Problem Between Vista and NAS Drive

I’m, having a problem with Vista and my Buffalo network attached storage drive that I’m desperate to find a fix for. I have 2 brand new Dell Studio 15 laptops with Vista Home Premium SP1, one MSI branded laptop running XP SP3 and a Buffalo Linkstation Pro on my home wireless network. My problem is that when I try to copy or write to/from the Linkstation NAS, the files do get written but Windows Explorer hangs on the calculating time remaining dialog box. When this happens I cannot dismiss the dialog box even with Task Manager. The only way I have found to get out of this is to shutdown my laptop with the power button. After I reboot I find that the file(s) were indeed copied or written to the NAS drive. The problem is the calculating time remaining dialog box just hangs up no matter how many hours I wait for it to show me the file progress is complete. My XP machine copies/writes files without any problems at all so I know it has to be Vista related as both Studio 15s exhibit this problem. I worked with Buffalo’s tech support and we upgraded the drive to the latest firmware but with no resolution to this issue. I’m becoming desperate for a solution other than going to XP! Can someone help me?

Thanks,
Bill : )

 

I would guess that the _Vista systems aren't properly receiving the "job finished" message from the NAS (to put it in seriously non-technical language ).

One way to try and figure out what's happening is to run Sysinternals' Process Explorer, which should allow you to drill down and focus on the process that's running that dialogue box. By doing that on the XP machine and the _Vista machines, you should be able to identify what's different on the XP and the _Vista systems.

You should also be able to use Process Explorer to figure out what process(es) have opened a handle on the file in question, and verify that the handle(s) are being properly released (or not).

 

Shyster1, thanks for your reply. One more tidbit. During the process of working with the Buffalo tech all the data on my Linkstation got erased. Fortunately I had backed everything up onto a USB drive just in case. When there were only empty folders on the drive, Vista seemed to transfer files to and from the drive with no problems. I was even able to move a 411MB avi file OK. But the problem came back after I started copying files from the USB drive back to the Linkstation. As soon as the number of files started to increase on the drive Vista started to hang on the "calculating remaining time" dialog box. I ended up transferring all my files back to the Linkstation using my XP laptop. Now I don't have a lot of space used up on my drive, only about 1GB but there are a lot files (jpgs etc.) so it seems that Vista has a problem calculating the time it takes to copy or transfer a file either to or from the Linkstation because it's looking at all the files on the drive. Does that make sense? But like I said in the first post, even though the dialog box hangs up, the files do get transferred. I hate to beg but I'm pulling my hair out at trying to solve this problem.

Thanks,
Bill : )

 

Another bit of information. Our network administrator at my work suggested I try transferring files to and from the Linkstation by connecting directly to my router from the laptop's Ethernet port and disabling my WiFi. I found that I was able to transfer any file over the Ethernet port. However the problem was back when trying over my WiFi connection, but only with Vista as my XP laptop can transfer files over WiFi with no problem. I use a D-Link DI-624 G spec router and my network properties indicate I'm connected to it at 54mbps. So the problem appears to be confined to my WiFi connection and my Vista laptops.

Also I downloaded and tried the Process Explorer and to tell you the truth when I experienced the hang up I really couldn't tell what the problem was as 93% of my system was idle.

I appreciate any help anyone can give me.

Thanks,
Bill : )

 

Since my last reply to I have found out a lot more about my problem and it appears to be a problem with Vista. I found that I encounter the same issues when trying to transfer a file between my Vista laptop and a shared folder on my other indentical Vista laptop. The file actually does get written but my laptop hangs up on the "Calculating Time Remaining" dialog box. I also found that by using msconfig to disable all third party software from the startup list and rebooting with only the Microsoft services that I still encounter the problem when transferring files to the NAS. But when I boot my laptop into safe mode with networking, I can transfer files to and from the NAS with no problems whatsoever so I know my hardware is working all right. So it's come to this and I am desperate to find a resolution to this problem so I can actually use my network like it should be used. I've Goggled this problem and it's well known and there's a Microsoft knowledge base article (#930771) but it says this problem was fixed in SP1, which I have. I was corresponding with a Microsoft support specialist but she seems to have deep-sixed me since all her tests seem to point to Vista being the problem. Please, if anyone has any ideas I really would appreciate it. As I said I'm desperate to find a solution to this.

Thanks for looking in...
Bill : )