PMFJI. Your requirements seem unusually cautious. What is the application?

TO prevent conflicts you are going to need a different strategy. Some ideas:
- get backup software that doesn't lock the data files
- move to a backend server that can then replicate into a backup database


>We ARE using mirrored disks .... but these backups are for a different purpose. They are triggered by the load of data from messages arriving randomly onto the (NT) server (averaging every 10 minutes). At the same time users are browing/upating data. We need to guarantee 100% that in case of any kind of failure (eg db corruption, software error, hardware error) we can recover to a consistent point prior to a message load and replay messages and user updates from that point. We also retain two previous backup points.
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>The problem is actually very rare and we assume it is when an update or record lock by a user happens at the same time as the filecopy. But note that we cannot simulate the problem.
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>We have just changed the "filecopy" to "copyto". We will see if this avoids the problem.
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>What is the best method to handle this kind of requirement baring in mind that we must guarantee recovery.