>>>>>>If I issue FOPEN("somefile",1) - write only, unbuffered - it waits a long time - because the file was deliberately opened by me earlier. Is there a way to make it fail faster?
>>>>>
>>>>>What's your OS?
>>>>
>>>>Windows XP or Windows 2000
>>>
>>>Is file on network share or local?
>>
>>During dev it's local. In production it will be on network share accessed by UNC.
>
>It fails immideatelly on local file for me (WinXPSP2Pro).

Same OS WinXPSP2Pro. I've got SQLServer 2005 doing a BACKUP to a file. I'm checking it with a timer using FOPEN to see if I can open the file. It's taking at least 5 seconds before the FOPEN goes on to the next line in the debugger.