i was unable to do a simple new, open:
<pre>
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents> fossil new p:\backup\backup.f
project-id: 0c559eca39534d82928edd0dee0e59a011461098
server-id:  6b95e35610a5ea0b56e9cb1e8593d305ca6510a7
admin-user: ron wilson (initial password is "2a32a6")
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents> fossil open p:\backup\backup.f
C:\WINDOWS\system32\fossil.exe: no such table: vvar
REPLACE INTO vvar(name,value) VALUES('repository','p:\backup\backup.f')
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents> fossil ver
This is fossil version [37f295c310] 2009-09-21 19:19:20 UTC
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents>
</pre>

<hr><i>rwilson added on 2009-09-23 05:16:46:</i><br>
this may be hardware related.  seems to work fine on C drive, but P is a sata drive in a usb external enclosure.  will investigate further.

<hr><i>rwilson added on 2009-09-23 05:39:29:</i><br>
it is not hardware related.  for some reason fossil is not able open a repository in the 'my documents' folder.  odd.  it is able to create the _FOSSIL_ file in 'my documents' and it appears to be complete, so i can't explain the error.

<pre>
PS C:\fossil> fossil new p:\backup\test.f
project-id: 711304708008228f835ddfed439613f3179944d6
server-id:  acdf9cf7de168d7d9a08f18b360b1ed1c5e9b422
admin-user: ron wilson (initial password is "36625a")
PS C:\fossil> md nospaces
PS C:\fossil> cd nospaces
PS C:\fossil\nospaces> fossil open p:\backup\test.f
PS C:\fossil\nospaces> cd ..
PS C:\fossil> md "one space"
PS C:\fossil> cd 'one space'
PS C:\fossil\one space> fossil open p:\backup\test.f
PS C:\fossil\one space> cd 'C:\Documents and Settings'
PS C:\Documents and Settings> fossil open p:\backup\test.f
PS C:\Documents and Settings> cd 'ron wilson'
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson> fossil open p:\backup\test.f
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson> cd 'My Documents'
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents> fossil open p:\backup\test.f
C:\WINDOWS\system32\fossil.exe: no such table: vvar
REPLACE INTO vvar(name,value) VALUES('repository','p:\backup\test.f')
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents> ls
    Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents
Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a---         9/23/2009   1:35 AM       7168 _FOSSIL_
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents> sqlite3 _FOSSIL_
SQLite version 3.6.1
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> .schema
CREATE TABLE vfile(
  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  vid INTEGER REFERENCES blob,
  chnged INT DEFAULT 0,
  deleted BOOLEAN DEFAULT 0,
  rid INTEGER,
  mrid INTEGER,
  mtime INTEGER,
  pathname TEXT,
  origname TEXT,
  UNIQUE(pathname,vid)
);
CREATE TABLE vmerge(
  id INTEGER REFERENCES vfile,
  merge INTEGER,
  UNIQUE(id, merge)
);
CREATE TABLE vvar(
  name TEXT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
  value CLOB,
  CHECK( typeof(name)='text' AND length(name)>=1 )
);
sqlite> .quit
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents>cd ..
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson> md 'my documents2'
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson> cd 'my documents2'
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\my documents2> fossil open p:\backup\test.f
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\my documents2>cd '..\My Documents'
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents> md test
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents> cd test
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents\test> fossil open p:\backup\test.f
PS C:\Documents and Settings\ron wilson\My Documents\test>
</pre>