Robocopy silently missing files

I'm using Robocopy to sync data from our server's hard disk to an external disk as a backup. It's a pretty simple solution but pretty much the best/easiest one we could come up with - we use two external disks and rotate them offsite.

Anyway, here's the script (with the comments taken out) that I'm using to do it. It works very well, it's quick and almost 100% complete - however it's acting pretty strange with a few files (note company name has been changed in paths to protect the innocent):

@ECHO OFF
set DATESTAMP=%DATE:~10,4%/%DATE:~4,2%/%DATE:~7,2% %TIME:~0,2%:%TIME:~3,2%:%TIME:~6,2%

SET prefix="E:\backup_log-"

SET source_dir="M:\Company Names Data\Working Folder\_ADMIN_BACKUP_FILES\COMPA AANY Business Folder_Backup_040407\COMPANY_sales order register\BACKUP CLIENT FOLDERS & CURRENT JOBS pre 270404\CLIENT SALES ORDER REGISTER"


SET dest_dir="E:\dest"
SET log_fname=%prefix%%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%.log
SET what_to_copy=/COPY:DAT /MIR
SET options=/R:0 /W:0 /LOG+:%log_fname% /NFL /NDL

ROBOCOPY %source_dir% %dest_dir% %what_to_copy% %options%

set DATESTAMP=%DATE:~10,4%/%DATE:~4,2%/%DATE:~7,2% %TIME:~0,2%:%TIME:~3,2%:%TIME:~6,2%
cscript msg.vbs "Backup completed at %DATESTAMP% - Logs can be found on the E: drive."
:END

Normally the source would just be M:\Comapany name data\ but I altered the script a bit to test the problem.

The following files in the source are not copied to the dest:

Someclient\SONICP~1.DOC
Someclient\SONICP~2.DOC
Someclient\SONICP~3.DOC

However, files in the same directory named:

TIMESH~1.XLS TIMESH~2.XLS

are copied. I'm able to open the files that aren't copied with no trouble at all, and they certainly weren't opened when I ran robocopy so it's not a locking issue. Robocopy is running as administrator so it's not a permissions issue.

There's no trace these files were even attempted to be copied as there are no errors being output in the log or in my command prompt.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what this might be? Busted hard disk?

Cheers, John.

Solution 1:

Are you sure the account doing the robocopying has read access to those files? Maybe someone edited the permissions on just a couple of files...

EDIT: re-read the post and realized you already tested permissions.

If you want to test just those files, why not try copying them manually with the GUI? If that works then just run this one line:

robocopy "M:\Company Names Data\Working Folder\_ADMIN_BACKUP_FILES\COMPA AANY Business Folder_Backup_040407\COMPANY_sales order register\BACKUP CLIENT FOLDERS & CURRENT JOBS pre 270404\CLIENT SALES ORDER REGISTER\<filename_that_isn't_working>" E:\dest

Start from the most basic operations and add things back in until you hit a problem.