'Server busy' error dialog

[MikeA]

(Running the 4/30/2009 beta of PM 4.6.1 on an XP SP2 box.) I just got a 'Server busy' dialog box while I was copying files from a contact sheet -- I've never seen this when copying files from a drive on a local machine to another drive on the same machine. The message within the dialog box is:

  This action cannot be completed because the
  "H:\Photographs\Animals\2009" program is not
  responding. Choose "Switch To" and correct the problem.

It strikes me as likely being a message from the o.s. rather than one from Photo Mechanic, but I don't know for sure.

At that point copying seemed to have stalled. I clicked the "Switch To..." button. Nothing happened other than that copying resumed and completed normally. The dialog remained on the screen. I clicked its "close" box and was none the wiser about what exactly I'd switched to. :-)

This wasn't my usual way of 'ingesting' files but I had only a few and didn't need the whole 'ingest' routine. I opened a CompactFlash card's directory as a contact sheet in PM (with RAW and JPEG combined for each image), and had a Windows Explorer folder window open at the same time (the destination for a few of the files on the CF card). I dragged selected images from the contact sheet to the folder window. Partway through the copy operation, the "Server Busy" dialog box appeared.

Of course it isn't necessary to use PM for this kind of simple file-copying -- a straight-ahead copy command at the command line (or dragging files within Windows Explorer) would suffice. But PM was open anyway and I decided to go for it...

[Kirk Baker]

(Running the 4/30/2009 beta of PM 4.6.1 on an XP SP2 box.) I just got a 'Server busy' dialog box while I was copying files from a contact sheet -- I've never seen this when copying files from a drive on a local machine to another drive on the same machine. The message within the dialog box is:

  This action cannot be completed because the
  "H:\Photographs\Animals\2009" program is not
  responding. Choose "Switch To" and correct the problem.

It strikes me as likely being a message from the o.s. rather than one from Photo Mechanic, but I don't know for sure.

At that point copying seemed to have stalled. I clicked the "Switch To..." button. Nothing happened other than that copying resumed and completed normally. The dialog remained on the screen. I clicked its "close" box and was none the wiser about what exactly I'd switched to. :-)

This wasn't my usual way of 'ingesting' files but I had only a few and didn't need the whole 'ingest' routine. I opened a CompactFlash card's directory as a contact sheet in PM (with RAW and JPEG combined for each image), and had a Windows Explorer folder window open at the same time (the destination for a few of the files on the CF card). I dragged selected images from the contact sheet to the folder window. Partway through the copy operation, the "Server Busy" dialog box appeared.

Of course it isn't necessary to use PM for this kind of simple file-copying -- a straight-ahead copy command at the command line (or dragging files within Windows Explorer) would suffice. But PM was open anyway and I decided to go for it...

We use SHFileOperation for that sort of stuff on Windows.  It runs in its own thread, runs the progress dialog and returns a result code to us when it is done.  It is supposed to be the same mechanism that Windows Explorer uses to do its work.

-Kirk

[MikeA]

We use SHFileOperation for that sort of stuff on Windows.  It runs in its own thread, runs the progress dialog and returns a result code to us when it is done.  It is supposed to be the same mechanism that Windows Explorer uses to do its work.

Kirk -- the dialog indicated some error condition and was irritating to have on the screen, but copying wasn't impaired that I know of (though the appearance of the dialog box slowed things down a bit). If this continues to happen...what then? Are we talking o.s. bug...PM bug...divine intervention...??

[Hayo Baan]

Mike,

It is most likely not a PM bug; as Kirk indicated, PM only uses standard functions to access the file system.

It could be an OS bug. You indicated that you are still on XP SP2, if I recall correctly, SP3 did improve things with regards to file shares. For this (and other things), I strongly suggest you upgrade to SP3, and then try again.

The problem could also be in the server (just too slow to respond to all your file handling requests). What server OS and version is used?

Cheers

[MikeA]

It could be an OS bug. You indicated that you are still on XP SP2, if I recall correctly, SP3 did improve things with regards to file shares. For this (and other things), I strongly suggest you upgrade to SP3, and then try again.

The problem could also be in the server (just too slow to respond to all your file handling requests). What server OS and version is used?

Cheers

There was no server involved -- just a single, standalone machine.

I've been feeling "if-fy" about SP3. Someone at work upgraded to SP3 on two machines. Immediately thereafter both became unusable and had to be flattened and restored (I don't know the details).

[Hayo Baan]

Hmm, if you were not using a share when your problem occured, your system itself is having some problems. I can not really think of any likely causes for this other than perhaps a hard disk that is about to die? Could this be the case? Or perhaps you are just stressing the system very hard (e.g., running another appplication or virus scanner that eats away a lot of resources).

Hmm, I've upgraded quite a few systems to SP3, and the only time I had problems was when upgrading a system with an AMD processor (Microsoft goofed up and accidentally installed Intel drivers on such a system). This problem has been fixed a long time ago though and everything should go smoothly now (as a precaution, always take a backup before updating though).

Even if it is not related to your problem per se, updating to SP3 is still really advisable, even if alone for the security measures that have been incorporated into it.

Cheers

[devenh]

I've seen the problem described on several occasions.  Often I would just have to do the operation with Windows Explorer.  I believe it was always under XP SP2.  I just reinstalled XP on my desktop and am now running SP3.

Deven