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Forum Discussion

Richard P.44's avatar
Richard P.44
Helpful | Level 7
7 years ago

I get an error message that Windows System Restore failed?

Hi When I run Windows System Restore it fails with this error message System Restore failed to replace the file (D:\Users\*******\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgbzfynfuwbof\placeholder.bat) wit...
desktop
Setting up the apps
Windows
  • radical_exponent's avatar
    radical_exponent
    2 years ago

    Hi everyone,

     

    We're testing out some changes in v182 (currently in beta) that should hopefully help with this. Let us know if you continue to run into problems.

     

    Thanks

Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

Hey Richard - sorry to hear about this!

Have you asked Microsoft directly as this error is coming from your Windows computer's directly and not Dropbox? 

What I was able to find is that this issue can happen in Windows computers due to various reasons. Some of them are: 

1. System files corruption or missing
2. Hard disk errors or bad sectors
3. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable
4. Unknown virus or malware infection. 

I hope this information helps point you towards the right direction and please keep me posted on your findings Richard P.44/. 

Richard P.44's avatar
Richard P.44
Helpful | Level 7
7 years ago

Hi 

yes followed through the microsoft procedures and not found anything to help

Raised it here as the file causing the error was a dropbox placeholder file. Seems to have only become a problem since smart sync came into operation

Richard

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    7 years ago

    Thanks for the additional info Richard P.44 - much appreciated.

    From what I understand (note that this is not within my scope of expertise in any way) when you run the System Restore your computer tries to restore a placeholder file from your external drive (yes, I noticed the " D:\ "part on that file's path) and fails for some reason. Do you have that external drive connected to your computer when performing your system's recovery? 

    At this point and to help isolate this issue, could you please try quitting the Dropbox application when trying to restore by using the following steps?

    • Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac/Linux)
    • Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select "Quit Dropbox"

    Let me know if this helped! 

    • Richard P.44's avatar
      Richard P.44
      Helpful | Level 7
      7 years ago

      Walter

      I have to admit that I hadnt taken in that it was referring to D drive. There is one but its just an HP partition for recovery files - so nothing to do with Dropbox

      I therefore uninstalled dropbox - tested system restore without it having cleaned out all the dropbox folders - restore worked fine

      Then reinstalled Dropbox to a new folder - and restore worked fine as well

      So something to do with a corruption in the cache folder perhaps. Anyway problem solved

      Many thanks for your help

      • Walter's avatar
        Walter
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        7 years ago

        Glad to hear you managed to resolve your concern in the end Richard P.44! 

        Should you ever come up with a question - or issue for that matter - please let me know.

        Thanks for using Dropbox and have a lovely day ahead! 

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