Now you see it now you don't!

[Greg]

I'm posting to this forum a question I posted more than a month ago to the
networking forum in the hope that the administrators of this forum will do
what those in the other forum didn't do and actually answer it:

Vista laptop connected to XP desktop by crossover cable. XP machine
connected to internet and to external HD. I can access the XP's printers,
share files, etc (most of the time) but there are problems with the external
HD. It keeps disappearing from the network (from the laptop's perspective).
Mind you, the network itself only ever works if I turn the XP desktop on
first. Sometimes when I turn the laptop on the rest of the network is
connected fine (including internet access) but the LACIE external HD has
disappeared and I have to go
through the process on the XP machine of sharing it again to the laptop. At
other times I
turn the laptop on and it is there just fine. I don't change anything. Why
does Windows do these mysterious annoying things? Is it that there has been
some new update downloaded that has reset something? How do I stop it doing
this? Why should I have to reshare the external HD whenever I boot up again?
(or more precisely randomly sometimes when I boot up) Isn't there some way I
can say to Windows, "hey listen, I really really mean it - I want this thing
to be permanently shared, don't ever unshare it again until I tell you!!"?

I find Windows networking really really annoying and from the thousands of
complaints in the networking forum it seems that it never works properly,
even with two identical machines, let alone between different types of
hardware and operating systems.

 

[Not Me]

If the desktop computer is the host to the external HDD, I don't see how it
would ever work with the desktop machine powered down.
My best guess would be that somewhere in the power saving features, the
external HDD is powered down and lost to the network.
But you might read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120/en-us

 

[Greg]

I'm not expecting it to work with the desktop machine off. I do expect it to
remember that the HD is there and is shared when I turn the desktop back on
again though. It has nothiing to do with the HD itself powering down.
Powersaving is not enabled on the desktop. The HD is functioning and
accessible to the desktop at all times. It only disappears from the laptop
via the network. Yes when the desktop is turned off, obviously the HD is not
accessible, that's not the problem. Sometimes when I turn the desktop and
the laptop off and on again the HD is visible to the laptop, sometimes it is
not and needs to be reshared. There seems to be no pattern to it.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Hello,

It could be that sometimes during Windows startup the Windows
networking component is ready to go before your external hard disk is,
and so it is removing the share thinking it does not exist.

I would suggest creating a batch file that loads your network share,
something like:

net share ExternalDrive=E:\ /Grant:Everyone,Full /Unlimited

With the correct options for your set up (ExternalDrive is what you want
it to be called, E:\ is the share path)

- Click start
- Type: notepad
- Right-click notepad, click Run As Administrator
- Type the command
- Save the file, choosing 'all files' as save as type, choose
c:\windows\system32 as the location, and a file name of 'loadshare.bat'
or something similar

Then create a task scheduler entry that runs this batch file when your
computer starts:

- Click start
- Type: task scheduler
- press enter
- Click create task on the right
- Name the task
- Click Run whether user is logged on or not
- Click run with highest privileges
- Click do not store password
- Click the triggers tab
- Click new
- Select 'at startup' next to 'begin the task'
- Put a check next to 'delay task for' and select one minute
- Click OK
- Click the actions tab
- Click new
- Click browse, find the script you saved, and click ok
- Click OK
- Click OK

This will cause your script to run 1 minute after your computer starts,
even if nobody is logged in.

If the share does not already exist, it will be created with the options
specified in the batch file.

To edit the batch file, run notepad as administrator and then open it.

To edit the task, open task scheduler and click on 'task scheduler
library' in the left.

 

[Greg]

Thanks for that complicated solution Jimmy, it sounds feasible. I would
never have been able to come up with it myself. I may try it. I presume you
mean on the XP desktop connected to the HD for all this? I don't have to
change anything on the Vista machine?

I appreciate your help, but it's incredibly frustrating to pay so much for
supposedly the most sophisticated PC OS in history only to have to resort
to writing a batchfile myself in notepad to fix something so basic! And when
you read these groups, this kind of fundamental problem is multiplied
thousands of times. The only positive thing to be said for Vista is that
it's ten times better than XP was when it came out.

Vista is scary - on another subject I have just discovered from other posts
that it destroys data because it uses different permissions for USB and HD
writes, and now understand why it has ruined some of my photos when I
downloaded them from camera through laptop and network to abovementioned HD
(also connected with USB). It wiped out the jpg markers and they are now
unreadable. This is something drastically wrong - what plans do MS have to
fix it?

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Thanks for that complicated solution Jimmy, it sounds feasible. I would
never have been able to come up with it myself. I may try it. I presume
you mean on the XP desktop connected to the HD for all this? I don't
have to change anything on the Vista machine?

Sorry,

I misread your post ... I thought the external HD was on your vista
machine, and you were sharing it to your XP machine.

Since you said re-sharing the hard drive on XP fixes the problem, it
sounds like it is an XP issue.

