Copying from Vista to Windows 2k/XP Errors

Has anyone else noticed severe problems when copying FROM Vista TO a Windows 2k/XP machine through a LAN.

Here is what happens when I copy from Vista to any other XP/2K machine:

1. I open and browse a remote file, for example \\192.168.0.100\c$\TestFolder
2. I copy a group of files larger than let's say 100 megs from Vista to this remote folder
3. During the copy process, the remote machine (XP/2K) crashes due to lack of resources. Basically you start getting huge resource errors. This causes the copy to fail*
4. You have to reboot the remote machine.

Other concerning issues:

1. Any files that DID successfully copy before the remote machine was brought to a halt due to lack of resources, may be corrupt. So if you had used the "move" feature you may have just lost all your files.
2. *Sometimes the copy claims to be complete and successful on the Vista side; however it happens to quickly. For example, you drop 1 gig of files and it'd done copying in a min or two (much too fast). All the files show up on the remote machine, but are all completely corrupt.

If I instead map a "Vista folder" on the XP/2K machine and copy the safe files that way, it seems to work fine.

I have read several forums reporting this issue with Vista, but no solid solutions. Has anyone here experienced this issue or found a solution?

If you copy smaller files (let's say less than 50 megs total) it does not seem to have a problem. I have also tried using copy-assist programs like SyncBack and they also fail or show the same problems.

Any ideas?

 

how about reporting this to microsoft themselves
so they can maybe release a hotfix if its an issue with all systems

i will try moving over 100mb and see for my self
actually i dont know know if its only me but copying, moving,
deleting or even emptying the recycle bin seems to take
a awful lot of time. seems slower than in XP
its as if vista is logging or keeping track of all file operations
u perform. it seems so slow

 

Great idea. Can you send me a link or do you have a good way to report these kids of bugs directly to MS?

As for searching around, I've seen several forums on the web about this issue, so I know it's a "known" issue, but not sure if MS knows much about it, so it would be a great idea to report it to them.

Let me know what you think,

 

stebook -- I know this is kind of the opposite of what you were talking about, but: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931770 is the only thing from Microsoft that describes some problems with copying files over a network on Windows Vista.

Microsoft hasn't made the fix publicly available, but if you want to give it a shot, I uploaded it here. I don't know that it will fix your problem, but it couldn't hurt to try.


surefire -- it's not just you. The speed issue and failure to move large files is a known issue with Vista, and I don't think the hotfix does much to help the problem... but, at least they recognize that there's an issue.

 

!!!great!!!

 

Stebook,

I am having a similar problem, and its driving me crazy. Whenever I copy over any database files from my Vista to my xp computer, it appears that everything worked fine, i.e. if I open the program in the xp machine, the program opens normally, and everything is updated. However, as soon as I reboot, all of the updated filed that had been copied become corrupted. It just seems to happen on programs with datebase files. Both machines use NTFS file system.

 

am very happy to report that I finally determined that the problem was caused by my CA Security Suite anti virus program. After uninstalling that program, I am now able to copy files from my vista to xp machine with no problem.

 

Thanks for finding this fix... I'm going to install it tomorrow and see how this works.

 

I was also running CA Antivirus and it really slowed down my machine. When I contacted CA, they said that none of their software supports any CPUs that have any 64-bit capabilities regardless of OS. This sounds incorrect and just an excuse for crap software, but that's what they said. Either way, it was causing a slow down. I switched out and things are much faster. However, my problems is still there.

I'm even finding files on my local disk that are funky. I have files that I can't even copy/duplicate/delete or open properties for? What could cause this? If I try to copy the file it just sits there saying "calculating" for 10-20+ minutes. It's a 900K file!

Anyone have any ideas?

 

Ok, so I still can't access these files. But here's more (odd) info:

1) I can't copy, delete, open the file
2) If I right click on the file and click on properties, nothing happens
3) I CAN zip the file.
4) If ZIP the file and move/unzip it to a new location, then newly unzipped file has the same problems (see 1 & 2 above). If I move this ZIP to a different VISTA machine it has the same problems. However, if I move this ZIP and unzip it on a WIN 2k/XP machine, the file is fine and even opens completely - no corruption whatsoever.

The file was created ON Vista and was working fine a few days ago.

Any ideas?

 

Try transferring a file by first sending it to an email server like MSN or Yahoo or Gmail, then downloading that file on the other OS. Yes, this is incredibly inefficient and slow, but it's guaranteed to work. Just zip everything up, send the file, and wait a few minutes.

