August 17, 201213 yr Hi I've had this problem for ages, and done lots of googling and trying different things, with no luck. In Windows 7, there's a delay while browsing folders on my UnRAID server (version 4.7). It's usually around 10 seconds before the folder list is displayed. - It doesn't always happen - It doesn't depend on the size or number of files in the folder - There are no errors or anything unusual in server's syslog - It does NOT happen in Ubuntu - I've turned off Remote Differential Compression - no help. - I don't think it's a cable/NIC issue, as the problem doesn't happen in Ubuntu in a Virtual Machine. - It happens with all my Windows 7 machines (2 desktops, 2 laptops). If anyone can suggest anything else to try I would be hugely grateful. many thanks dave
August 17, 201213 yr Author Also: - All drives are spun up - File transfer performance isn't affected
August 17, 201213 yr Hi I've had this problem for ages, and done lots of googling and trying different things, with no luck. In Windows 7, there's a delay while browsing folders on my UnRAID server (version 4.7). It's usually around 10 seconds before the folder list is displayed. - It doesn't always happen - It doesn't depend on the size or number of files in the folder - There are no errors or anything unusual in server's syslog - It does NOT happen in Ubuntu - I've turned off Remote Differential Compression - no help. - I don't think it's a cable/NIC issue, as the problem doesn't happen in Ubuntu in a Virtual Machine. - It happens with all my Windows 7 machines (2 desktops, 2 laptops). If anyone can suggest anything else to try I would be hugely grateful. many thanks dave Best guess on my part would that Windows Explorer is scanning all of the files to put icons up in front of the files and to associate all of the files with the applications that would be used to open them.
August 17, 201213 yr It may be a DNS lookup issue, Try adding the unraid server IP and name to your hosts file to force it to always resolve properly. on win 7 its in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc EG. add the line below to your hosts file and save the file. You may have to change the file permissions or read only flag before you edit it so that windows will allow you to save it. 192.168.20.160 unraid.mydomain.com unraid substituting your server's IP address and name (I have my tower named unraid, so use "tower" or whatever your is named)
August 17, 201213 yr Author thanks for your reponses it's not a DNS issue - if I go to //192.168.1.xx etc in explorer, the same thing happens. it happens even with a clean install of Win7 (in fact, several!) -- and I assume this doesn't happen to everyone! -- so I'm guessing it's something configured wrong in UnRAID. I've had the server for several years and made lots of config changes so I'm guessing I've done something wrong/silly and this has happened... but I might be wrong though.
August 17, 201213 yr I'm using Windows 7 as well. If I have several files it seems like it has to scan or something before it starts to display them. Drives me rather bonkers actually. Then there are times when it loads up tons of files faster than heck. I'm guessing its just a windows7 thing and honestly I've learned to hate it, but assume its just going to do it because it always has. With Xp on my laptop it loads faster than heck
August 17, 201213 yr Found this, but have not tried it yet. http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f217/windows-7-slow-browsing-429285.html#post2668062 Same here. http://www.ghacks.net/2010/02/04/fix-slow-folders-in-windows-7/
August 17, 201213 yr Wow did that optimize trick and a troublesome folder of mine loaded instantly. LOL, I'm glad I actually read this post today.
August 17, 201213 yr Author The 'optimize this folder' trick did nothing for me. HOWEVER I did have a look at the output from ProcessMonitor while the 'green ribbon of death' was happening... noticed there was a lot of stuff relating to Windows CSC (offline files)... I guess this is fairly normal, but I tried disabling Offline Files anyway and rebooting... It seems to be a bit better now. Before I would have to wait at least 10 seconds, now it seems to be 3-4 seconds and is happening with a lot less folders. Although it could just be luck, as it's an intermittent thing anyway. (btw, it didn't seem to matter what was in the folder, it seemed to happen randomly and with empty folders occasionally).
August 17, 201213 yr Author For anyone else that wants to try it : Start -> type in: Sync -> Manage Offline Files -> Disable Offline Files
August 17, 201213 yr Author YES!! That seems to have solved it. Just rebooted and tried again. No delays whatsoever! gotta love ProcessMonitor for finding out what Windows is getting up to under the bonnet. Will see how I get on but if it doesn't happen again I'll mark this thread as solved. thanks
August 22, 201213 yr WHen I click on the "Manage offline files" nothing is available beyond clicking on the link. Meaning there are no selectable options.