You could try creating the scheduled task on XP, but the steps will be
different. Scheduled tasks in XP is located in the Control Panel, and
there is a wizard that walks you through the steps.

I appreciate your help, but it's incredibly frustrating to pay so much
for supposedly the most sophisticated PC OS in history only to have to
resort to writing a batchfile myself in notepad to fix something so
basic! And when you read these groups, this kind of fundamental problem
is multiplied thousands of times. The only positive thing to be said for
Vista is that it's ten times better than XP was when it came out.

Getting computers to play nice with each other is difficult, much more
difficult than it should be. I hope things get better on this front as well.

Vista is scary - on another subject I have just discovered from other
posts that it destroys data because it uses different permissions for
USB and HD writes, and now understand why it has ruined some of my
photos when I downloaded them from camera through laptop and network to
abovementioned HD (also connected with USB). It wiped out the jpg
markers and they are now unreadable. This is something drastically wrong
- what plans do MS have to fix it?

I am not aware of corruption issues on this scale. Do you have any links
that detail this?

The only thing I am aware of with corruption-related incompatibility
between XP and Vista is with restore points, and that is an XP problem.

As for "permissions" issues, there are indeed some complex issues with
permissions when accessing files that are created/shared between
operating systems, but none that I am aware of that destroys data. I am
not aware of any plans Microsoft has to address this, but I certainly
hope they make this easier.

 

[Greg]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jimmy Brush" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 10:26 PM
Subject: Re: Now you see it now you don't!

I am not aware of corruption issues on this scale. Do you have any links
that detail this?

No, I have not looked yet (if you mean web links), but there are posts in
this forum detailing the experiences people have had losing data from/to USB
devices, including one by someone called Sugaruss title loss of files when
opening from USB stick. And a post from me explaining my experience.

The only thing I am aware of with corruption-related incompatibility
between XP and Vista is with restore points, and that is an XP problem.

As for "permissions" issues, there are indeed some complex issues with
permissions when accessing files that are created/shared between operating
systems, but none that I am aware of that destroys data. I am not aware of
any plans Microsoft has to address this, but I certainly hope they make
this easier.

They had @#$* well better do something about it because people are losing
valuable data. Some mention Word documents, with me it was jpgs from a
camera. What appears to happen is that when the files are copied or when I
open files from the USB device (in this case camera or external HD on
networked machine) change them on the Vista machine in say PhotoGallery by
rotating them or something, when they are saved back to the USB device it
strips the jpg markers and makes them unreadable. I'm not sure, but it may
even be doing this when the Vista folders generate thumbnails in some cases.
At least that's what I think is happening. It makes me scared to transfer
and use data from the networked external USB HD at all. This is a serious
problem that MS must fix or they will end up with lawsuits from companies
whose important documents have been trashed by Vista's incompetent file
handling.

 

[Greg]

In case you're interested, I have just encountered another case of Vista
file handling stripping or writing over markers from jpgs. When I use Photo
Gallery to download my Olympus C770 photos and it adds tags to them, it
appears to wipe out the Olympus markers that tell the Olympus Camedia
program that the photo is part of a panorama, thus making them unable to be
stitched by that software. Real bright.

Thanks for that complicated solution Jimmy, it sounds feasible. I would
never have been able to come up with it myself. I may try it. I presume
you mean on the XP desktop connected to the HD for all this? I don't have
to change anything on the Vista machine?

Sorry,

I misread your post ... I thought the external HD was on your vista
machine, and you were sharing it to your XP machine.

Since you said re-sharing the hard drive on XP fixes the problem, it
sounds like it is an XP issue.

You could try creating the scheduled task on XP, but the steps will be
different. Scheduled tasks in XP is located in the Control Panel, and
there is a wizard that walks you through the steps.

I appreciate your help, but it's incredibly frustrating to pay so much
for supposedly the most sophisticated PC OS in history only to have to
resort to writing a batchfile myself in notepad to fix something so
basic! And when you read these groups, this kind of fundamental problem
is multiplied thousands of times. The only positive thing to be said for
Vista is that it's ten times better than XP was when it came out.

Getting computers to play nice with each other is difficult, much more
difficult than it should be. I hope things get better on this front as
well.

Vista is scary - on another subject I have just discovered from other
posts that it destroys data because it uses different permissions for USB
and HD writes, and now understand why it has ruined some of my photos
when I downloaded them from camera through laptop and network to
abovementioned HD (also connected with USB). It wiped out the jpg markers
and they are now unreadable. This is something drastically wrong - what
plans do MS have to fix it?

I am not aware of corruption issues on this scale. Do you have any links
that detail this?

The only thing I am aware of with corruption-related incompatibility
between XP and Vista is with restore points, and that is an XP problem.

As for "permissions" issues, there are indeed some complex issues with
permissions when accessing files that are created/shared between operating
systems, but none that I am aware of that destroys data. I am not aware of
any plans Microsoft has to address this, but I certainly hope they make
this easier.