I'm fairly sure it's not Vista or XP causing this, rather it's a software suite you installed that is causing this. I'd suggest creating and sending files in XP/Vista safemodes but then you'd need to start your networking services manually and I'm not entirely sure which services they are.

At this point I would disable any software that could interfere with your network traffic, including firewalls and antivirus. Also get rid of unnecessary plugins that run in the background, such as Google Desktop. Basically, strip down your OS's to the bare minimum. If you've already done this and it still doesn't work, then I would suggest running XP in a virtual machine using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 for Vista and transferring files to the XP instance and sending it from there. You will then need a handy file transfer tool called WinSCP3, and if you have a little technical knowledge it should be self explanatory.

 

Thanks for the advice - I appreciate it. I did try deleting this file in Vista Safe mode, but again, no luck. I can't right click and open properties or copy/delete the file. If I winzip the file, then I can copy the file and unzip it. However the unzipped file now has the same problem as the original.

The file itself is an image/picture file - it's not an exe or a program or a script or anything like that, just an image data file. It's not corrupt because if I zip it and copy it to any other OS (win 2k/XP) either through a LAN, Flash Drive, or email like you suggested, I can open the file no problem. However if I copy that zip to a different Vista machine (or the same Vista machine) and unzip it, I'm stuck with an inaccessible file. How is it that a 1 meg picture can be inaccessible on the same OS that it was created on all under full Admin privileges?

Again, I have disabled Antivirus and booted in safe mode - no change in behavior. The big problem now is having these files that I can't delete stuck on now 2 vista machines.

The only related information I've found so far is people complaining of a similar issue when they have the file on a local hard drive in a shared folder. Then, they reboot the machine or take it to a different network (work vs home) they now have corrupt or inaccessible files on their local drive. This file on my machine was created in vista and stored on the C drive the whole time. I worked with it then a couple days later when I went to access it I could not even copy/open/delete/etc it. So the file was not transferred at all between networks, however, it is in a folder that is "Shared"

Any other ideas? Thanks again

 

More Info:

I just tried the following:

1) Zip the file
2) Email the file to myself
3) Download this zip file
4) Unzip this file

The newly unzipped file is still inaccessible.

If I try to down load the file on a different computer running 2k/Xp the file works fine.

If I download the file to another vista machine... it is inaccessible and I'm again stuck with a file that I can't delete.

 

Oiy, quite a headache there. You wouldn't have happened to repartition your hard drive after installing Vista? There are reports from people who tried to make their Vista partitions larger using various partitioning tools and end up with corrupt files that can't be deleted.

My questions would be, what program are you using to create the image file? Does it matter what type of file you transfer? Are you trying to transfer files from different versions of Vista...ex: Vista 64bit to Vista 32bit?

 

The two Vista machines I have are both clean installs with out any funky after-install partitions:

1) Vista Ultimate (laptop) 32-bit
2) Vista Business (desktop) 32-bit

Initially I was not trying to transfer the files at all. I had the file on a local c-drive on machine #1 and just yesterday booted up and could not access that one file (other files of the same type and folder were fine).

When I discovered I could not even delete/copy/open-properties/rename/etc the file, but I could ZIP the file, that's when I tried transferring it around to different folders on the local drive as well as other computers via, LAN, Flash Drive, Emailing, etc.

When I copy the zip file to machine #2, and then unzip it, the unzipped image file is inaccessible. Same process but to a Win2k/XP machine and the file works perfectly. Even booting up in Safemode on Vista I could not access the file.

It's baffling. The program I used to create the file is PhotoImpact 12. If the file was corrupted or could not be opened, etc, that's one thing. But I can't see how any program could render a file completely inaccessible to the Vista OS in a way that the root admin could not delete it, but could zip it and transfer it. Even if permission were lost/reset on the file, it should come up and say "Access Denied" or something. Plus if access was denied, then I would not be able to ZIP the file and open it fine on another OS.

quite a headache.

UPDATE:

Well PhotoImpact might be the culprit. I found a thread on their forum with other people with a similar problem. I'm still baffled how a program can subvert the OS so well, but either way - Uninstalling the program or running a patch may solve this problem. I'll give that a try and report back.

 

SOLVED

After removing PhotoImpact 12, I can now delete the file. Still I am not sure what corrupted the file, but either way, I'm done with that program and the files are off the machine.

It's odd that Vista would allow files to be locked that way, but either way, I think that's the solution.

Thanks again for the help...

 

That's good to hear! As I've suspected, the culprit is the program that creates or otherwise modifies the file. A lot of these programs are still in their "iffy" stages on Vista. Let them work out the bugs for PhotoImpact and then download the newest version.