I seemed to have stumbled across another little issue with windows 7 and network drives. I have windows 7 talking to a Linux machine using samba. It worked fine until I  rebooted the machine (Window) and now the drive cannot be accessed. I know it is an authentication problem since windows is attempting to use the wrong username / password however this is the funny part of it.

I get the following obvious error since it cannot connect.

So the really funny part here is that you cannot disconnect the drive for some reason. Even if I stop samba on the linux machine. Every time I attempt to disconenct the drive the following occurs.

Such a nice error message. So I wonder how window think I can remove a drive for authentication details I cannot change or how it can disconnect a drive that is no longer hosted on another machine (eg when samaba is stopped)

It looks like the standard driver that shipped with windows 7 for the Realtek PCIe network card is somewhat buggy. It seems to trigger disconnects under load from the switch. However when you look at the details of the connection from the switch end of the connection there will be little or no errors. Only the disconnects will be logged.

It seems to be happening with the driver version 7.00.xx.xx but seems to be corrected after updating to version 7.046. More instrcutions for the update at the bottom.

You can see this below ...

FastEthernet0 is up, line protocol is up
  Hardware is Fast Ethernet, address is 001e.1366.750d (bia 001e.1366.750d)
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit/sec, DLY 100 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 18/255, rxload 142/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive set (10 sec)
  Full-duplex, 100Mb/s
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input never, output never, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 129
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 55719000 bits/sec, 4977 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 7307000 bits/sec, 3592 packets/sec
     288342812 packets input, 1052441307 bytes, 0 no buffer
     Received 17829 broadcasts, 0 runts, 321 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     365975051 packets output, 3739658513 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 2 interface resets
     0 unknown protocol drops
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

However if the connection is placed under significant load in window 7 then the following will begine to occur ...

Oct 22 11:29:45: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to down
Oct 22 11:29:46: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:29:47: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:29:59: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to down
Oct 22 11:30:00: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:30:01: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:30:09: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to down
Oct 22 11:30:10: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:30:11: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:30:23: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to down
Oct 22 11:30:24: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:30:25: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:30:33: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to down
Oct 22 11:30:34: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:30:35: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:30:57: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to down
Oct 22 11:30:58: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:30:59: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:31:21: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to down
Oct 22 11:31:22: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:31:23: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:31:33: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to down
Oct 22 11:31:34: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up
Oct 22 11:31:35: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0, changed state to up

Which probably isn't the best thing when attempting to use a network drive. In this case the connection would not be able to cope a medium sized file (300mb) to a server before the connection would reset. However the card would function correctly for web browsing or lighter load.

The driver is next to impossible to find on the internet but the following will work.

to get to the screen below right click on "Computer" that is located in the start button and select manage. Locate the Device manage and find the Realtek PCIe card.

If the version is lower than 7.46.610 then you should update. Windows will do this for you automatically once you click the update driver button.

I previous wrote about the annoying issue with windows 7 and the thumb.db where it creates and error when you try to delete a folder after viewing the contents. Here is a quick guide to remove the issue. However it can slow down the initial view on a folder.

1. First run gpedit.msc
2. Then navigate to Local Computer Policy->User Configuration->Administrator Templates -> Windows Components->Windows Explorer
3. Then double click the "Turn off caching of thumbnail pictures". Set the property to enabled.

You will then need to update the group policy using gpupdate /force and then reboot. Or if it is not urgent to turn off it will apply after the next reboot or two. Depending on when the group policy is updated.

I finally made the move to windows 7 and this is probably the first bug I have noticed. I noticed this within 24 hours of installing the system. It would appear after 11 versions of windows microsoft still cannot get it right. All I am doing to trigger this is to enter a folder in explorer which is on a network drive. If it contains an image / video then when you come up a level and attempt to delete the folder it will first warn you that you are attempting to remove an important system file.

Like so

So you are probably thinking that this is nothing more than an annoyance. Until you press yes and you get presented with the following message.

Thats right the program that has the Thumbs.db open is actually explorer. Even though I am attempting to delete the folder using explorer. Something that I would think would be a very common operation for most people which would be to check the contents of a folder just before deleting it. So I probably cannot be the only person who has seen this really obvious bug.

Windows 7 may look very pritty but still seems to fail on basic file operations. I also spotted the issue on windows vista doing the same. I guess its just another thing that Microsoft *might* get around to fixing so day.