Long File name prob./HDD crash

[mtoneill]

I'll try to explain this as good as I can:

We run 3.2 with 25 users. Workstations are win95/98. Network backup
is run from a workstation (HP colorado backup). OS2 name space on
server.
128 meg of ram on server.
A few months ago the backup stopped working properly. It would hit a
certain file on the network and just hang. File Name: 00mn4560mm.doc.
I noticed that there was another file name in the same directory called
00mn4560mm-a.doc. When I tried to delete the first file in explorer,
it says the file does not exist. Same thing in a dos window. I could
delete the file using filer.exe.

Well, a few weeks ago the HDD crashed. I was able to copy most of the
files from the network to my workstation before the disk was totally
unreadable. Bought new HDD (IDE). Re-installed Novell 3.12, then 3.2
and all patches I could find. Restored files back to server.

I still can't do a full backup. The backup program hits certain files
and just hangs. I do notice that it will hang on a file that has
another file in the same directory that is very similar in name, e.g.:
filename-1name.xls
filename-1name-1a.xls
Is this type of file-naming a problem?
Could I be loading the wrong driver for my hard drive?

I made the server out of an HP desktop. It is about 6 months old. I
believe it is about a 450mhz pentiumII(III). I'm not sure what the
chipset is, but if it is important, I could find out.
The new hard drive is a Western Dig. 8 gig.

I would appreciate any help or suggestions. This is starting to drive
me crazy.

Mark O'Neill

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[Don Crawford]

To Mtoneill:

It seems to me that there is possibly a problem with the long name to short
name generation and the Colorado Backup is seeing a duplicate name or
something. If you go into DOS on the workstation and do a DIR, what do you see
for the names of those two files?

-- Don Crawford
Novell Support Connection SysOp

[mtoneill]

Here's where I think the problem is:

If two files have the same first 8 or 9 letters the same then the
backup will hang.
Example:
A directory has a file named: 00p-m153.doc
and : 00p-m153r1.doc

I try to a backup on the directory that contains these files, and the
backup doesn't work. I open explorer, and go to this directory and
click on the first file (00p-m153.doc) and I get a message that the
file doesn't exist. I rename the second file to : 00p_r1-m153.doc.
Then I click on the first file and it is there now. So I hope this was
the problem.

One other thing I noticed: I have an old dos program on the network
that creates a temp file and then copies it to lpt1. For some reason
now, it won't copy the file to lpt1. But when I run the program from
my workstation, it works fine. I went to the directory and created a
text file (test.txt) and saved it. When I typed "dir" in dos, the file
was listed, but when I tried to delete it, it says the file doesn't
exist. Any suggestions?

mark oneill

[Don Crawford]

To Mtoneill:

> If two files have the same first 8 or 9 letters the same then the
> backup will hang.
> Example:
> A directory has a file named: 00p-m153.doc
> and : 00p-m153r1.doc
>
> I try to a backup on the directory that contains these files, and the
> backup doesn't work. I open explorer, and go to this directory and
> click on the first file (00p-m153.doc) and I get a message that the
> file doesn't exist. I rename the second file to : 00p_r1-m153.doc.
> Then I click on the first file and it is there now. So I hope this was
> the problem.
>

Yes, I think that is exactly the problem.

> One other thing I noticed: I have an old dos program on the network
> that creates a temp file and then copies it to lpt1. For some reason
> now, it won't copy the file to lpt1. But when I run the program from
> my workstation, it works fine. I went to the directory and created a
> text file (test.txt) and saved it. When I typed "dir" in dos, the file
> was listed, but when I tried to delete it, it says the file doesn't
> exist. Any suggestions?
>

Is LPT1 captured? At the DOS prompt, type CAPTURE SH and see what that says.

There is something strange going on with not being able to delete the file.
When you go back into Windows, does the file show up in Explorer? How about if
you execute FILER in DOS? Does it show up there? Can you delete it?