Explorer copy to networked XP system hangs with Calculating
Ever since I upgraded from Vista, when I try to copy a large file from my Windows 7 system to my Windows XP system, it will (intermittently) hang with the text "Discovering item" and in the details "Calculating". It eventually tells me there's a problem accessing the share, even though I have an explorer window up showing the share. I've booted into Safe Mode With Networking, and it has the same problem. Dan
February 5th, 2010 10:15pm

Hi Dan, You may try Robocopy and check if you can copy large file from your Windows 7 computer to Windows XP. Please see the articles below for more information about this. · http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd542631.aspx Perform Multithreaded File Copies with Robocopy in Windows 7 · http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.04.utilityspotlight.aspx?pr=blog RichCopy On Windows 7 system, also check the drive for errors on which this large file is located. Please see the instructions below to check a drive for errors. 1. Open Computer by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Computer. 2. Right-click the drive that you want to check, and then click Properties. 3. Click the Tools tab, and then, under Error-checking, click Check now. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. To automatically repair problems with files and folders that the scan detects, select Automatically fix file system errors. Otherwise, the disk check will report problems but not fix them. To perform a thorough check, select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. This scan attempts to find and repair physical errors on the drive itself, and it can take much longer to complete. To check for both file errors and physical errors, select both Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. 4. Click Start. For more information, please see the link below, http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Check-a-drive-for-errors Check a drive for errors Hope this information helps you. Regards Yaaser - Microsoft Support EngineerVisit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think
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February 6th, 2010 9:26pm

Robocopy fails as well. The problem seems to be related to copying across the network, as when it fails it says share is no longer available, and it doesn't fail if I copy locally. I'll do the scan, but I'm quite sure it has something to do with the network. Any other ideas?
February 11th, 2010 12:33am

I also did a full scan and didn't get any errors. This is pretty frustrating, I can copy from my XP system to my Win7 system either from the XP machine or even from the Win7 machine. But almost every (but not every) time it hangs with Discovering items in the main window, and if I go to details it shows calculating for time remaining, items remaining and speed. Is there some way to get it to just do the copy without trying to calculate this information? I even downloaded a newer driver for my Intel 82567LF-2 network card, but that didn't help either. Is there any way I can collect some more data to help figure out this problem? Dan
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February 11th, 2010 4:06am

Can anyone provide any help on this. It is very consistent and really a pain. I'd be glad to try to help debug this if anyone could provide any direction. If it helps, it fails in exactly the same where if I call Filesystem.MoveFile from a VB.NET app. I can't tell if this function is in Shell32.dll, but if so my version is 6.1.7600.16385. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Dan
February 12th, 2010 8:05pm

The copy command in a DOS box has the same problem.
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February 12th, 2010 10:22pm

I'll try posting this again, since the first time I got one non-useful reply,then nothing. Ever since I upgraded from Vista, when I try to copy a large file from my Windows 7 system to my Windows XP system, it will (intermittently) hang with the text "Discovering item" and in the details "Calculating". It eventually tells me there's a problem accessing the share, even though I have an explorer window up showing the share. I've booted into Safe Mode With Networking, and it has the same problem. Both Robocopy and the copy command in the DOS box also hang. I've done a full scan and there are no problems with the drive (and note that a copy from the XP system to the Win7 system works fine). Dan
February 15th, 2010 11:03pm

Hi, Sorry to know that the issue still persists. As you are able to copy locally without any problem, there is something that's interrupting in a network. To find out what's causing this issue, reproduce the issue and provide the event log details, so that we can check what's causing this issue. Visit the following link for more information:http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-information-appears-in-event-logs-Event-Viewer Post back the event log details, so that we can assist you further. Regards,SyedMicrosoft answers support engineer.Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.
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February 16th, 2010 8:34pm

I reproduced it and the only event in any of the logs was a 7036, The Multimedia Class Scheduler service entered the running state. The file I was copying was an MP4 file, if that makes a difference.
February 17th, 2010 10:43pm

Hi,We appreciate if you can provide more details from the event log like error code and other details present in the details tab. The failure details in Event Viewer can be found under:a. Windows Logs - > Applicationb. Windows Logs - > System All the log entries will be loaded in Administrative Events. Regards,SyedMicrosoft answers support engineer.
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February 19th, 2010 10:35pm

I just recreated the problem again, and NO events were added to either the Application or System logs (the Multimedia Class Scheduler wasn't even logged). Is there anything I can do to create some more diagnostic information?
February 20th, 2010 8:30pm

