XADM: Exchange Service Pack Installation Hangs on File Copy Phase on Windows 2000

ID: Q249002

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5, used with:
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

SYMPTOMS

When you are applying Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 3 to a beta version of Windows 2000 Server that is running Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA), Setup may stop responding (hang) at the file copy phase. There are no error messages, and no errors in the event log.

CAUSE

When OWA is installed, Setup backs up the Webdata folder with the following command:

xcopy /s /e /c /i c:\exchsrvr\webdata c:\exchsrvr\webdata.bak

In Windows 2000, you are prompted to verify the file overwrite. However, no user interface (UI) is displayed for this process, so there is no console where you can press Y to continue.

RESOLUTION

Before you apply the service pack, set the following environment variable using the following steps:

On the Windows 2000 Server Start menu, point to Program Files, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.

Type set copycmd=/y.

WORKAROUND

NOTE: This workaround stops the service pack installation from backing up the Webdata folder unless you do it manually.

If the problem has already occurred and you are at the screen that is hanging, you can follow these steps to work around the problem:

Locate the Webdata folder, and make a copy of it for backup purposes.

Start Task Manager by pressing the CTRL+ALT+DEL keys and clicking Task Manager.

Click the Processes tab, and look for the Xcopy.exe item.

If it is present, click it, and then click End Process to kill it.

The installation will continue.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the beta versions of Windows 2000. It was fixed in build 2141 and does not occur with the RTM build (2195).

Additional query words:

Keywords : exc55
Version : winnt:5.5
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbprb