except to suggest using Windows Shadow Copy instead. Has anyone discovered a workaround since I’d prefer not to mix systems/software if possible. I’m running XP Pro on an HP Workstation.
Generally speaking, any copy will fail if the file is in exclusive use.
Using the Shadow Copy is the workaround if you can’t get the file out of use.
Not sure if DroboCopy can use the Shadow Copy or not, but I use ViceVersa Pro from TGRMN and it can use shadow copies (be sure to run it as Administrator).
What kind of files are you leaving open?
I just ran my drobocopy with several files opened and it ran successfully.
Explorer, Thunderbird, Firefox, Quickbooks, Word, Acrobat and Excel files were open when the failure occurred. I tested by closing all files and had a clean Drobocopy. Then opened and modified two Word files. Closed one and ran Drobocopy. Surprise - it completed, including the open file as well. Perhaps there is just one of these file types that is causing the failure. I will test and report.[hr]
Thanks. Please see my rply to Jennifer’s post.
Some interesting results from my test. Starting with all files close, I ran Drobocopy successfully, and then added an open file from each app. All ran OK until an Excell file was added. That stopped the Drobocopy and produce this error report: Drobocopy cannot access the file "C:|{filename.xlsx} because it is being used by another process. This is a bare bones spreadsheet without any links or macros. Closing that file and leaving other Excel files open allowed a clean Drobocopy. It would be very helpful to learn which processes are invoked, why, and how we can ensure that they are not invoked.
Excel definitely has some kind of file-locking as opening an Excel workbook already in use by another user will tell you that you can only open the file read-only.
In the past I thought it wasn’t at the filesystem level, but perhaps that has changed in Office 2007.
All Office, and most other apps will not allow a second user to open a file except as read only. But there does seem to be something special about an open Excel file that stops Drobocopy. I hope that someone at Drobo takes note and corrects this - it is the only hiccup I have found with my new Drobo/Droboshare system.
Some more useful information on Drobocopy: based on my testing, it fails when an xlsx file is open, but works when an xls file is open. I have not tested other Office2007 files. If anyone does test these, please post the results.
Drobo has corrected the impression I had that Drobocopy is not supported - I was told that they wrote the app, it is supported, and they are working on resolving the problem.