Greg,

I can't give you a definite fix, but I can confirm that your problem is
software related and specifically it is a Windows registry problem.  It is
not network related and it has nothing to do with the profiles or shares
that you have established.

Windows is notorious for mismanaging (mangling) the registry.

Even though Outlook is shut down, (from what you described) the Windows
registry still has some part of Outlook active and therefore will not
release the lock on the file.

It's a lousy resolution, but I think your only alternative is to strip down
the offending machine and reinstall everything.

Jim Meagher
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----- Original Message -----
From: Greg Anderson <[log in to unmask]>

> I send you this mail not knowing if it should go to PCBUILD or PCSOFT.
>
>         I recently set up a 5 node peer-2-peer network for an Insurance
company.
> The customer asked me if we can share any files on the network. My reply
was
> "YES"! The customer then asks me to set up his "Personal Folder" file
> (*.pst) to be shared. This would allow his staff to view and edit his
> calendar for appointments. I moved the file to it's own directory and
marked
> the directory shared. Now I built profiles on the other 4 PC's so they can
> choose the profile that will access his ".PST" file across the network to
> allow them to view/update his calendar. We were able to make it work on
all
> 4 PC's at least once. Then we started to get the error "cannot access
> because another process has locked a portion of the file". I went to each
of
> the machines and closed OUTLOOK on all of them and tried again. I still
get
> the message above. I then did a "Ctrl" + "Alt" + "Delete" to view the task
> list on each machine one at a time. I found on several occassions that one
> machine and one machine only would show the"OUTLOOK" task still running
even
> though Outlook itself wasnt active on the desktop or taskbar. I killed
that
> task ("END TASK"), and found that we could share the file again. But
> invariably we would run into that error message when user 1 would end
> Outlook and start the other profile for their own calendar/mail and then a
> different user would attempt to access the shared *.PST file across the
> network.
>         The network seems to be fine since it is allowing printers to be
shared,
> other directories are being used to hold documents and templates that are
> shared. The problem is that this error is now happening every time they
try
> to access the shared *.PST across the network. We are no longer finding
the
> "Outlook" task running on any of the machines. I am running low on ideas
as
> to why we cant share this file, or what on the network could be causing
this
> problem. The folder is marked shared with full access, the file itself
> (*.pst) is not marked read only. And as I stated earlier, it worked for a
> short period of time. Any ideas on how to resolve this issue, or what
other
> items that I should be checking? All ideas would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Greg Anderson
> GALA Enterprise
> Quality Computer Service & Repair
> Phone - 916-684-8647
> e-mail - [log in to unmask]
>
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