Cannot create folder "_vti_cnf". error - newbie needs help desperately

R

Richard Bell

I'm net to Front Page. I've been working for a week or so on a new
web site, making changes, publishing the site, etc. For no apparent
reason I am now getting an error

Cannot create folder "_vti_cnf". error - newbie needs help desperately

when I try to publish the web site to my ISP's server. When this
occurs the progress bar is only about half way through the site.
Curiously the directory _vti_cnf exists on the server and has what
appears to be a partial copy of my pages.

What's going on? How do I correct the problem? Why did it start?
How do I avoid it again?

Thanks
 
T

Tom Pepper Willett

Sounds like extensions may corrupted - ask your hosting company to repair or
reinstall them. Also get them to check the permissions for those
directories.
--
===
Tom "Pepper" Willett
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
---
About FrontPage 2003:
http://office.microsoft.com/home/office.aspx?assetid=FX01085802
FrontPage 2003 Product Information:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/frontpage/prodinfo/default.mspx
Understanding FrontPage:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/frontpage/
FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions Support Center:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;fp10se
===
| I'm net to Front Page. I've been working for a week or so on a new
| web site, making changes, publishing the site, etc. For no apparent
| reason I am now getting an error
|
| Cannot create folder "_vti_cnf". error - newbie needs help desperately
|
| when I try to publish the web site to my ISP's server. When this
| occurs the progress bar is only about half way through the site.
| Curiously the directory _vti_cnf exists on the server and has what
| appears to be a partial copy of my pages.
|
| What's going on? How do I correct the problem? Why did it start?
| How do I avoid it again?
|
| Thanks
 
R

Richard Bell

Tom,

I've talked to them and they say they are good. I've also created
another Web and it works OK. In desperation, I deleted everything off
of the offending web on the server and tried to publish with the same
results including, rather surprisingly, the directory actually being
created and contents being written, and then I get the error message!
What exactly is that file suppose to be/do? Could it be associated
with some part of my site, as opposed to the whole thing? Any other
ideas?
 
T

Tom Pepper Willett

When you say you created another web and it works okay, where are you
publishing it to? As a subweb of the web in question, or to another domain
name with separate server extensions?

--
===
Tom "Pepper" Willett
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
---
About FrontPage 2003:
http://office.microsoft.com/home/office.aspx?assetid=FX01085802
FrontPage 2003 Product Information:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/frontpage/prodinfo/default.mspx
Understanding FrontPage:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/frontpage/
FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions Support Center:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;fp10se
===
| Tom,
|
| I've talked to them and they say they are good. I've also created
| another Web and it works OK. In desperation, I deleted everything off
| of the offending web on the server and tried to publish with the same
| results including, rather surprisingly, the directory actually being
| created and contents being written, and then I get the error message!
| What exactly is that file suppose to be/do? Could it be associated
| with some part of my site, as opposed to the whole thing? Any other
| ideas?
|
|
| On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 12:05:08 -0500, "Tom Pepper Willett"
|
| >Sounds like extensions may corrupted - ask your hosting company to repair
or
| >reinstall them. Also get them to check the permissions for those
| >directories.
|
 
R

Richard Bell

Hard won knowledge .........................

I'm not sure if there is a FAQ or such for FrontPage (I'm a bit new to
it) but the underlying cause of the error

Cannot create folder "_vti_cnf"

in this case was the following:

I had pulled a copy of the logs directory from the ISP's
server into my FrontPage development environment to examine on my own
machine ... a not altogether unreasonable thing to do.

When I went to publish, FrontPage tried to publish the logs
directory and its contents back to the ISP's server ... another
altogether thing to do.

The ISP had, quite sensibly, set the permissions on the logs
directory to disallow write and creation since this is where the
server keeps the log files for my site.

FrontPage tries to create the file _vti_cnf but can not since
it doesn't have permissions, thus the error message.

With an understanding of the problem in hand, the fix is trivial,
delete or move the local copy of the logs directory so FrontPage
doesn't try to publish it and run afoul of the permissions on the logs
directory on the server.

This is an easy enough error to make that if there is a FAQ it should
probably go in.

Richard
 
R

Ronx

Since the logs folder is write protected you can't set the files to not
download - this requires the creation of a _vti_cnf folder, and files within
it. You can, however set your local copy to not upload. Right-click each
file and choose "do not publish" from the menu. However, FP may still try to
create the _vti_cnf folder on the server.

This might work (or it might result in a different error): in the local web
convert the folder containing the log files into a subweb. In FrontPage,
with the web open, right-click on the folder and choose "convert to web".
Check with your host the possibility of converting the online stats folder
to a subweb, and what effects it will have.
If these measures all fail, then removal of the stats from your local copy
seems to be the only option.
 
Top