My conditions aren't the same. I have Outlook 2010 and I haven't applied SP1 to 
Win7 x64 yet.

That being said - robocopy doesn't hang. It copies the file just fine in my 
scenario.

Another data-point - I wouldn't do what you are attempting to do that way. Use 
diskcopy and copy a SNAPSHOT of the disk. That will be just as good, if not 
better, than OFO from a number of backup disk vendors. That way you will always 
get a consistent copy. There is extensive PowerShell code on my blog for using 
diskcopy.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com

From: Carl Houseman [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 12:19 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Copying an open .PST hangs under Windows 7

I've found an odd difference between XP and 7 lately.   Using XP and OL 2007, 
where I've attached a .PST from local storage to my profile as an extra data 
file, and Outlook is open on a folder or file in that PST when I attempt to 
copy the PST file, I get the expected "cannot access the file" result.  This is 
using either xcopy or robocopy and it's what I expect and want to see.

Under Windows 7 SP1 and OL2007, the copying just hangs, no message, no timeout, 
no nothing.  Xcopy or Robocopy are apparently waiting on an I/O to complete 
that never does.  And when I say "never", I mean more than 10 minutes.   While 
the copying is hung, If I exit Outlook and confirm that my Outlook.exe is gone 
from the process list, the copying still doesn't proceed.  Xcopy won't even 
respond to Ctrl-C.   (Robocopy's timeout is the default 30 seconds and it never 
times out.)

So, this is a problem, if I'm trying to automate the copying of a PST files 
that may or may not be open for writing.  Doesn't this have to be a bug in 7 
and, I would think, a serious one?   So far I've only seen this with .PSTs and 
Outlook 07.  Testing with an open file from another program gives a "sharing 
violation" which is good.  I've got some scripted copying in the works that 
needs to run now or try again later, but if the copying hangs forever, the 
whole automation is shot.

Can anyone duplicate this?  I've only attempted it on one Windows 7 SP1 x64 
machine thus far.  Not sure if RTM did this or not.

Thanks,
Carl

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~

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