Cannot Find The File Specified with AT Command

Last reviewed: November 7, 1995
Article ID: Q139054

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.51
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.51

SUMMARY

When you use the AT scheduler to run a command prompt operation, the following error message appears:

   The system cannot find the file specified

CAUSE

This error occurs if the command prompt operation specified in the AT command contains directory names that include spaces. For example, the following AT command generates the above error:

   AT 12:00 "XCOPY C\Source directory\*.* C:\Destination directory"

Within the AT command, the XCOPY command parses the space in the directory name as a delimiter between parameters.

RESOLUTION

To correct this problem,

Create a batch file that contains the desired command prompt operation.
Specify the batch file as the desired command for the scheduler service to run. For example:
```
      AT 12:00 C:\TEST.BAT
```
where TEST.BAT contains the following:
```
      XCOPY "C:\Source directory\*.*" "C:\Destination directory"
```

KBCategory: kbusage kbhowto
KBSubcategory: nthowto ntconfig
Additional reference words: prodnt 3.51

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Last reviewed: November 7, 1995
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