Hi,1. Are you able to copy large file from XP to Windows 7 computer?2. What's the file system on XP computer? Is it FAT32 or NTFS? System file checker tool will scan for the corrupt or missing system files on the computer and fixes them successfully. Try the following steps to perform sfc scan and check if any of the system files are missing or corrupt.1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: sfc /scannow The sfc /scannow command scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions. For more information, check this link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/929833 Once the scan completes, restart the computer and then try to copy the files. Regards,SyedMicrosoft answers support engineer.Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.
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February 20th, 2010 8:58pm

1. Yes, I can copy the same file from the XP system to the Win7 system (from the Win 7 system). 2. NTFS I ran sfc and it found no problems. Can you tell me what API in what DLL Explorer is calling to do the copy? And more importantly what API is being called to do the "discovering"? If you can give me some more information I should be able to help troubleshoot this, I'm a software developer and even worked for MSFT in the past on Windows NT.
February 20th, 2010 11:03pm

Is anyone looking at this? I'd like to get some resolution to this problem.
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February 24th, 2010 6:34pm

I was able to copy if I setup a VPN tunnel to my XP box. the speed was really really slow, but I was able to copy. Seems dumb to VPN on an internal LAN to be able to copy from Win7 to Xp.
February 24th, 2010 9:50pm

Yep, should not be required. I wrote a little app that does the copy and works OK, but it's slower than the system copy (which I'll dig into if no one here ever replies to the problem).
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February 25th, 2010 1:34am

Dan, Did you ever get an answer to this? I have noticed the same issue copying from a windows 7 machine to my windows 2000 server machine. (from windows 7 to a UNC that I typed in.) I can copy from the windows 7 machine to the windows 2000 server while at the server, but while sitting at the win7 PC I cannot copy or move the same file to the windows 2000 server. This issue is intermittent, but for me seemed to correct itself for a while if I first mapped the UNC to a drive letter. Then if I open the network share via the mapped drive, it works-for a while. Then it seems to work for a while when I just once again, type in the UNC to the share I want to copy the file to. I cannot however figure this out, as I have a second win2000 server, which works fine all the time. Any ideas?
February 28th, 2010 8:13am

Certainly sounds like the same problem I have. I haven't gotten much in the way of response to this. Maybe someone will reply soon. It's really an irritation.
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February 28th, 2010 8:36pm

I just tried the drive letter thing, and it still doesn't work for me. Could one of the moderators please help us solve this problem?
February 28th, 2010 8:38pm

Yeah, well the drive thing only works sometimes for me as well. Most of the time it still fails. I have no idea on this but I plan to mess with it until I figure it out, as apparently no one else knows the answer!
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March 1st, 2010 8:35am

If you can ever figure anything out, please post it to this thread. I'll post if I can figure out anything. Again, is there a moderator out there that can provide some help?
March 1st, 2010 7:16pm

If you can ever figure anything out, please post it to this thread. I'll post if I can figure out anything.Again, is there a moderator out there that can provide some help? I see this frequently too. In addition to that, i'm also having slow file transfer speeds over a GB network connection while in regular operating mode. When in Safe Mode, file transfers scream up to about 75MB/s. Either way, local copying from one internal HD to another work fine. Just networking is very slow...see this technet post for my (and several others) similar issues.http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproperf/thread/c723939a-c917-486a-a57c-83d0f76dfc49
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March 1st, 2010 11:09pm

I checked out that thread and it's mainly about slow copying, not hanging. I tried disabling SuperFetch and Remote Differential Copy and neither made a difference. Lisa (a support engineer) moved this thread here, but still no help from anyone in support. It would be nice if someone at least tried to provide some help. Dan
March 2nd, 2010 4:35am

Could someone associated with Microsoft at least tell me what the copy is doing when it says "Discovering". That's when it hangs, and I have no idea what Discovering means. If I knew that at least I'd have an idea of where to look to find out what's going on.
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March 4th, 2010 10:40pm

I'm going to keep posting this question until someone at least tries to help. For all the details see http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7network/thread/4e58a924-b6df-462b-ac27-cdcf9186872b. Ever since I upgraded from Vista, when I try to copy a large file from my Windows 7 system to my Windows XP system, it will (intermittently) hang with the text "Discovering item" and in the details "Calculating". It eventually tells me there's a problem accessing the share, even though I have an explorer window up showing the share. I've booted into Safe Mode With Networking, and it has the same problem. Dan
March 8th, 2010 10:58pm

