Can't copy/move to network shares

Hello, I have a Vista laptop that can no longer copy or move files to any XP or Samba network shares. This was working at one time, but has since stopped. I receive the following error when trying to copy a file from my local drive. There is a problem accessing (path to local file) Please check your network connection etc..etc.. I have turned off the firewall and windows defender, network discovery in on and file sharing enabled(with password auth disabled). the workgroup is set correctly... I've tried disabling UAC to no avail......Like I said this just stopped working...(maybe after a windows update)?? Any help would be greatly appreciated...Thanks

I'm running Vista home premium 32-bit


What I can do on the same network shares.
1.Create a new file/folder
2.Copy/move a file from the network share to my Vista machine.

I presume the same local path can be accessed without issue when you're merely doing local work without attempting to copy across the network?

What if you boot to [safe mode + net]? Do you experience the same network copy problem?

H2SO4 said:

I presume the same local path can be accessed without issue when you're merely doing local work without attempting to copy across the network?

What if you boot to [safe mode + net]? Do you experience the same network copy problem?

Click to expand...

Yes, the local path can be accessed without issue..One point of interest though...If I try to access any word doc by clicking on it I get a message that the file can't be found, however word opens up in the background (but doesn't ope the file). I then have to double click the file again and it opens up in word. Not sure if this is related....Only seems to be word docs as well.

Anyone...Anyone??..Bueller?

woodson2 said:

H2SO4 said:

I presume the same local path can be accessed without issue when you're merely doing local work without attempting to copy across the network?

What if you boot to [safe mode + net]? Do you experience the same network copy problem?

Click to expand...

Yes, the local path can be accessed without issue..One point of interest though...If I try to access any word doc by clicking on it I get a message that the file can't be found, however word opens up in the background (but doesn't ope the file). I then have to double click the file again and it opens up in word. Not sure if this is related....Only seems to be word docs as well.

Click to expand...

Do you mean that only Word docs are affected by the network problem, or only Word docs require this extra step to open them?

How about [safe mode + net]? Does running in that mode have any effect on your network issue?

The most likely cause for the network symptom is a problem with your anti-virus or firewall. If you haven't already done so, you might want to try temporarily uninstalling the AV and any non-default firewalls, especially if things are better in [safe mode + net].

H2SO4 said:

woodson2 said:

H2SO4 said:

I presume the same local path can be accessed without issue when you're merely doing local work without attempting to copy across the network?

What if you boot to [safe mode + net]? Do you experience the same network copy problem?

Click to expand...

Yes, the local path can be accessed without issue..One point of interest though...If I try to access any word doc by clicking on it I get a message that the file can't be found, however word opens up in the background (but doesn't ope the file). I then have to double click the file again and it opens up in word. Not sure if this is related....Only seems to be word docs as well.

Click to expand...

Do you mean that only Word docs are affected by the network problem, or only Word docs require this extra step to open them?

How about [safe mode + net]? Does running in that mode have any effect on your network issue?

The most likely cause for the network symptom is a problem with your anti-virus or firewall. If you haven't already done so, you might want to try temporarily uninstalling the AV and any non-default firewalls, especially if things are better in [safe mode + net].

Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought it might be related to the bloated Norton suite so I uninstalled that and disabled the windows firewall as well..Still no luck..I haven't tried safe mode with net support....I'll give this a try...As far as word goes.I was just giving you an example of an unrelated issue to see if maybe you'd see them before and thought that maybe it was actually related to the original issue. So in short, it doesn't matter what type of file I try to copy to the network share they all fail.....Unless I create a new text doc on the desktop and copy that...then it works......

woodson2 said:

Yeah, I thought it might be related to the bloated Norton suite so I uninstalled that and disabled the windows firewall as well..Still no luck..I haven't tried safe mode with net support....I'll give this a try...As far as word goes.I was just giving you an example of an unrelated issue to see if maybe you'd see them before and thought that maybe it was actually related to the original issue. So in short, it doesn't matter what type of file I try to copy to the network share they all fail.....Unless I create a new text doc on the desktop and copy that...then it works......

Click to expand...

Right now, it's about reducing the scope of the problem. In addition to safe+net, it would also be useful to know the results of the following tests:

1) Does using non-SMB protocols such as FTP and HTTP allow you to upload without obvious problems?

