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Win 7 Pro 64 bit very slow opening netowrk shares and copying files to/from network shares
I just purchased two new laptops running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit edition. I setup one of the two machines and joined it to the domain. The domain has several Windows Server 2003 boxes for file sharing, application services, and backup. It wasn't long before I noticed very poor network performance. Logging into the domain was slow. File copies barely moved at all. I setup a series of tests. Using a two year old WinXP Pro laptop I timed a file copy from the network share to the local drive of the XP laptop. The 1GB file copy completed in under 3 minutes. The same copy on the Win7 machine ran over 30 minutes before I canceled it.
The laptop sits in a docking bay using the dociking bay NIC. I undocked the laptop and plugged int the onboard NIC and tried the same copy. Still very slow. I disabled Symantec Endpoint Protection and tried the copy. Still very slow. I logged in with the domain admin account and tried the copy. Still very slow. Each time I tried to do the copy, windows spent a long time "discovering" the contents of the folder I was trying to copy.
Finally I had a breakthrough. I logged onto the WIN7 computer with a LOCAL USER ACCOUNT. Then I opened a window to the network share. At that point I authenticated to access the network share using the domain administrator account. This time when I did the test copy it finished in under 3 minutes. Interestingly the file copy worked instantly like the XP box. There was no delay "discovering" the contents of the share.
So, the problem seems to be with copying when logged on to the domain account versus logging on with a local account first,. Now I just need to figure out how to fix this so I get good speed logged onto the domain.
I did all this troubleshooting yesterday and "slept on it" last night. The only thing I thought of was disableing IPV6 on the Win7 laptop since it is not bound on the Server 2003 system. This morning I did some research and found some info regarding Remote Differential Compression. When I get to the office I intend to test both of these. In the meantime, if you have experience with this problem or suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate the help.
Pat
The laptop sits in a docking bay using the dociking bay NIC. I undocked the laptop and plugged int the onboard NIC and tried the same copy. Still very slow. I disabled Symantec Endpoint Protection and tried the copy. Still very slow. I logged in with the domain admin account and tried the copy. Still very slow. Each time I tried to do the copy, windows spent a long time "discovering" the contents of the folder I was trying to copy.
Finally I had a breakthrough. I logged onto the WIN7 computer with a LOCAL USER ACCOUNT. Then I opened a window to the network share. At that point I authenticated to access the network share using the domain administrator account. This time when I did the test copy it finished in under 3 minutes. Interestingly the file copy worked instantly like the XP box. There was no delay "discovering" the contents of the share.
So, the problem seems to be with copying when logged on to the domain account versus logging on with a local account first,. Now I just need to figure out how to fix this so I get good speed logged onto the domain.
I did all this troubleshooting yesterday and "slept on it" last night. The only thing I thought of was disableing IPV6 on the Win7 laptop since it is not bound on the Server 2003 system. This morning I did some research and found some info regarding Remote Differential Compression. When I get to the office I intend to test both of these. In the meantime, if you have experience with this problem or suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate the help.
Pat
I have had this problem. It is caused by how Windows 7 uses thumbnail caching. It builds the cache on the fly every time you access a folder and folders with a large number of documents take forever to enumerate.
If you right click on a folder and select Properties and select the customize tab and look at Optimize this folder it is set to General Items. If you set it to documents you will no longer have the problem on that folder.
Go to
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/15699-folder-template-default.html
And download the script at option 3 and it will customize all folders like this.
For any builds people this can be run on a profile and copied to the default user profile for those that use Windows Deployment Services.
If you right click on a folder and select Properties and select the customize tab and look at Optimize this folder it is set to General Items. If you set it to documents you will no longer have the problem on that folder.
Go to
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/15699-folder-template-default.html
And download the script at option 3 and it will customize all folders like this.
For any builds people this can be run on a profile and copied to the default user profile for those that use Windows Deployment Services.
Let me know if there still is an issue with copying files as I only remember users complaining about the folders taking forever to come up but may be related.
ASKER
RSCOTTVAN- I agree, this does not make sense. yes i tested on another system. the winxp system copied the same data in less than 3 minutes. i thought about the NIC, cable, network port, and switch which is why I pllugged into the "known good" network port that the fast WinXP sytem was using. I doubt it's speed/duplex issue on the NIC since the local login worked fast with the same NIC settings. Yes, I also did internet speedtesting at http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/. Internet access is fast and tests the same on the winxp system as the win7 system. I'm getting 13GB down and 5GB up on an 8GB cable connection. The slowness occurs logging onto the domain and copying files from a file server share to the laptops local drive.
