MSPOOL - process cannot access the file, another process has locked a portion???

[Steven]

Hi,

Yesterday I started getting the following message when Connect is
downloading e-mail:

Error in file

D:\Turnpike\MAIL\MSPOOL

The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a
portion of the file.

Retry - Cancel - Help

If I manage to click Retry before Connect crashes then I tend to get the
following error straight afterwards:

Error in file

d:\turnpike\mail\MSPOOL

Software error 266

OK - Help

I've tried everything I can think of:

1. Rebuilding mail database - this has lost me hundreds of messages
sometimes!
2. Restoring back to Friday's backup - just D: drive which is where TP
is stored - this has worked OK to start with but then I get the same
errors again next time mail is downloaded
3. Full CHKDSK of D: including bad sector check - no problems found

I'm at my wit's end now - WHAT process is locking the MSPOOL file?!!?
I'm the only user so TP and Connect are only running ONCE on 1 PC.

Could the new version of avast! be interfering? It recently upgraded
itself to 4.8.1296. I've tried adding exclusions for the TP folders -
not sure whether this is a good idea or not?

I'd be extremely grateful if anyone could shed any light on this and
help me resolve it!

Thanks in advance,
--
Steven
Remove NOSPAM to reply directly - thanks.


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[Andy]

In message <$***@rosefield.demon.co.uk>, Steven
<***@rosefield.demon.co.uk> wrote
[]

Post by Steven
I'm at my wit's end now - WHAT process is locking the MSPOOL file?!!?
I'm the only user so TP and Connect are only running ONCE on 1 PC.

Thinks... a process that accesses files that you didn't explicitly
start... could it be an antivirus, or perhaps Window's fast access index
service? What has changed since it worked OK?

Post by Steven
Could the new version of avast! be interfering? It recently upgraded
itself to 4.8.1296.

Ah.

It has probably reset itself to the maker's defaults, which are likely
to be "scan all files every time there's a change".

Post by Steven
I've tried adding exclusions for the TP folders - not sure whether
this is a good idea or not?

My vote goes for "yes it is".

Also, it may now be set to scan all incoming and outgoing emails, which
is likely to lead to further unhappiness.

Post by Steven
I'd be extremely grateful if anyone could shed any light on this and
help me resolve it!

Tell it not to; shut down and restart the PC; tell us if it worked.

[Steven]

Post by Andy
[]

Post by Steven
I'm at my wit's end now - WHAT process is locking the MSPOOL file?!!?
I'm the only user so TP and Connect are only running ONCE on 1 PC.

Thinks... a process that accesses files that you didn't explicitly
start... could it be an antivirus, or perhaps Window's fast access
index service? What has changed since it worked OK?

Erm, well things that I can remember are:

1. avast! program update
2. Installed the latest build of Acronis True Image Home 2009
3. Upgraded Secunia PSI to version 1.0

That's it really! I have had the same error once before, a few weeks
ago, but a database rebuild fixed it and it didn't return until
yesterday :-/

Post by Andy

Post by Steven
Could the new version of avast! be interfering? It recently upgraded
itself to 4.8.1296.

Ah.
It has probably reset itself to the maker's defaults, which are likely
to be "scan all files every time there's a change".

As far as I can see, none of the settings have been changed after the
upgrade...

Post by Andy

Post by Steven
I've tried adding exclusions for the TP folders - not sure whether
this is a good idea or not?

My vote goes for "yes it is".
Also, it may now be set to scan all incoming and outgoing emails, which
is likely to lead to further unhappiness.

It was already set to scan incoming and outgoing e-mails, but that
hasn't caused a problem before. I added an exclusion to the avast!
resident protection of D:\Turnpike\Mail\MSPOOL but I've still had the
error message since (and the subsequent corruption of MSPOOL and
necessary rebuild, with 14 messages lost this time!).

Post by Andy

Post by Steven
I'd be extremely grateful if anyone could shed any light on this and
help me resolve it!

Tell it not to; shut down and restart the PC; tell us if it worked.

Maybe I'll disable e-mail scanning for now and see if that makes a
difference...

Cheers,

[Jim Crowther]

In demon.ip.support.turnpike, on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:44:36, Steven

Post by Steven
D:\Turnpike\Mail\MSPOOL

How large is this? It may be beyond (or encroaching on) the limits,
currently 4GB.