2) If you map one or more network drives, can you then use the CMD prompt to upload files (via SMB)? For example, map Z: to \\SomeServer\SomeShare, and then COPY C:\MyStuff\MyFile.doc Z: - does that work? If so, it points at an Explorer issue which does not affect the CMD.EXE SMB client.

3) If you've used a packet sniffer before, it would be interesting to generate a trace and thus see whether any connection is made to the target machine or whether the error is entirely local.

H2SO4 said:

woodson2 said:

Yeah, I thought it might be related to the bloated Norton suite so I uninstalled that and disabled the windows firewall as well..Still no luck..I haven't tried safe mode with net support....I'll give this a try...As far as word goes.I was just giving you an example of an unrelated issue to see if maybe you'd see them before and thought that maybe it was actually related to the original issue. So in short, it doesn't matter what type of file I try to copy to the network share they all fail.....Unless I create a new text doc on the desktop and copy that...then it works......

Click to expand...

Right now, it's about reducing the scope of the problem. In addition to safe+net, it would also be useful to know the results of the following tests:

1) Does using non-SMB protocols such as FTP and HTTP allow you to upload without obvious problems?

2) If you map one or more network drives, can you then use the CMD prompt to upload files (via SMB)? For example, map Z: to \\SomeServer\SomeShare, and then COPY C:\MyStuff\MyFile.doc Z: - does that work? If so, it points at an Explorer issue which does not affect the CMD.EXE SMB client.

3) If you've used a packet sniffer before, it would be interesting to generate a trace and thus see whether any connection is made to the target machine or whether the error is entirely local.

Click to expand...

Safe mode didn't make a difference..

OK..so here's what I've decided will work for me and the employee. I used the command prompt instead of windows explorer and what do you know...It worked.....So in other words opened up a command prompt and issued the following command

cp C:\filename (to network mapped share) Z:\server\share

I was also able to transfer files using FTP to the same network share..

One thing that is interesting is the network copy still fails, however if you click on try again it goes through the second time....Anyhow, the employee is content to use FTP..

I want to thanks you for your suggestions as they have helped me use a workaround..I still wonder what the underlying issue is though.....

woodson2 said:

I want to thanks you for your suggestions as they have helped me use a workaround..I still wonder what the underlying issue is though.....

Click to expand...

Think of Explorer and CMD as two separate apps which both rely on the underlying network stack. Whenever CMD successfully networks but Explorer doesn't, something has been added to the latter (an add-on) which is interfering.

In other words, the cause of your issue under Explorer is a "shell extension" or filter which is non-default. Cleaning up Explorer's configuration to try to revert back to its clean state would almost certainly help. There is a lot of information on the web on how to identify and remove non-default "explorer shell extensions".

H2SO4 said:

woodson2 said:

I want to thanks you for your suggestions as they have helped me use a workaround..I still wonder what the underlying issue is though.....

Click to expand...

Think of Explorer and CMD as two separate apps which both rely on the underlying network stack. Whenever CMD successfully networks but Explorer doesn't, something has been added to the latter (an add-on) which is interfering.

In other words, the cause of your issue under Explorer is a "shell extension" or filter which is non-default. Cleaning up Explorer's configuration to try to revert back to its clean state would almost certainly help. There is a lot of information on the web on how to identify and remove non-default "explorer shell extensions".

Click to expand...

Thanks again...I'm going to try ShellExView on the employees machine. I installed in on my XP machine and it works like a charm......On a different note I just want to say that I posted this problem on about 12-15 different forums and you gave the most comprehensive path to troubleshooting the issue. Well done..Thanks again!

woodson2 said:

H2SO4 said:

woodson2 said:

I want to thanks you for your suggestions as they have helped me use a workaround..I still wonder what the underlying issue is though.....

Click to expand...

Think of Explorer and CMD as two separate apps which both rely on the underlying network stack. Whenever CMD successfully networks but Explorer doesn't, something has been added to the latter (an add-on) which is interfering.

In other words, the cause of your issue under Explorer is a "shell extension" or filter which is non-default. Cleaning up Explorer's configuration to try to revert back to its clean state would almost certainly help. There is a lot of information on the web on how to identify and remove non-default "explorer shell extensions".

Click to expand...

Thanks again...I'm going to try ShellExView on the employees machine. I installed in on my XP machine and it works like a charm......On a different note I just want to say that I posted this problem on about 12-15 different forums and you gave the most comprehensive path to troubleshooting the issue. Well done..Thanks again!

Click to expand...

I like troubleshooting out-of-the-ordinary issues. Thank you too