Error message when using biber

This is a rather minimal, but compilable test example. Does this example (saved, say, as biblatextest.tex) compile for you without errors? If not, what does the logfile (biblatextest.txt), especially the section *File List, say?

EDIT: The proper compile sequence for the example (if one doesn't use a makefile like latexmk) is

-pdflatex biblatextest
-biber biblatextest
-pdflatex biblatextest

Note the use of biber as a replacement for bibtex!

\listfiles

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}

\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@misc{A01,
  author = {Author, A.},
  year = {2001},
  title = {Alpha},
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

Some text \autocite{A01}.

\printbibliography

\end{document}

(The filecontents environment is only used to include some external files directly into the example, so that it compiles. It is not necessary for the solution.)

EDIT 2: In response to the updated question: In the code snippet \autocite{A01}, A01 is the citekey of the first (and only) bibentry in my .bib file (it starts with @misc{A01, misc being the BibTeX type). What do you expect when you cite an entry that isn't included in your .bib file?

EDIT 3: That's a new question, isn't it? ;-) To remove [hep-ex] from every bibliography entry, add the following to your preamble:

\AtEveryBibitem{\clearfield{eprintclass}}

And yes, XeLaTeX instead of pdfLaTeX may be worth a try. For details see Frequently loaded packages: Differences between pdfLaTeX and XeLaTeX.

I have seen the same message when typesetting a tex file when using TeXShop.

Cannot find control file something.bcf did you pass the "backend=biber" option to BibLaTeX?

The message occurs when the tex file or other configuration files specify one BibTeX engine while TeXShop specifies another.

For example if the Engine settings in TeXShop prefs specify 'biber' rather than 'bibtex' while the tex file includes...

\usepackage[round]{natbib}

Conversely another tex file might use a class file to manage styles (.cls), specifying biber like so...

\RequirePackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}

In order to typeset from within TexShop, your prefs need to be changed to achieve agreement between the typesetting environment and the parameter in your file, e.g.: biber rather than bibtex, or bibtex rather than biber.

The problem does not occur when compiling from the command line using the desired BibTex engine.