We have a Windows 2008 R2 server, being used as a file server only.
To my knowledge, it is properly patched, etc., as a virtual server, via our Server support group.
We have a drive mapping to an area on this server, and we use it to store various scripts and other files, and these are accessed via workstations (which happen to be Win XP, we are in a migration process, but are not there yet, that's a different problem).
On this server, in our drive-letter-mapped area, I had a text file ... VW_VWDR_DR5ADJUSTMENTS_v4b.sql ... ("name1")
... a child script that is called from a master script.
I renamed it ... VW_DR5ADJUSTMENTS_v4b.sql ... ("name2")
(so that it would sort in a list of scripts in a more correct, alphabetic order)
... and I changed the master script to call the new name.
(please remember, these are just text files, editable in notepad, no state secrets or anything).
The next day (aka "Day 1"), the master script is called by a scheduler routine on our test server (as it has, for several months now, as we are getting reading for a particular program change) and the script is called, runs as designed, all is fine. This test server is a _different_ server, Win2k8, not R2. I can describe the calling method / purposes / etc., but I don't think that has bearing on the issue I am describing.
The FOLLOWING day (aka "Day 2") (and no other changes were made to the master script or child scripts in the meantime) ... the text file in question had reverted to its original name (Name1), and of course, the master script could not call it, and dutifully logged its errors (and that particular script messed up every subsequent dependent change).
So ... on Day 2, I had to reset the whole process, rename Name1 to Name2 _again_, rerun the whole darn thing (via an ad hoc scheduler task from the test server), and it again worked as desired, as it had on Day 1.
Later on Day 2, as I was writing up my notes for the day, including this file-name change anomaly, I went to look at the log file / child script file location ... AND I FOUND NAME2 had AGAIN reverted TO NAME1 !
No other developers changed anything. I am completely baffled as to why this would have occurred. I've had Win servers revert _SYSTEM_ files to older versions ... but never not system files and not text files. I don't know where to look or how to ask the question.
My solution was ... to create a COPY of Name1, named as Name2, and put a note in _that_ file ... and the master script was again happy for the following day and both files were left alone.
But I would seriously like to know what is happening ... and what server setting to change so it does not happen again ... it has made me seriously afraid to rename files. The file version itself did not revert ... just the name.
All clues / ideas welcome.
Thanks for your time.
SM