Directory does not exist

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 26 Jan 2011, 16:16

Getting an error message that a directory does not exist. Setting up
FreeFileSync, I am able to browse and list the directory, but when I run
compare it error out. These are directories on two different drives with
different names:
c:\act_data\sync act to server
t:\act_data\from\from lee
This is running on two XP Pro SP3 PCs. They are in fact, connected and I'm
running the sync on the PC which contains the C:\etc folder, which is clearly
visible in Windows Explorer.

Any ideas?

Posts: 7156 · Zenju 26 Jan 2011, 17:24

Can you post the ful error message (copy + paste)? My guess is there is some
issue with double spaces or spaces at the end of the directory names.

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 26 Jan 2011, 18:00

Directory does not exist:
"C:\Act_Databases\Sync Act to Server\"

You can ignore the error to consider not existing directories as empty.
Windows Error Code 2: The system cannot find the file specified.

Posts: 7156 · Zenju 26 Jan 2011, 18:08

Now for comparison, can you go into console and copy & paste the "actual" name
of the directory? (including trainling spaces, if existing)

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 26 Jan 2011, 18:16

I can't tell if there are any trailing spaces. It doesn't appear that there
are any leading spaces. I think I could see leading spaces, the folder name
would be indented in a director list, but not sure how to see if there are
trailing spaces. Is there a way to look for trailing spaces?

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 26 Jan 2011, 18:19

Reading your message again, not sure i know how to copy & paste the actual
name. I'm letting the console enter it. If I try to copy & paste from windows
explorer, it's acting at the file level instead of operating on the name.

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 26 Jan 2011, 18:27

AHA! I used drag and drop and all was well. Strange that the browse feature in
the console wouldn't pick up the difference.

Thanks again!

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 26 Jan 2011, 18:30

I was too quick to declare victory. I was running the compare via the GUI and
it worked twice. When I tried to make amend the matching batch file, it gave
the same error.

Sigh.

Posts: 7156 · Zenju 26 Jan 2011, 18:33

Okay, here's a way to get to the "real" filename: 1. Start FFS, set the
directory via drag & drop. 2. do comparison, just to be sure, the directory is
found 3. exit FFS and locate LastRun.ffs_gui. It is located in
%appdata%\FreeFileSync.
4. post this file somewhere on the net where I can read it

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 26 Jan 2011, 18:38

Drag and drop no longer works. Running a chkdsk now.

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 27 Jan 2011, 17:58

Ran chkdsk /f /r last night. This AM created a fresh session and ran it,
successfully, compared 2X, and saved the LastRun etc. Closed the console and
re-started it and got the same error as noted above. Saved the LastRun etc
from this run as well.
I now have 2 LastRun etc files, ~ 6K each. Where can i send them?

Posts: 7156 · Zenju 27 Jan 2011, 19:19

Post it somewhere on the net or send it to me via email.
I expect the issue to be solved with this version:
[404, Invalid URL: http://www.file-upload.net/download-3167101/FreeFileSync_Win32.rar.html]

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 27 Jan 2011, 19:57

Downloaded, extracted and tried to install the file and it errors out, saying:
This application has failed to start because mingwm10.dll was not found. etc.

Finally found mingwm10.dll, downloaded it and tried to register it and got the
error that it was loaded but the DLLRegisterServer entry port was not found
and that it could not be loaded.

Sigh.

Posts: 7156 · Zenju 27 Jan 2011, 20:03

You need to copy the exe file into the regular FFS installation folder and
overwrite the .exe only.

Posts: 7156 · Zenju 27 Jan 2011, 20:13

Finally, as expected a space character was the culprit:
"C:\Act_Databases\Sync Act to Server"
"C:\Act_Databases\Sync Act to Server"
TinyXML that is used by FFS has the feature to condense whitespace. I've
deactivated this setting, that should solve the issue.

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 27 Jan 2011, 20:18

When I do that and create a new folder pair, using drag and drop, it runs fine
through 3 compares. If I then close FFS and re-start, using the folder pair, I
get the same old error - error - directory does not exist.

Posts: 7156 · Zenju 27 Jan 2011, 20:22

The bug is is fixed in the version posted above.

Posts: 16 · leewdouglas4 27 Jan 2011, 20:25

Yes, if I go in and insert the extra space in the folder name it will run
repeatedly. I'll have to disengage other things that may be looking at that
folder and then re-name it. The newer version you posted still seems to
continue to strip out the extra space, but I can deal with that.

Thanks for all your help!

Posts: 7156 · Zenju 27 Jan 2011, 20:44

> The newer version you posted still seems to continue to strip out the extra
space
This should really work now. Maybe you loaded an old (invalid) config file
that is already missing the additional space.