I can confirm that Outlook just blocks (in my case) xcopy from doing its job, and also that xcopy helpfully deletes the previous backup first, so you do indeed end up with nothing in the backup location (in my case an internal drive, not a network location). So I have had to add a command to shut Outlook down before the backup runs - that works.
Martin,
Thanks for that.It has been so many years since I stopped trying to copy while Outlook was open that I seem to have forgotten some details. I thought that it was just network locations that suffered from the backup being deleted but this obviously affects all such copies.
- I have found my notes from 2013.
- - For both local & network backups, the backup copy does indeed get deleted before RoboCopy decides it cannot backup the new version.
- - The added problem for network backups is that despite retry & wait being set up within the RoboCopy switches the script will hang if it tries to copy an open .pst file & cannot be restarted even if Outlook is then closed.
Depending on the circumstances, you might consider using the fact of Outlook running to skip the folder containing your Outlook pst files. I use a mixture of both. For some procedures I stop if Outlook is running but for others I just skip the folder my .pst files are in.
I have never witnessed a .pst file being corrupted by an attempt to copy it but the warning about it [in 2012] had come from a user that I knew to be highly competent.
Denis
Denis,
Correct, I did include that switch.
Although I did include that switch, as I said in my previous post, that temporary entry of 1 in the directory was added to log file totals summary, even though it was excluded in the log under the files that were copied!
To be on the safe side anyway, I will only run this after I have made sure that there are NO programs running from ANY of the source directories.
(Testing 3: in a CMD script)
Results:Code:@echo off Robocopy "E:" "F:\# Reserved" /L /Ts /Mir /XA:SH /XF "desktop.ini" "Thumbs.db" pause
Code:Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras Dirs : 8 7 1 0 0 351 Files : 17 17 0 0 0 2073 Bytes : 40.1 k 40.1 k 0 0 0 195.29 m Times : 0:00:03 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:03 Ended : Sunday, 12 July 2020 7:54:35 PM
(Testing 4: in a CMD window)
Results:Code:Robocopy "E:" "F:\# Reserved" /L /Ts /Mir /XA:SH /XF "desktop.ini" "Thumbs.db"
Again, the results of the CMD script are incorrect.Code:Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras Dirs : 353 0 353 0 0 0 Files : 2082 0 2082 0 0 1 Bytes : 195.32 m 0 195.32 m 0 0 77 Times : 0:00:01 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:01 Ended : Sunday, 12 July 2020 7:54:40 PM
Matthew,
So you have indeed proved that, for all practicable purposes, the /L switch is worse than useless.
Well done.
Denis
Martin,
Thanks.
As this only affects my laptop, which as I have mentioned is only really used for the Internet, batch scripts, and a few other things, I am not overly concerned. I can manually backup in about 5 minutes, it is not a problem. It all works on my Desktop PC which is the priority anyway.
I decided to always shut Outlook down, with a vb script launched from within the backup batch file - my backup is scheduled to run at night, so I don't care. I suppose one day I will run the backup manually whilst in the middle of an email edit, and then regret that 'design' decision, but until then...
Using /tee and /log (instead of > to redirect output) works great. You see the Robocopy process as it runs and you get a record of the process that matches what you see.
This is what the log files looks like:Code:C:\Users\ztruk>RoboCopy ""C:\Users\ztruk\Desktop\SetupDiagLogs"" "F:\Target Folder" /S /R:10 /MT:1 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR /tee /log:"%userprofile%\desktop\TestResults.Log" Log File : C:\Users\ztruk\desktop\TestResults.Log ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ROBOCOPY :: Robust File Copy for Windows ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Started : Sunday, July 12, 2020 02:34:51 PM Source : C:\Users\ztruk\Desktop\SetupDiagLogs\ Dest : F:\Target Folder\ Files : *.* Options : *.* /TEE /S /E /DCOPY:DAT /COPY:DAT /PURGE /MIR /XA:SH /MT:1 /R:10 /W:30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras Dirs : 1 1 1 0 0 0 Files : 22 0 22 0 0 0 Bytes : 216.33 m 0 216.33 m 0 0 0 Times : 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:00 Ended : Sunday, July 12, 2020 02:34:51 PM
Code:------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ROBOCOPY :: Robust File Copy for Windows ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Started : Sunday, July 12, 2020 02:34:51 PM Source : C:\Users\ztruk\Desktop\SetupDiagLogs\ Dest : F:\Target Folder\ Files : *.* Options : *.* /TEE /S /E /DCOPY:DAT /COPY:DAT /PURGE /MIR /XA:SH /MT:1 /R:10 /W:30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Total Copied Skipped Mismatch FAILED Extras Dirs : 1 1 1 0 0 0 Files : 22 0 22 0 0 0 Bytes : 216.33 m 0 216.33 m 0 0 0 Times : 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:00 Ended : Sunday, July 12, 2020 02:34:51 PM
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