Major frustrations with "Path is too deep" copy problems...help??

I

intrepid_dw

Hello, all.

Unfortunately, I'm another "victim" of this apparently too-well-known
"Cannot copy file - Path is too deep" problem. I'm coming here pleading
for help and suggestions.

Scenario:

Two brand-new Dell XPS 400 2.8Ghz Pentium D machines with Intel
10/100/1000 PL integrated NIC, 250 GB Maxtor hard drive formatted NTFS,
Windows XP Pro SP2.

These two machines are connected via a Linksys BEFSR41 cable/DSL
router, with the router's DHCP server assigning addreses to each.

When attempting to copy a large (2.8MB) file between these machines
(either direction), the copy hangs and ultimately fails with the "Path
is too deep" error. Here is what I've attempted to fix this problem:

* Changed each NIC from AutoDetect to 100MBPS/FullDx
* Disabled all Antivirus, firewalling, and related s/w.
* Applied MS KB "TcpAckFrequency" registry setting.
* Applied MS KB "Adaptive_ifs" (interframe spacing for Intel nics)
* New ethernet cables for each machine.
* Already using latest NIC driver from Dell website.
* Changed ports for each machine on the router.
* Checked for conflict of IRQ's between NIC and onboard modem; disabled
modems as both were using IRQ 17.
* Performed independent speed/performance tests for each machine to
dslreports.com; each reported clean/clear performance w/no recommended
tweaks
* Pings between each machine (both ways) are always clean and < 1ms
* Upgraded the firmware on the router to the latest version (1.5)
* Run Performance Monitor on each machine during file copies; NO
discarded packets inbound/outbound, no packet errors inbound/outbound,
no packet discards inbound/outbound.
* I've probably tried some other things that I've forgotten by now :)

When I copied files from an old WinME machine to one of the new XPS
400s on this same network/router/etc, I had no trouble at all.

At this point, I'm down to blaming the router, but each machine to/from
the internet works properly. I'm also wondering if there might be
something peculiar with this combination of a (relatively) new NIC and
the router. However, most other posts I've read on this are of the
general opinion that this is a Post-SP2 OS-level bug, not a hardware
problem.

If anyone has any fresh ideas to try, I'm open. This is *very*
frustrating. Please reply to the group here, as the email I use in this
message is dead.

Thanks in advance,
David
 
M

marvo

I can only give my guess on your problem. Way back in the
old days with windows 3.1 I had the same error message. It was caused by
trying to copy a file in a directory (folder) whose address was
c:/temp/temp1/xxx/gggg/rrrr/etc/stc/stc/etc1/stc2/.../.../.../...//file_name
..
to f:/temp/temp1/111/222/333/444/555/666/.777/filename. They probably
have fixed that problem but I thought I give it a try until you get a
different answer. Just thinking also, could the part number field in the
packet be to small to handle the 2.8 mb size & there in a problem
at wraparound? marvo
 
I

intrepid_dw

Hi, Rick, thanks for the assist.

The files being copied reside in a first-level directory on the source
machine (eg C:\BobsFolder), and are going to a share corresponding to a
first-level folder (eg to \\Ralph\RalphsShare which is
C:\RalphsFolder), so I can't fathom name or path lengths are the actual
problem.

Also, per your reference to the KB article notes, I'm not sure how a
long PATH variable would affect a network file copy...sorry if I'm
missing something obvious??

-David
 
R

Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers

Hi,

Specifically, I was referring to the length of the PATH statement on the
machine making the copy.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
I

intrepid_dw

These are new machines with very little SW on them. PATH is minimal.
Still, I'm not understanding how that would prevent a drag-and-drop
file copy....smaller files (eg < 700K) work.

Thanks, Rick..
 
R

Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers

Hi,

I'm not 100% on this issue, but I have seen it before. The problem occurs
most often when the PATH statement exceeds 1023 characters and the transfer
is being done across a network. Have you tried copying just a small simple
txt file? If this is the problem, it should still occur. If not, then you
may be correct in suspecting the router.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
I

intrepid_dw

Hi, Rick..

Thanks again for your efforts.

I've copied several small files between these two boxes, and that works
just fine. Let's say "small" means less than (and often substanially
so) 700K.

Frustrating.

-David
 
I

intrepid_dw

Hi, Rick

Yes, I've seen Sahil's blog on that issue and seen/read just about
every post therein. That's where I got the ideas on the TcpAckFrequency
and some of the other helps. I also read that 80-pin cable swap idea,
but have hesitated on that because it happens on both machines in both
directions, and large transfers from those machines to *other* machines
work correctly. That is, large files copied from new machine A to new
machine B (or vice-versa) fail, but a large file copy from A to old
machine C, or B to old machine C (or vice-versa) works. If the 80-pin
cable were at fault, I can't fathom all those copies would work.

As an aside, I'm amazed at the "groundfire" if you will that his post
inspired. It seems lots of people have a varying flavor of this
problem, and many if not most of them seem to have started right when
XP SP2 was released...Hmmm...

I haven't tried mounting the share as a local drive letter on the
source machine. What the heck; couldn't hurt. I will probably try
replacing the router next. The new machines support gigabit Ethernet,
and I wonder if there is some peculiarity in the protocol between the
NIC and the router that the router doesn't recognize or handle
properly, but that only happens in communications relating to setups
for large file transfers.

That's another interesting aside; the file copy will recognize the
presence of the file on the destination system and ask if you want to
overwrite it; only after the actual data transfer has started does the
hang occur (it occurs whether the file was there and overwritten or was
not present at all). Makes me wonder if there something the SMB session
setup that's being lost....keep thinking about that router, I guess..

Continued thanks for your suggestions and help. Anyone else still
following this thread is welcome to jump in, too!!


-David
 

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