OK, I seem to be having some success, not all the time, but much more so than before, perhaps this will help some. enter netsh interface tcp show global at an elevated command prompt. I changed two settings. The first one, receive side scaling state and the 5th one receive side auto tuning level. The first one I disabled with this command netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled and the other one I changed to restricted with this command netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=restricted FYI, in the past I had disabled the auto tuning, since I read that it would help, somewhere, however, I never changed the receive side scaling setting. Just changing auto tuning did not fix the problem, but disabling the receive side scaling as well seems to have helped. I had come across a post somewhere that mentioned something about receive side scaling changing the way packets were received, thus confusing non windows 7/vista machines because the packet sizes were wrong. This seems to have done the trick. I was able to copy all the files I had previously not been able to copy. They ranged in size from 30kb to 8.5 mb. Granted I have not copied anything bigger than this. See if it helps Jeff
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March 9th, 2010 8:30am

Dan, I also disabled receive side scaling on my network adapter. Not sure this setting exists on all brands and types however. Mine is a Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller. Jeff
March 9th, 2010 8:35am

Could someone associated with Microsoft at least tell me what the copy is doing when it says "Discovering". That's when it hangs, and I have no idea what Discovering means. If I knew that at least I'd have an idea of where to look to find out what's going on. Hi, We appreciate your patience on this issue. The term discovering here means that the Windows is trying to find the items in a networked computer. This usually happens if network discovery is disabled on the computer. We recommend you to cross check if network discovery is disabled. To do this, follow these steps.1. Open Network and Sharing Center by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Network and Internet, and then clicking Network and Sharing Center. 2. If network discovery is off, click the arrow button to expand the section.3. Click Turn on network discovery, and then click Apply.If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. Once the above steps are executed, try to copy and paste the contents as usual and check the result. Hope this helps. Regards,SyedMicrosoft answers support engineer.
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March 9th, 2010 1:30pm

I tried that and it didn't make any difference. So what API is it calling that hangs?
March 9th, 2010 6:23pm

Jeff, Were you having the problem where the copy hung on Discovering also? What does receive side scaling do (I have an Intel Gigabit controller and it doesn't have this option).
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March 9th, 2010 6:24pm

Hi DanHinsley, Have you tried the steps provided by Syed V? I would suggest you to try the steps and check if they assist you resolve the issue. Hope this helps. Let us know the results.Thanks, Meghmala – Microsoft Support Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think
March 9th, 2010 8:05pm

Sigh, I posted immediately after his post that I had tried his suggestions and it didn't help. Any other ideas? Any response to my question as to what API it calls when it's Discovering? Dan
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March 10th, 2010 12:33am

Dan, Yes that was my issue and what I posted has now worked for several days, even after rebooting the machines. My exact situation was this: A windows 2000 server, which is a domain controller. My windows 7 professional pc is not a part of the domain. The workgroup on the windows 7 machine is named the same as the domain name (so the workgroup names are identical on both machines). The user account on the windows 7 pc is identical (name and password) to the user account on the domain controller. I am logged in on both machines with this user account. Also I have no "homegroups" in Windows 7 since only 1 machine runs it. Here is what I could NOT do: I could not copy a file to the windows 2000 domain controller while sitting at the windows 7 machine. It would hang on discovering and/or calculating, then tell me there was a problem, and ask if I wanted to try again. I could always say no, and it would exit. Here is what I COULD do: I could ALWAYS open the folder on the windows 2000 domain controller from the windows 7 machine and could always, delete files on the windows 2000 machine, and I could always copy files from the windows 2000 machine to the windows 7 machine, while sitting at the windows 7 machine. I could also walk to the windows 2000 domain controller and open the shared folder on the windows 7 PC. Also, WHILE SITTING at the windows 2000 domain controller I could ALWAYS perform ALL copy and move operations between the two machines. Again, the only issue that failed was copying or moving files to the windows 2000 domain controller, WHILE sitting at the window 7 machine. I am not really sure what receive side scaling does, and unfortunately I cannot find the article that explained it and gave me the idea to turn it off. Wait, here is the link that led me to my conclusions: http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/sanderberkouwer/archive/2008/05/15/backward-compatible-networking-with-server-core.aspx I will tell you that the only other thing I changed which may or may not be relevant was under administrative tools in the windows 7 control panel, i clicked local security policy, the in the left hand column I opened local policies, then security options. In the right hand column I went down to where it said Domain Member: Digitally Encrypt or sign secure channel data and changed the first 4 instances of Domain Member: xxxxx to disabled (the ones before Maximum Machine Account Password Age). I beleive the default on these 1st 4 are enabled. The only reason I did this, was because I had a similar problem with a windows XP machine (not a domain member). I had the same copy issues with the same windows 2000 domain controller. I looked at a different XP machine in my network that did not have the copy problem and duplicated these settings on the windows XP machine with the problem. That fixed the XP machine with the problem. So what I shared above are the setting I found on my XP machines that work copying to this windows 2000 server. when I first changed these settings on the Windows 7 machine, I noticed no real improvement, but I mention them anyway just in case. I may change them back to see if they affect my now properly functioning system. Here are a few other things you can check - are all pc's using the same speed on the network. Instead of auto negotiate try setting up each adapter to force the same speed. Mine are all 1 gigabyte. On my adapters I am not using jumbo frames and my large send offload and TCP checksum offload setting are enabled on the network adapter on the windows 7 machine. Interestngly I use an Intel pro /1000 GT desktop adapter on the windows 2000 machine that I could not copy to - all setting under advanced are the defaults.
March 11th, 2010 8:20pm

