testing errorlevel in a batch file does not return expected result - errorlevel

Question

Windows 7 64 bit
I'm writing a batch file that copies a file from a directory to another directory then deletes the file. There are times where the file i wish to copy is being written by another program when the batch file is run and as a result issues the error "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." I was expecting to be able to do an errorlevel test on this condition and when it exists jump to a delay and then retry. I am unable to get an IF ERRORLEVEL 1 type test to give me a 1 condition so I can jump to my delay. I've tried all kinds of variations using % around errorlevel etc. I can't seem to get it to produce a non 0 result even know it's producing the "The process cannot access the file..." error. I swear I had this working at one time but I can't for the life of me figure out why it's no longer working. I even tried a much simpler test below and it won't see the failed delete command as a non zero errorlevel. How do I construct a proper errorlevel test that will pick up the failing delete command and allow me to jump to a delay?
:start
copy c:\users\pc\documents\recordings\*.mp3 c:\recordings
del c:\users\pc\documents\recordings\*.mp3
if errorlevel 1 goto delay
goto start
:delay
echo delay
ping 1.1.1.1 > nul
goto start

Answer 1

Well, I was able to come at this a slightly different way. After searching around I found some code that will let me do basically what I want. After integrating this into my much larger script I am able to jump out to a delay then try again until the file is no longer locked.
#echo off
2>nul (
>>test.txt echo off
) && (echo file is not locked) || (echo file is locked)
I am however perplexed as to why I was unable to get errorlevel checking to work. I swear I had this working previously but then was unable to get it working again. I've done a lot of searching and haven't really come up with a definitive answer. The errorlevel checking would have been much simpler had it worked.
---update---
I went searching and found the findstr command and playing around with some code came up with what is another method. I'm "locking" the file using the read only attribute which yeilds a different error message "Access is denied" but I'm using findstr to search the error code that is piped into tmp and if it's there do one thing, if it's not, do another. Seems to work. I might integrate this into my code to see how it works.
#echo off
cls
:start
del c:\recording.mp3 2> tmp > nul
findstr "Access" tmp > nul
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 GOTO delay
ECHO NO DELAY
ping 1.1.1.1 > nul
goto start
:delay
echo DELAY
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 > nul
goto start