[<<]Message[>>]    [<<]Author[>>]        Subject[>>]        Thread[>>]

Number   :  3167
Date     :  2002-12-02
Author   :  Chaz Cone
Subject  :  Suddenly frustrated, then baffled, then...
Size(KB) :  2


For the past two years (approx) I've been using a large XXCOPY batch job to 
synchronize certain files between my tower computer and my laptop.

The tower currently runs XP Home and uses NTFS. The laptop runs Win98SE 
and uses FAT32.

As I say, things have been working just fine for some time, copying only 
new/updated files from the tower to the laptop, cleaning up files in the 
destination that no longer exist in the source.

But, in the last 24 hours, when I run the batch job (I'll give an example 
of one of the lines shortly), XXCOPY does the work but I observed it 
copying old files that already existed on the laptop. If I then 
immediately run it again, it copies the same files again. If I look at the 
files on both machines they are identical in name, size, creation date.

Here's one of the lines that behaves this way (I have h: mapped to the root 
of the laptop drive):

xxcopy "f:\documents and settings\chaz cone\my documents\" "h:\documents 
and settings\chaz cone\my documents\" /clone/ff3/yy

The folders exist on both machines. XXCOPY puts up no errors, just does 
the work again. (and again, and again if I try again).

I'm using 2.82.6 Pro (and I realize it's a backlevel version) but it's been 
working until today just fine and I always hesitate to change something 
that's working. I was baffled.

Then I remembered that I'd changed the system time on the laptop when I 
took it on the road last week. I'm in Eastern time and I changed the 
laptop to Pacific time. I neglected to put it back when I came home. So, 
apparently the only new difference between the two machines' setup is the 
time the system clock shows on the laptop. And this apparently has 
corrupted the time stamp evaluation that XXCOPY makes (at least in this 
version). It sees the files as needing to be copied even though the 
timestamps are identical - perhaps because of the difference in system time.

I reset the system time in the laptop and tried again. It didn't 
help. THEN I rebooted the laptop and tried again and now it works just 
fine as it always did. It looks like Win98SE observes the system time and 
somehow adjusts the file date/time internally? Or something?

At any rate, I'm working again..

Unless this is a version dependent situation that affects only backlevel 
folks (like me) maybe this could explain woes others have reported when 
backing up across a network? Dissimilar time and timezone settings?

Kan, does this make any sense?

Chaz


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