[Steven]

Post by Jim Crowther
How large is this? It may be beyond (or encroaching on) the limits,
currently 4GB.

Yeah, that must be it! MSPOOL was 3.99 Gb when I checked earlier. I knew
it was around that size but didn't know there was a physical limit - my
mail partition is only 5 Gb so I knew I'd have to sort through my
backlog of e-mails soon :-/

I deleted some e-mails earlier and rebuilt the mail database which
reduced MSPOOL to 3.24 Gb, and all seems well again now (MSPOOL is 3.32
Gb now after collecting e-mail). That would explain why the problem went
away when I rebuilt the database a few weeks ago - I've just pushed TP
to its limit again :-D

Thanks a lot Jim, you're a star!

Cheers,
--
Steven
Remove NOSPAM to reply directly - thanks.


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Tested on: 12/15/2008 21:19:11
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[Chris French]

Post by Steven
Hi,
Yesterday I started getting the following message when Connect is
Error in file
D:\Turnpike\MAIL\MSPOOL
The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a
portion of the file.

I've had a similar problem for some months now with the server here that
runs Connect.

If it is left running (or for that matter sometimes Turnpike Offline,
though generally it doesn't) at some point I get a 'Cannot access this
file because another process...' error message. Though I don't think
mine says about locking a portion of the file.

It only happens with the newsbase/newspool or more often one of the news
files.

It happened sometime back, before I reinstalled anything on the server
(it had been running fine for ages, then just started happening AFAICR),
and came back when I reinstalled everything, I've tried all I can think
of but I can't track down the cause of the problem.

For now I've given up on it. I've scheduled Connect to run every 20
minutes in autodeliver mode, which is a bit of a cludge, but means I can
get on with life.

[Dave English]

Post by Chris French

Post by Steven
Hi,
Yesterday I started getting the following message when Connect is
Error in file
D:\Turnpike\MAIL\MSPOOL
The process cannot access the file because another process has locked
a portion of the file.

I've had a similar problem for some months now with the server here
that runs Connect.
If it is left running (or for that matter sometimes Turnpike Offline,
though generally it doesn't) at some point I get a 'Cannot access this
file because another process...' error message. Though I don't think
mine says about locking a portion of the file.
It only happens with the newsbase/newspool or more often one of the
news files.
It happened sometime back, before I reinstalled anything on the server
(it had been running fine for ages, then just started happening
AFAICR), and came back when I reinstalled everything, I've tried all I
can think of but I can't track down the cause of the problem.
For now I've given up on it. I've scheduled Connect to run every 20
minutes in autodeliver mode, which is a bit of a cludge, but means I
can get on with life.

Have you checked to see which processes have a handle open on the file?

Process Explorer from SysInternals is the tool for this.

<http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx>

Choose "Find Handle or DLL...", enter the file name, e.g. MSPOOL & press
Search.

If anything else other than Connect & Explorer has a handle open, then
that is likely your problem.

Of course it could be that a process only has it open briefly &
occasionally, this would still cause problems & be difficult to spot on
the fly. To look for that you would need consider using the File
Monitor tool to collect logs of file accesses.

Regards

[Chris French]

Post by Dave English

Post by Chris French
I've had a similar problem for some months now with the server here
that runs Connect.
If it is left running (or for that matter sometimes Turnpike Offline,
though generally it doesn't) at some point I get a 'Cannot access this
file because another process...' error message. Though I don't think
mine says about locking a portion of the file.
It only happens with the newsbase/newspool or more often one of the
news files.

Have you checked to see which processes have a handle open on the file?
Process Explorer from SysInternals is the tool for this.
<http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx>
Choose "Find Handle or DLL...", enter the file name, e.g. MSPOOL &
press Search.
If anything else other than Connect & Explorer has a handle open, then
that is likely your problem.
Of course it could be that a process only has it open briefly &
occasionally, this would still cause problems & be difficult to spot on
the fly. To look for that you would need consider using the File
Monitor tool to collect logs of file accesses.

Thanks Dave,

I did indeed use those tools, but didn't seem to resolve the issue.

however, this thread has prompted another go.

It looks like Microsoft Windows Search (under XP) might be the culprit.
I thought I had excluded the Turnpike files from the search, but I
appear not to. so I have now and will see how it goes.