File system problems

[kimknapp]

Love the Book, but not too happy with the OS, yet.
Since I got the book last week I have been noticing various problems with the file system. Here is a partial list (I should take better notes, but I did not sign up to be a beta-tester):

• When transferring files from my old computer to the new one via shared folders over the local net, if I tried to do more than two things everything slowed down to a crawl or complete stop. In the past I was only limited to the bandwidth of the path - silly to try to transfer more than 4 or 5 folders at a time, for example, but two??
• When accessing files from an external 2TB My Passport (which I have been using with my old Windows 8.1 laptop with no problems), sometimes I have to wait 5 or 10 seconds before it finally opens them, even when using File Explorer. This slows down any program using the files. Once it is recognized, it is faster for a while.
• When trying to Import images in LightRoom, a few of them are imported and then the computer locks up if I try to Import them directly into my external drive - works ok to internal memory. This was reported years ago and found to be file system related, (although it is not good that Adobe doesn't handle it without locking up the whole computer, requiring a forced power off!).
• When I try to move files from internal memory to external drive using LightRoom, many of them transfer and then it stops, all other file functions on the computer stop working. Can't even open Windows Settings or Task Manager until something finally times out (minutes later).
• When creating a PDF from a DOCX in Word 2016 the file system once again locked up. After many minutes I finally killed Word using TaskManager and found my DOCX without any of the images that were in the document. After Googling I saw that this was a problem going back as far as Office 2010 and was caused by not being able to write the file back to the disk - once again pointing to a file handling problem. The fix back then was to have Word constantly back up your work.

I am using this for serious work and serious hobby, but I am now seriously upset. I don't have time to spend finding and using workarounds.

 

[hughlle]

2. Check the power settings fro the drive. You'll want to set it so that the drive never powers down.

 

[kimknapp]

Thanks Hughlle'
I changed it from Quick Removal to Better Performance, which should help startup. Those were the only settings I could find (they were in the Policies tab of the driver). I did this for a SSD I am also using for my work files.

I'll reply back with the results.

Kim

 

[hughlle]

Have you tried this to see if it works in stopping the hdd from spinning down to save power?

 

[kimknapp]

No. I will look at that. But, the other change I made at least makes it more responsive.
However, LightRoom still crashes big time when trying to "Import" images to the external hard driver. I just tried it again with about 20 images, in jpeg and raw format, so 40 files. The first file imported, seven more said they imported, but were unreadable and then LightRoom locked up.
I tried it again with the Import going to the internal memory and all 40 imported fine. The images were about 5MB for jpegs and over 40MB for raw (Sony A7Rii)
I'll try again after unchecking the Allow computer to turn off device box.

 

[kimknapp]

Have not tried unchecking the box, yet, but I am trying all the above without Targus DisplayLink and it seems much better. Still had a lock up once when copying in File Explorer while LR was reading the SD card. But, if nothing else is going on, LR will Import reliably (although it does hesitate sometimes for a long time and then continue). None of this was a problem with Win 8.1 on Yoga Pro 2 before, though.
Could be multiple problems interacting (Adobe stuff can be buggy sometimes).

 

[kimknapp]

OK, did some more testing and am ready to return the Book.
Be careful if you are using any external storage. From my experience you will risk losing data or, even worse, corrupting files and not know it.
After thinking my problems might have stemmed from the Targus DisplayLink and/or Adobe LightRoom, I did a bunch of additional testing. I removed the Targus dock from the equation and did a bunch of testing transferring files between an SD Card, the internal SSD (512GB), an external 512 GB SSD (MyDigitalSSD) and a WD 2TB My Passport. Keep in mind that I have been using the external SSD and Hard Drive with a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 with an older gen I7 and 256GB internal SSD for a year now, with absolutely no problems, file loss or corruption.
I have tested with both external devices plugged in and one at a time plugged in, with the same results.

• Transfer of 32GB of images from SD to internal memory - no problem
• Transfer of 32GB of images from SD to MyDigialSSD or My Passport - in both cases, it was stop after a GB or 2. In both cases, the devices were removed. As in "Device is not available". File/Windows Explorer stopped showing the drive and Device Manager said it was removed because of an error (I didn't write down the exact verbage, but you get the idea).
• Of the files that were transferred the last 6 or 7 were not readable. For example, in the case of images, when trying to open them the OS said they were a format that Windows does not understand.
• One of my first indicators of this problem was when I tried to use Word to convert a business .docx to a .pdf. Operation hung and when I finally was able to get back to the .docx, all of the inline images were missing.

I would be curious if anyone else has this experience (please, only comments from users that have external storage. Thanks!)