robocopy error with ERROR 32 (0x00000020)

Question

I have two drives A and B. Using a python script I am creating some files in "A" drive and I am running a powerscript which copies all the files in the drive A to drive B in the interval of 1 sec.

I am getting this error in my powershell.

2015/03/10 23:55:35 ERROR 32 (0x00000020) Time-Stamping Destination File \x.x.x.x\share1\source\ Dummy_100.txt The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. Waiting 30 seconds...

How will I overcome this error?

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 28 '19 at 07:37

4

if you want to skip this files you can use /r:n that n is times of tries for example /w:3 /r:5 will try 5 time every 3 seconds

edited Aug 28 '19 at 07:37

heck1

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answered Aug 28 '19 at 06:34

Reza Mosallanejad

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score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 12 '15 at 15:17

3

This happened is because the file is locked by running process. To fix this, download Process Explorer. Then use Find>Find Handle or DLL, find out which process locked this file. Use 'taskkill' to kill that process in commandline. You will be fine.

answered Mar 12 '15 at 15:17

Oseack

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I waited 30 seconds... then another 30 seconds... then the process eventually stopped interfering and moved on. – Robbie Smith Dec 03 '15 at 22:25
Add /f will let you kill without waiting. – Oseack Dec 05 '15 at 05:06
But you don't want to kill the Server Agent in case that's what's hogged the file. Using /F is like using a sledge hammer. Waiting is better – Fandango68 Aug 29 '17 at 02:24
robocopy has no /f , friends – Kyle Burkett Sep 13 '21 at 16:21

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

How will I overcome this error?

If backup is, what you got in mind, and you encounter in-use files frequently, you look into Volume Shadow Copies (VSS), which allow to copy files despite them being ‘in use’. It's not a product, but a windows technology used by various backup tool.

Sadly, it's not built into robocopy, but can be used in conjunction with it. See

➝ https://superuser.com/a/602833/75914

and especially:

➝ https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 29 '17 at 02:39

It could be many reasons.

In my case, I was running a CMD script to copy from one server to another, a heap of SQL Server backups and transaction logs. I too had the same problem because it was trying to write into a log file that was supposedly opened by another process. It was not.

I ran many IP checks and Process ID checkers that I ran out of knowing what was hogging the log file. Event viewer said nothing.

I found out it was not even the log file that was being locked. I was able to delete it by logging into the server as a normal user with no admin privileges!

It was the backup files themselves by the SQL Server Agent. Like @Oseack said, there may have been the need to use another tool whilst the backup files themselves were still being used or locked by the SQL Server Agent.

The way I got around it was to force ROBOCOPY to wait.

/W:5

did it.

robocopy error with ERROR 32 (0x00000020)

4 Answers4