Copying over home network corrupts files

Kindred192 · 11-25-2007, 12:14 AM

Hey everyone, hopefully some of you more knowledgeable folks will be able to help me out here. I've got a storage computer that houses all of my large files. I went to copy them to my main box's hard drive to sort em out and **** and send them back. Problem is about 20% of them copied over corrupted.

I've tried this a couple times between all combinations of my laptop, desk box, and storage box and 10-20% of my files consistently end up corrupted after transfer with very few clean copy sessions. That rules out the NICs, since I'm pretty sure that both NICs + the lappy's wireless can't be bad. I have no problems with my internet connection or downloading files, so I don't think it's my router. All of my networking hardware IS 2+ years old, however.

Is this just a common problem with associated with copying large files or large numbers of files over a network in windows XP? Is there a bit of software that will run more thorough CRC checks or something while copying to circumvent this?

**johnwill** · 11-25-2007, 08:26 AM

There should be no issue copying large files, I'm guessing something is amiss in your network. I'd start by doing some controlled tests. I'll suggest a course of action.

Download an MD5SUM utility, here's a decent one: http://www.md5summer.org/

Compute the MD5SUM of a few files on one of the machines.
Do a copy from one location to another of the files to a specific destination.
Compute the MD5SUM of the files on the destination to check for errors in copying.

Do this process with all combinations of source and destination machines and develop a matrix of which combinations fail.

That will help you narrow down what combination is causing the copy issues.

Kindred192 · 11-26-2007, 02:04 PM

Thanks, that's the software I was looking for! It looks like the problem is my laptop. It's the only computer on a wireless connection as well as the only one that consistently breaks files when copied. Is this unusual or something that I can expect from a wireless connection? The wireless is integrated so I don't have an expansion card that I can swap out. Bad router? RF interference? What are the things that I can test for without having to purchase new hardware? (I live in korea and hardware with drivers in english is hard to come by)

**johnwill** · 11-26-2007, 04:35 PM

You may have wireless interference. Have you tried changing the channel on the router? If you connect the laptop with a wired connection, do the copies work properly?

11-25-2007, 12:14 AM	#1 (permalink)
Kindred192 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2 OS: XP	Copying over home network corrupts files Hey everyone, hopefully some of you more knowledgeable folks will be able to help me out here. I've got a storage computer that houses all of my large files. I went to copy them to my main box's hard drive to sort em out and **** and send them back. Problem is about 20% of them copied over corrupted. I've tried this a couple times between all combinations of my laptop, desk box, and storage box and 10-20% of my files consistently end up corrupted after transfer with very few clean copy sessions. That rules out the NICs, since I'm pretty sure that both NICs + the lappy's wireless can't be bad. I have no problems with my internet connection or downloading files, so I don't think it's my router. All of my networking hardware IS 2+ years old, however. Is this just a common problem with associated with copying large files or large numbers of files over a network in windows XP? Is there a bit of software that will run more thorough CRC checks or something while copying to circumvent this?

11-25-2007, 08:26 AM	#2 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,940 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	Re: Copying over home network corrupts files There should be no issue copying large files, I'm guessing something is amiss in your network. I'd start by doing some controlled tests. I'll suggest a course of action. Download an MD5SUM utility, here's a decent one: http://www.md5summer.org/ Compute the MD5SUM of a few files on one of the machines. Do a copy from one location to another of the files to a specific destination. Compute the MD5SUM of the files on the destination to check for errors in copying. Do this process with all combinations of source and destination machines and develop a matrix of which combinations fail. That will help you narrow down what combination is causing the copy issues. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

11-26-2007, 02:04 PM	#3 (permalink)
Kindred192 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2 OS: XP	Re: Copying over home network corrupts files Thanks, that's the software I was looking for! It looks like the problem is my laptop. It's the only computer on a wireless connection as well as the only one that consistently breaks files when copied. Is this unusual or something that I can expect from a wireless connection? The wireless is integrated so I don't have an expansion card that I can swap out. Bad router? RF interference? What are the things that I can test for without having to purchase new hardware? (I live in korea and hardware with drivers in english is hard to come by)

11-26-2007, 04:35 PM	#4 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,940 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	Re: Copying over home network corrupts files You may have wireless interference. Have you tried changing the channel on the router? If you connect the laptop with a wired connection, do the copies work properly? __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience