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File corruption when logging off

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dawks

Diamond Member
We use roaming profiles on our Windows XP systems with data stored on our Windows Server 2003 box. Randomly when a user logs off for the night, and returns the next day, their Outlook.pst file is corrupt. I can often run the scanpst tool, but the majority of the time it destroys most of their email.

Sometimes I notice the 'Delayed write error that pops up on top of the login screen referring to a *.tmp file in the Outlook folder.

I think this began after we moved our server to a new location. And it might be due to the switch or cable we are using. But everything else seems to work fine. We use VPN and remote desktop, copy files to and from the servers without problem, run a database on the server and more (all which travel over that same network cable and switch). Do those work fine because they do CRC or other data verification tests? Why would a Windows logoff corrupt a file? I could understand a network error occurring (who knows when someone pulls a cable), or just random corruption (which happens all the time). But the system should fail gracefully and not just leave a user with a corrupt file.

Is there anyway to figure out the problem? And/or to fix it?
 
Originally posted by: dawks
We use roaming profiles on our Windows XP systems with data stored on our Windows Server 2003 box. Randomly when a user logs off for the night, and returns the next day, their Outlook.pst file is corrupt. I can often run the scanpst tool, but the majority of the time it destroys most of their email.

Sometimes I notice the 'Delayed write error that pops up on top of the login screen referring to a *.tmp file in the Outlook folder.

I think this began after we moved our server to a new location. And it might be due to the switch or cable we are using. But everything else seems to work fine. We use VPN and remote desktop, copy files to and from the servers without problem, run a database on the server and more (all which travel over that same network cable and switch). Do those work fine because they do CRC or other data verification tests? Why would a Windows logoff corrupt a file? I could understand a network error occurring (who knows when someone pulls a cable), or just random corruption (which happens all the time). But the system should fail gracefully and not just leave a user with a corrupt file.

Is there anyway to figure out the problem? And/or to fix it?
Click to expand...

Is the PST file kept on a server or locally?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019
 
Files are kept and ran locally. However they are 'backed up' or copied to the server at log off where the problem occurs. When the user logs on the next day, they download the corrupted file from the server.
 
What AV software are you using? AntiVirus software that tries to scan the .PST during shutdown could be a problem. Try temporarily uninstalling the AV software.

Also, if you think that the .PST is being corrupted during the network transfer, then try running it on a few PCs totally locally. If the problem goes away, then you'll know that the network transfer is the problem.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
What AV software are you using? AntiVirus software that tries to scan the .PST during shutdown could be a problem. Try temporarily uninstalling the AV software.

Also, if you think that the .PST is being corrupted during the network transfer, then try running it on a few PCs totally locally. If the problem goes away, then you'll know that the network transfer is the problem.
Click to expand...

Aye. Looking at a few cases I'm seeing AV software and network issues (packet loss...broad range of sources).

A delayed write failure is serious stuff. It means a write failure happened and then a second (delayed) attempt also failed. No further attempts are tried. The write fails and data loss happens.

You're seeing event ID 50s with these. They can lead to event 55s (f*cked NTFS volume).

 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
What AV software are you using? AntiVirus software that tries to scan the .PST during shutdown could be a problem. Try temporarily uninstalling the AV software.

Also, if you think that the .PST is being corrupted during the network transfer, then try running it on a few PCs totally locally. If the problem goes away, then you'll know that the network transfer is the problem.
Click to expand...

We are using AVG Network addition.

The server room is tucked away nicely in the basement, where people do no go, and it happens so randomly, this would be difficult to test like that. (It just happened this week, but the last time was 3 months ago).

Could it be due to the cheap switch we use? or a bad cable? the cable run is fairly long, but it does negotiate a gigabit connection. (I've had bad short cables that can only set up a 100mbit connection)
 
Network trace will tell you if it's packet loss.

You need a simultaneous trace from both sides to determine if it's loss on the network as opposed to some failure on one node.

With this being very intermittent you may have to make due with a network trace on the server. Run the trace continuously until you see an event ID 50 then stop the trace. Check for retransmits.

You can automate this data collection to some degree:
http://blogs.technet.com/netmo...an-eventlog-event.aspx

If AV is involved you should see a failure of some sort in the logs on the server that correspond to the events on the client.
 
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