Hello:

In SQL 2005 9.0.3054, I have a very simple maintenance plan that is to
backup five databases each night. It fails to do so.

It backs up three of the databases but, consistently, there are two that do
not get backed up.

The following are the error messages that I keep getting:
Error: 18204, Severity: 16, State: 1.
Operating system error 3(The system cannot find the path specified.).
Error: 3041, Severity: 16, State: 1.
Check the backup application log for detailed messages.

It is a simple backup job that is backing up to its own local drive! I
don't understand why it "cannot find the path".

The Event Viewer, as usual, is telling me nothing other than that the backup
job has failed.

I did not create this plan with the wizard. I just dragged the icons over.

This plan is to make a full backup of the databases. The databases were set
up at about the same time and similarly. I don't know why two are failing to
be backed up.

Any ideas?

It must be just a typo. There is only one simple thing to say, ensure the
paths are correct. Check and recheck.

--
Ekrem Önsoy

"SQL Programmer" discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B117DB29-C0BF-43F9-9823-9DBC7C86469C@microsoft.com...

No, the path is correct.

This is befuddling me.

SQL Programmer (it's just a name)

"Ekrem Önsoy" wrote:

On Fri, 5 Sep 2008 16:24:01 -0700, SQL Programmer
discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

Just a stab in the darK: Are the paths that work for three databases
the same as the paths that fail for the other two? If they are
different, check permissions on the destination folder for the account
the job runs under.

Roy Harvey
Beacon Falls, CT

No, the path is the same for all five databases. I don't get why it's
working for just three of the five.

And, the properties of all five databases are the same.

SQL Programmer (it's just a name)

"Roy Harvey (SQL Server MVP)" wrote:

You all can, actually, disregard this posting as well. I figured this one
out, though, it is very strange.

I, simply, created a new backup folder to point this backup plan to. I just
tested my plan, and it tested successfully.

I say that this was a strange one, as the reason that it would not backup to
the path that I had it on is because I am telling the plan to create a folder
for each database to be backed up. But, for the fourth and fifth databases
that were not being backed up, SQL 2005 thinks that a folder already exists
in that path for those two databases. Seriously, there are no such folders.

I tested this theory by trying to manually create a folder for the fourth
database in Windows Explorer. Subsequently, I got a message saying that I
could not create the folder because “a folder with this name already exists”.
NOPE! I looked! There is no such folder. No lie!

So, when the backup job tried to create a folder for each database, it would
“error out” the backup job and the fourth and fifth database would not get
backed up and thereby would cause the job to fail!

It was not that SQL didn’t want to backup these two databases. It’s just
that it was failing because it thought that there was a folder for each
database when truly there was not!!!!!