Windows 7 mapped drive latency with slow green progress bar and red X

First and foremost: We did NOT have these issues with Windows XP, and still run over 60 XP machines that have NONE of these problems.

We are having ongoing problems with Windows 7 and mapped drive latency on our network. Our environment is as follows:
Multiple servers running Windows 2008 & 2008 R2, some VMware servers (including our file server).
Windows 7 x64 came preloaded on a brand new Lenovo thinkpad, 4gb memory. This occurs on 4 different laptops. This problem ALSO occurs in exactly the same way on an HP Compaq x64 desktop running Windows 7 32. All systems are fully patched & up to date on SP's.
Running IP 4 & 6 on all servers & Win7 machines
Connected to GB Cisco switch

We run login scripts via GPOs that map drives (with net use commands) to 3 shares on our fileserver, drives G, H and S. A fourth mapped drive to an IBM Iseries does NOT experience these issues.

In Windows Explorer, mapped drives may or may not appear with red X's, but when clicked on they hang with a spinner and the green bar at the top of Explorer begins to run. This occurs randomly, but usually not right after boot up. It can take over a minute to complete. Also, in Word, which has references to these drives in file locations, file opening and saves can be very slow as it attempts to access these shares.
This issue has delayed our roll out of Windows 7. Its unacceptably slow and cannot be used in a production environment.

We have tried every suggestion we can find on the Internet:
Turned off autotuning, indexing, thumbnails, set autodisconnect to the max (both 99999 and ffffffff). Server & clients. No luck.
Changed properties on the mapped drives to optimize for documents...no change.
Changes setting on the network cards to disable flow control, set static link speed & duplex. Network drivers have been updated. Even tried using our wireless network and disabling wired connection...no change.
All bios and hardware updates are completed...no change.
Turned on and off network discovery..no change.
Disabled SMB2 on servers & clients...no change.
Disabled firewalls, and unloaded antivirus (Trend)...no change.
Safe boot with networking & clean boot with no services other than Microsoft...no change.

There has GOT to be a solution to this problems or Windows 7 is dead in the water for us. I have 10 laptops in boxes that we can't roll out. Please post ANY ideas!!

Have you tried adjusting the MTU settings? The link below explains the problems with MTU settings and how it can effect both wired and wireless connections to NAS drives.

Wireless Performance Issues with Vista/Windows7 and the ReadyNAS | Bott's Thoughts

Windows 7 mapped drive latency with slow green progress bar

Hello, I wanted to share with you a solution I discovered to work with the network mapped drive latency. Now this is only a temporary solution until I can find a better one for our organization.

Problem: Is because it is trying to search and cache the location of files on the mapped drives.

Solution: Turn off windows search. Go to control panel > Select Program and Features> Click on Turn Windows features on or off> Uncheck Remote Differential Compression and Windows Search, Click OK and restart computer.

If you don't like that option, you can always rt click on libraries and reset back to default, close all windows and then reopen computer and everything will be back to normal. This is if you don't want to turn windows search off.

This will resolve the issue but then all search options are gone unless you know how to use run as or know exactly where the file or folder is you are looking for is located.

Hope this solution helps you temporarily until there is a better solution. Good Luck!

>> twoisbetter
we have exact the same problem ...

Did you find any solution ????

We are desperatly looking for help !!

Thanks in advance

kind regards

manfred
[email protected]

Login scripts first:

Net use /delete *
Net use * \\servername\ persistent:yes

are you using the delete command first and persistent last?


Do you have VMWare errors in log files? I hate VMware for File Servers, if the adapters aren't set just right, you'll have major issues on a high throughput server. (check traffic shaping) if remote sites are involved.

You might also want to check IOPS on the VMWare Hosts. How many disks are you running on the node? 10k rpm or lower? How many machines access the host node at a time?

If this issue ONLY Related to the windows 7 boxes, I would suggest moving the Windows 7 boxes out of the current GPO for troubleshotting purposes. Policy issues could be running rampant, do you have any errors on the FileServer in system/security or application regarding file services?


*btw this would cost thousands to troubleshoot if you pulled in a consultant. Don't expect a quick fix just yet.*

Has anybody come up with a solution to this.

I notice the same behavior now that I have replaced my home file server, with a brand new Windows 7 box to host my shared folders. My network is working correctly, and it's very fast when I transfer files...however the first time I try to connect to my shared folders after a bootup or coming out of sleep, I get about a 30 second delay while I get a green progress bar going across the screen. I thought at first my drives were spinning down in my windows 7 server machine...but I shut that off and the problem persists.

I think this is a "windows search" thing, trying to index that location. I'm debating on turning that off, but I do like searching from time to time.