I just wasted about a day due to a weird failing of the COPY TO command on a w98 machine. The machine is on a small network using NetBeui. NO internet access, no virus activity detected, and the speed of the machine was normal, mouse response normal.

Files were created and recorded in a log file, but the files were NOT visible using Explorer or command prompt DIR for about 5 minutes! NO files were lost.

the fox code is essentially

COPY TO x for condition && we'll lock temp file and allow access to master
IF FILE(x) && a cursor can't be used in this situation
procedure(x)
ENDIF

and the procedure never fired! This code is ancient, probably has millions of hours of use by now on UNIX, DOS, & VFP versions

The problem was resolved by shutting down the computer and restarting it. There were NO other symptoms, and the problem has not reappeared!

HOWEVER, upon checking the error logs at several sites, I find that I am seeing errors on a weekly basis of "FILE DOES NOT EXIST" yet the file DOES exist, so I am suspicious that yesterday was an extreme case of a more common problem.

I have a global locate/replace for .prg files, so I could add a delay loop, but I wondered if there was a better way?

thx

Mike