August 22, 201213 yr Another window should open headed "Offline Files" - perhaps it's behind a window that's already open?
August 23, 201213 yr Author Arrrghh! Just been accessing my server today and the problem has re-appeared. So the 'offline files' fix may not be the answer. However, it seems to be a little bit better, but again it's intermittent so it's hard to tell. I'll spend some more time tomorrow with ProcessMonitor and see if I can get to the bottom of it.
August 23, 201213 yr Hi, I know this has been asked of you already but make sure you check your DNS AGAIN. Even though you are accessing it directly by IP, the DNS server will attempt to look up the IP address using the reverse look up method. The pausing you are experiencing is because the DNS server is timing out looking for the Unraid server and your computer then reverts to WINS to figure out what IP your unraid system is actually at. If you are not using DNS, then add it to your hosts file. The hosts file is located under c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc. The file is called hosts. It will be much easier to add the DNS entry to your router DNS service, then restest again. Sometimes windows will have a default file already there called hosts.sam. Rename hosts.sam to hosts and add your unraid server to it. Read the comments in the file and follow the example contained in the file. There should be no need to reboot. You can then test your configuration by opening up a command prompt and typing: nslookup <name of your unraid server> Here is an example of how I tested my network: BTW bluemaumau is my routers host name, davyjones is the host name of my unraid server. and it is at IP address 10.1.1.10 C:\Users\SidebandSamurai>nslookup Default Server: bluemaumau Address: 10.1.1.1 > davyjones Server: bluemaumau Address: 10.1.1.1 Name: davyjones.shipwreckcove.net Address: 10.1.1.10 > It should immediately respond with the ip address of the name of the unraid server and its ip address. If there is a delay, or it looks like the error below, then either you do not have the hosts file in the correct format, or in some rare cases you will need to reboot, or you might need to restart your router. An Error would look something like this: > davy Server: bluemaumau Address: 10.1.1.1 *** bluemaumau can't find davy: Non-existent domain > The fact that it works some times and does not work other times is because there is a certain amount of time DNS entries are cached in memory. After the cache expires, that is where you experience the delay, the DNS server times out looking for your unraid server and WINS takes over. WINS will automatically update DNS cache when it finds your machine. Hence the delays. Oh yea, I am a big Pirates of the Caribbean fan so my whole network is named after places, ships or locations mentioned in those movies. Good Luck Sideband Samurai
August 26, 201213 yr Found this, but have not tried it yet. http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f217/windows-7-slow-browsing-429285.html#post2668062 Same here. http://www.ghacks.net/2010/02/04/fix-slow-folders-in-windows-7/ I switched all the shares to General documents and selected subfolders as well on my xbmc machine. Before, xbmc used to take forever scanning the library (I have it set to update on startup) Now it's so much quicker. Thanks a lot for this
September 19, 201312 yr Author Well it's been over a year, and this is still not working!! It seems even worse now, with some folders taking absolutely ages to display. File transfers also stall while the folder is being opened. I've tried everything in this thread, such as setting all folders to 'documents', adding an entry in hosts file, etc (nslookup works instantly), making sure all drives are less than 95% full... and no luck. Such a shame because otherwise UnRAID is great, but at the moment it's unusable... Does anyone have any other suggestions for what I could do to fix this? or at least things to try out? Many thanks in advance
September 20, 201312 yr Well it's been over a year, and this is still not working!! It seems even worse now, with some folders taking absolutely ages to display. File transfers also stall while the folder is being opened. I've tried everything in this thread, such as setting all folders to 'documents', adding an entry in hosts file, etc (nslookup works instantly), making sure all drives are less than 95% full... and no luck. Such a shame because otherwise UnRAID is great, but at the moment it's unusable... Does anyone have any other suggestions for what I could do to fix this? or at least things to try out? Many thanks in advance This is not an unraid issue. It is a Windows issue. Fix your client side issue. Detail out exactly what you tried, if you're running cache_dirs, what your unraid hardware specs are (CPU/ram/drives), what your troublesome drive folder and file specs are, which version of unraid, other unraid addons used, free memory report, what the client hardware and software specs are (Mac or windows, win 7 or 8, file explorer or teracopy etc...)