PuebloPete, you are the man. After getting no help from MSFT, you seem to have fixed the problem (fingers crossed). The netsh commands didn't help (and putting them back to the defaults after I got things working didn't hurt). The thing that seemed to make the difference was changing the Domain Member items on both systems. The strange thing is that I don't have a domain controller, I just user peer to peer workgroups (no homegroups either). But it seems to have fixed the problem, so thanks a lot for taking the time to post the answer. Dan
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March 11th, 2010 9:40pm

Maybe MS can tell us why that worked, cause I have no clue! Interestingly the two machines I had to change those domain settings on are not even members of my domain either, however, my workgroup goes by the same name. That, BTW was just a lucky guess, since I had one xp machine that worked and one that didn't I decided to match the settings to the one that did. When I got this latest PC with Window 7 and it exhibited the same problem, I decided to see if the same settings would work for it. When I first changed those, as I said, I saw no real improvement, although it actually finally worked sometimes, but when I did the receive side scaling, it worked much better. Interesting that the netsh commands didn't matter for you. I will have to change them back and see if it matters. I still have problems if I grab a large number of files and try to move or copy them all at once, gets stuck. Guess I'll just have to do a few at a time, that seems to work. But keep your fingers crossed, it may break again tomorrow!!
March 12th, 2010 8:35am

I don't hold out much hope from MS. It appears that the MS people in this forum don't have access to detailed information on how the system works (or if they do, they don't share). I suspect if the problem isn't already in a problem database they have, they won't be fo any help. I'd be glad to be proved wrong. Dan
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March 12th, 2010 10:38pm

I guess. Just so everyone knows, I still have issues copying large files across my network as well as with the ridiculously slow speeds at which they copy. I can do it, but to be frank, it ain't worth the time. I can burn it to a CD and take it to the other computer faster than Windows 7 copies a file. MS, wanna try for windows 8?
March 13th, 2010 5:24am

And I still get the problem sometime. I'm not sure if it has to do with the server being busy, or trying to do two copies back to back. And mine is slow as well, but not terrible. I sure wish someone at MSFT would at least attempt to find out what the problem is. I'd be glad to install debug versions of code to get additional information.
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March 19th, 2010 7:37pm

Hi DanHinsley, We will move this thread to TechNet Windows Vista Networkingforums for better assistance. Hope someone in TechNet community answers your queries. Regards,SyedMicrosoft answers support engineer.
March 21st, 2010 11:08pm

Hi there, I was having this same problem. Complicating it even more, was that another computer running Vista Ultimate was able to copy files to the XP machines without problem. Our Identification of the Problem The problem was finally identified to be Norton Antivirus firewall - which was running on several of the XP machines that share files/drives. We had disabled AV as part of our early troubleshooting, but we didn't know that doing so does not affect the Firewall - it keeps running. Per above, this appears to be specific to Windows 7 and Norton AV/Firewall, and others having this problem may want to look at these type of issues. Note: Having Windows Firewall on didn't cause any problem. James
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April 26th, 2010 7:38am

What worked for me was Pueblo Pete's suggestion about the domain controllers: I will tell you that the only other thing I changed which may or may not be relevant was under administrative tools in the windows 7 control panel, i clicked local security policy, the in the left hand column I opened local policies, then security options. In the right hand column I went down to where it said Domain Member: Digitally Encrypt or sign secure channel data and changed the first 4 instances of Domain Member: xxxxx to disabled (the ones before Maximum Machine Account Password Age). I beleive the default on these 1st 4 are enabled. Not sure if it will work for you, but it did resolve my problem. Dan
April 26th, 2010 6:44pm

Thanks Dan, I just posted an update/edit to my post last night... and for us, it ended up being Norton AV/Firewall. You can see my updated post. Thanks for the reply. James
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April 26th, 2010 7:59pm

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