CHUCK-WILLIAMS- Thanks for the suggestion. I did as you requested and changed the folder properties to optimize for documents. The file copy is still slow.
In addition, I disabled IPV6. Still slow. I also disabled Remote Differential Compression. Still slow. When I try to copy the files, a "Preparing to Copy" window comes up. Then it goes through a slow, tedious process of "discovering items." It takes longer to discover items than the entire copy takes in WINXP and when logged on locally. I re-tested the local logon and copy. It was still fast and did NOT go through the process of preparing to copy and discovering items.
Hhhmmm....I'll throw a couple more things out there that may or may not muddy the waters. This particular site has two Windows Server 2003 machines. However the organization has several other remote sites with Windows Server 2008R2 servers. The sites are connected via internet and VPN and all users and machines can "see" each other provided they have appropirate rights to shares, etc. I throw this out there wondering if the Win7 workstation is trying to retrieve rights, share info from one of the remote servers. Maybe the WIN7 workstation uses some of the browsemaster functionality that automatically looks to the "newest" OS to be the browse master? In the old Novell server world there was a "preferred server" setting that prevented this kind of confusion. I don't know. This is the first Windows 7 workstation to join the domain.
Pat
CHUCK-WILLIAMS- Thanks for the suggestion. I did as you requested and changed the folder properties to optimize for documents. The file copy is still slow.
In addition, I disabled IPV6. Still slow. I also disabled Remote Differential Compression. Still slow. When I try to copy the files, a "Preparing to Copy" window comes up. Then it goes through a slow, tedious process of "discovering items." It takes longer to discover items than the entire copy takes in WINXP and when logged on locally. I re-tested the local logon and copy. It was still fast and did NOT go through the process of preparing to copy and discovering items.
Hhhmmm....I'll throw a couple more things out there that may or may not muddy the waters. This particular site has two Windows Server 2003 machines. However the organization has several other remote sites with Windows Server 2008R2 servers. The sites are connected via internet and VPN and all users and machines can "see" each other provided they have appropirate rights to shares, etc. I throw this out there wondering if the Win7 workstation is trying to retrieve rights, share info from one of the remote servers. Maybe the WIN7 workstation uses some of the browsemaster functionality that automatically looks to the "newest" OS to be the browse master? In the old Novell server world there was a "preferred server" setting that prevented this kind of confusion. I don't know. This is the first Windows 7 workstation to join the domain.
Pat
ASKER
A couple more pieces of information. I disabled the wireless network adapter on the laptop in order to eliminate that as the potential problem. IPCONFIG shows the laptop DNS set to 10.39.1.250 the IP address of the Windows Server 2003 machine here at the local site.
The master browser shouldn't affect file copy speed - only the time it takes to connect to the share.
Do you have Distributed File System with any of the shares being replicated between and hosted by more than one server?
Do you have Distributed File System with any of the shares being replicated between and hosted by more than one server?
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RSCOTTVAN- You're a genius!!! No, I do not have DFS shares being replicated. However, I did the netsh commands you suggested, rebooted, and the copy now flys! WOW! I have no idea what the commands mean and do, but they work! As soon as I send this comment and accept your solution I'll be researching those commands.
THANK YOU!!!
THANK YOU!!!
Vista and Win7 try to automatically tune the TCP/IP windows size for file transfers. It doesn't always work well, and that was causing your issue.
Those commands disable the auto-tuning.
Those commands disable the auto-tuning.
rscottvan: You are truly a lifesaver. I've been installing HP Elite core i7 PCs with Win 7 64bit on a network with a Win 2003 DC and they ran MUCH slower than some P4 XP Pro computers that we're retiring. Calls to HP Tech Support didn't help. Installing a separate NIC didn't help. Nothing worked until I tried your fix.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
How is speed for items other than Windows SMB/CIFS file copy? Have you performed any testing on internet websites like http://www.speedtest.net? Can you run a test from a "healthy system" and compare that to one of the "unhealthy ones?" That comparison would give you more data that would help distinguish if the issue has anything to do with logged on user.
Outside of the logged on user, tThe first thought I have is a speed/duplex mismatch on the NIC. What kind of switch are you plugging into? Is it managed and do you have the ability to log on and check the port for errors?