Creating Hard Links on Remote Computers with BackupWrite() May Cause "Access Denied" Error Message (263549)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
This article was previously published under Q263549

SYMPTOMS

Creating hard links on remote computers by using the BackupWrite function may cause "Access denied" error messages.

You can use the BackupWrite Win32 function to create hard links to a file located on local and remote computers. A program must open a handle to the file (by using the CreateFile function) for which the hard link is to be created and must use the file handle to make a series of BackupWrite calls to create the hard link.

After a hard link is successfully created, if a program performs any subsequent operations by using the open file handle, the following error message may be generated:
Error: ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED 5
This problem occurs only for remote files (not local files). To create hard links on remote computers, you can use either a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path for the remote file, or you can map the remote hard disk to the local computer and then access the remote file. This problem occurs in both of these cases.

CAUSE

This problem occurs because the Windows 2000 redirector does not handle the Create Hard Link operation correctly for remote files.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later: 
   Date        Time      Version        Size     File name
   --------------------------------------------------------
   05/25/2000  09:38 AM  5.0.2195.2096  368,976  Mrxsmb.sys

NOTE: You should install this hotfix on the client computer on which the program that creates hard links is running.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, you can close the file handle after the creation of the hard link and then reopen the file handle to process any further operations on the file.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 2.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about how to install Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 hotfixes at the same time, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

249149 Installing Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Hotfixes

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:9/26/2005
Keywords:kbHotfixServer kbQFE kbbug kbfix kbWin2000PreSP2Fix KB263549
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