Please help. I'm losing the plot!

Atomik · 2 Mar 2007 at 10:58

I really need some solid advice on this one before I see how far I can get with a Vista refund! I can't find any rational explanation for the problems I'm experiencing. Here's a quick summary of the main problem that's been driving me nuts for the last week or two:

I'm having the weirdest problem with Vista. After saving image files (tried as jpegs and bmps so far) from any application (Adobe CS2, Canon DPP), I move the images across the LAN to a shared folder on an XP Pro machine. When I reboot the XP Pro machine, the images appear corrupt - no embedded preview on some of them and none of them will open. Weirdly, if copy the folder out of the shared directory and onto the desktop of the XP Pro machine and then reboot, those files appear to remain undamaged. Existing images in the shared directory also appear unaffected.

I've duplicated this problem copying files to a 2nd XP Pro machine, so the issue would appear to originate with the Vista box. I can't see why it only manifests after a reboot of the XP Pro machine though. All the PCs appear to be free from viruses and/or malware. I'm totally puzzled by this one.

This problem only seems to manifest if I copy the files across from within Vista. For example:

Files saved in shared directory X in Vista. Log into Vista box and copy TO shared directory Y on XP Pro box. Files appear corrupt after reboot of XP Pro box.

Files saved in shared directory X in Vista. Log into XP Pro box and copy FROM shared directory X on Vista box into shared directory Y on XP Pro box. Files retain integrity. So the origin and destination directories remain the same, and only the machine performing the operation changes. When it's the Vista machine, the files are somehow corrupted.

NIC drivers are updated and RAM tested. I'm running out of ideas. As if this wasn't weird enough, I encountered a new problem today. I can't play donwloaded .mov film trailers. Quicktime crashes out with a "buffer overrun" message. BUT, if I copy the same file to a shared network drive on the XP Pro box, I can play it from there (on the Vista box, opening the file from the shared drive)!!!! It won't play from any directory on the Vista machine. The .mov file on the Vista box and it's copy on the XP Pro box have the same MD5 checksum value. What the hell is going on???

Atomik · 2 Mar 2007 at 12:07

Just checked something else. With image files, the MD5 checksums of the original and copied files match. After rebooting the XP Pro box, they no longer match. :rolleyes:

Atomik · 3 Mar 2007 at 00:53

Bump.

Priapus · 3 Mar 2007 at 12:29

Okay, not 100% sure I understood everything there. However, if you're on the Vista box and save the images in a shared folder..then go to the XP Pro machine and copy them from the shared folder (Right click --> Copy) and paste them on the desktop top, they are fine to open and view. Then when you restart the machine, they no longer work?

Atomik · 3 Mar 2007 at 13:49

Ice On Fire said:
Okay, not 100% sure I understood everything there. However, if you're on the Vista box and save the images in a shared folder..then go to the XP Pro machine and copy them from the shared folder (Right click --> Copy) and paste them on the desktop top, they are fine to open and view. Then when you restart the machine, they no longer work?

Close. If the files are copied from Vista to a shared folder on the XP box, when I restart the XP box they no longer work. BUT if I move them out of a shared folder before rebooting (and this holds true of any shared folder, whatever physical drive on the XP box I create it on), they're absolutely fine. To summarise:

Image files (and possibly others, but not found any affected so far) copied to shared directories on the XP box become corrupt after reboot. This can be observed by their changed MD5 checksum. Files moved out of the shared directory before reboot are fine.

This is not a problem with the XP Pro box, since I've duplicated it with another machine, so something that Vista is doing during the creation/copying process is causing these files to self-destruct. How a jpeg manages to change itself after a reboot is beyond me. I can only assume that Vista is somehow triggering a process on the XP boc that prompts this change.

For the record, I've updated every driver I can think of and flashed the bios to the latest version.

saffyre · 3 Mar 2007 at 14:46

Have you tried turning off the vista box before you reboot the xp box, or maybe killing the lan connection to see if vista is somehow holding onto the files after they have been written.

Atomik · 3 Mar 2007 at 19:13

saffyre said:
Have you tried turning off the vista box before you reboot the xp box, or maybe killing the lan connection to see if vista is somehow holding onto the files after they have been written.

Yeah, tried that, because I wondered if it was a process on Vista interacting with the files when I booted the XP box. But I've tried it with the Vista box powered down when I reboot the XP box, and the files still become corrupted after reboot. I'd have been convinced at this stage that it was a problem on the XP box, but I've duplicated exactly the same thing with a 2nd XP machine. It just doesn't appear rational. I know it must be..... but damn!

Atomik · 14 Mar 2007 at 10:27

Nobody got any ideas then? Well it gets weirder. I chucked an old HD in my machine and did a clean install of Vista. Exactly the same problem manifested. I then wiped the drive and did a clean install of XP. No more problem. So at least I now know it's not a hardware problem. I guess this narrows it down to Vista or one of the drivers used by Vista. What puzzles me is why nobody else is seeing similar problems.