In my case cron and crontab had different owners.
NOT working I had this:
User@Uva ~ $ ps -ef | grep cron | grep -v grepUser 2940 7284 pty1 19:58:41 /usr/bin/crontabSYSTEM 11292 636 ? 22:14:15 /usr/sbin/cro Basically I had to run cron-config and answer the questions correctly. There is a point where I was required to enter my Win7 user password for my 'User' account. From reading I did, it looks like this is a potential security issue but I am the only administrator on a single home network so I decided it was OK.
Here is the command sequence that got me going:
User@Uva ~ $ cron-configThe cron daemon can run as a service or as a job. The latter is not recommended.Cron is already installed as a service under account LocalSystem.Do you want to remove or reinstall it? (yes/no) yesOK. The cron service was removed.Do you want to install the cron daemon as a service? (yes/no) yesEnter the value of CYGWIN for the daemon: [ ] ntsecYou must decide under what account the cron daemon will run.If you are the only user on this machine, the daemon can run as yourself. This gives access to all network drives but only allows you as user.To run multiple users, cron must change user context without knowing the passwords. There are three methods to do that, as explained in http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/ntsec.html#ntsec-nopasswd1If all the cron users have executed "passwd -R" (see man passwd), which provides access to network drives, or if you are using the cyglsa package, then cron should run under the local system account.Otherwise you need to have or to create a privileged account. This script will help you do so.Do you want the cron daemon to run as yourself? (yes/no) noWere the passwords of all cron users saved with "passwd -R", orare you using the cyglsa package ? (yes/no) noFinding or creating a privileged user.The following accounts were found: 'cyg_server' .This script plans to use account cyg_server.Do you want to use another privileged account name? (yes/no) yesEnter the other name: UserReenter: UserAccount User already exists. Checking its privileges.INFO: User is a valid privileged account.INFO: The cygwin user name for account User is User.Please enter the password for user 'User':Reenter:Running cron_diagnose ...... no problem found.Do you want to start the cron daemon as a service now? (yes/no) yesOK. The cron daemon is now running.In case of problem, examine the log file for cron,/var/log/cron.log, and the Windows event log (using /usr/bin/cronevents)for information about the problem cron is having.Examine also any cron.log file in the HOME directory(or the file specified in MAILTO) and cron related files in /tmp.If you cannot fix the problem, then report it to cygwin@cygwin.com.Please run the script /usr/bin/cronbug and ATTACH its output(the file cronbug.txt) to your e-mail.WARNING: PATH may be set differently under cron than in interactive shells. Names such as "find" and "date" may refer to Windows programs.User@Uva ~ $ ps -ef | grep cron | grep -v grep User 2944 11780 ? 03:31:10 /usr/sbin/cron User 2940 7284 pty1 19:58:41 /usr/bin/crontabUser@Uva ~ $