October 9, 201312 yr Author This is not an unraid issue. It is a Windows issue. Fix your client side issue. Detail out exactly what you tried, if you're running cache_dirs, what your unraid hardware specs are (CPU/ram/drives), what your troublesome drive folder and file specs are, which version of unraid, other unraid addons used, free memory report, what the client hardware and software specs are (Mac or windows, win 7 or 8, file explorer or teracopy etc...) I believe it could be an Unraid config issue because I get the same problem with all Windows machines on my network, including fresh installs. I've tried: - setting all folder display type to "documents" - add an entry for the server in the hosts file - making sure all drives are <95% full - running 'ipconfig /flushdns' - disabling 'offline files' - disabling 'remote differential backup' - drives are all spun up - a number of other things i can't remember, none of which helped. * It can happen with any folder * But not all the time, it is intermittent, but seems worse at the moment. What usually happens is the 2nd or 3rd folder I select causes the problem, then it's fine for a while (for other folders), then it will happen again randomly. * It happens with a clean install of Windows 7, but never happens in Linux (both using SMB) * No cache_dirs * Hardware spec is VIA C7, 1GB RAM, 6 sata drives, 2 on mobo and 4 on pci card (sil3124)... I never see high CPU usage on the server. * UnRAID 4.7 + UnMENU 1.6 * 800MB free RAM (free -m) * The delay occurs with all programs, whether it's opening a folder in explorer, copying with teracopy, or using any other app. When the delay happens, other transfers stall (e.g. if I try and open a folder and there's a delay, and I'm playing music from the server, the music stops at the same time). I don't know if it's a Samba config problem on the server... Here is my smb.conf: # configurable identification include = /etc/samba/smb-names.conf # log stuff only to syslog log level = 0 syslog = 0 syslog only = Yes # we don't do printers show add printer wizard = No disable spoolss = Yes load printers = No printing = bsd printcap name = /dev/null # misc. passdb backend = smbpasswd unix extensions = No host msdfs = Yes msdfs root = Yes use sendfile = Yes aio read size = 0 aio write size = 0 # hook for user-defined samba config include = /boot/config/smb-extra.conf # auto-configured shares include = /etc/samba/smb-shares.conf thanks again for any help.
October 9, 201312 yr * The delay occurs with all programs, whether it's opening a folder in explorer, copying with teracopy, or using any other app. When the delay happens, other transfers stall (e.g. if I try and open a folder and there's a delay, and I'm playing music from the server, the music stops at the same time). When you wrote playing music on the server, are you playing on the same Windows machine that you are browsing from and is causing the problem or from a different one? If it is a different machine then it is a problem of the unRAID server (maybe affected by the Windows machine). I have notices similar issues with Windows machines: * Sometimes when I copy files (Teracopy for example) and during the copy process browse the unRAID shares (Windows Explorer) then the copying slows down to a near stand-still. * Sometime when I browse the unraid server using Windows Explorer it sometimes takes time to expand the folder tree (pressing the > arrows next to the folders). When I try to browse a different folder on the unraid server using another Windows Explorer window it will not repond until the first window completes the expansion. During all these slowdowns the windows machine is no where near 100% CPU usage.
October 9, 201312 yr Windows generally limits the number of distinct connections from a single host to a server. A Windows client accessing a server may see issues because the some of the transactions are not performed in parallel but rather serially. There should be a way to raise the limits but IDK if the SMB client allows.
October 10, 201312 yr Author Yes that's on the same machine. Not sure if it happens with different machines - I could test this. It's mainly annoying when browsing folders though... really odd that it's so intermittent... just now I clicked through about 10 folders which opened immediately before reaching one (nothing special about it, containing hardly any files) and it took ages to open.
October 10, 201312 yr When someone called it the "Windows Green Ribbon of Death" I knew instantly what they were talking about. We keep our daily work files (photos) on the Windows7 machines because between them we never see this issue, but when we work off the server it's painful. Sent from my mobile
October 10, 201312 yr Try disabling thumbnails on all folders: 1. Open Windows Explorer 2. On the right of the tools bar ribbon click the "Options" button not the down arrow on the options button 3. Click the View Tab 4. Check "Always Show Icons Never Thumbnails" 5. Click "Apply to Folders" It solved my problem but now don't see thumbnails - I will probably enable it only on my Pictures folder.
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