File transfer of large files suddenly stops

Anonymous
2013-08-14T21:13:39+00:00

Dear community and Microsoft support team,

since the release of Windows 8, I'm experiencing a strange issue on my SATA3 1TB HDD (I can specify the exact model if needed), running in AHCI mode.

When copying or moving larger files (starts with files of about 50 MB or more), the file transfer suddenly stops - the transfer rate goes down to 0 bytes/s.

I can't even pause or cancel the progress. The button then just grays out and I can only kill the explorer.exe to get this file task away (it stays there - and if I start another action it just gets joined in the file tasks window below the frozen task.

Here's an image. You can nicely see the sudden stop of the file copy action.

On the left side the progress just froze. It will stay like that _forever_. I tried waiting 2 days because the computer was running anyways. Nothing happened.

On the right side I tried to cancel it, but the buttons just gray out and the label says "Cancelling" - this will also _never_ happen. The other controls react normally to user input (e.g. hiding the details), but the buttons are disabled _forever_. The only way to get rid of this frozen task is to kill explorer.exe.

  • I experienced this problem on my and another pc in my old home.
  • I experienced it with different fresh and old Windows 8 installations on my current PC (very annoying after copying files back on a fresh Win8 install - it freezes even there).
  • It doesn't matter if this happens on local disks or over the network.
  • It doesn't matter if details are shown or not.
  • I also experienced this on Windows 8.1 Preview on my laptop.

Thanks for any help in advance. If you need additional details, feel free to ask me.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-11-19T16:34:29+00:00

    This is a problem for me today as well - Windows 10 on a Surface Pro 4. I don't need to list all the details of what others have tried, because I have tried the same. This seems unfortunate that this forum is not being monitored.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-10-19T15:37:13+00:00

    I was transferring photos from my phone to win 10 via bluetooth, and after 4 pics, progress bar froze. 

    I cancelled and restarted, and progress bar froze in first pic. 

    I rebooted pc and every time transfer froze on first pic. Each file size is 4.25MB, and I have 5 pics to transfer from Huawei phone to win 10 PC. 

    I transferred to Mac, and transfer works ok.

    I then transferred from Mac to PC, and transfer froze again.

    So large file transfers via bluetooth to Win 10 PC doesn't work with default settings.

    I then changed the below setting, and large file transfers work fine on win 10 PC:

    The Remote Differential Compression task compresses data before it is sent over the network. This takes a considerable amount of time and can lead to congestion. Speed up the file copying, moving or deleting process by disabling this process.

    1. Open Control Panel and select Programs and Features.
    2. Now select Turn Windows features on or off from the pane on the left-hand side.
    3. Search for Remote Differential Compression API Support and uncheck the box next to it.
    4. Click OK to save the changes.
    5. Reboot PC

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-10-01T00:43:41+00:00

    To solve this question, you'd better check the partition of your HDD in advance. The Windows built-in tool CHKDSK can help you to do this operation. if you are not familiar with the command prompt, you can also check partition and fix errors with third party software. if there has bad sectors on your HDD, fix it and you can use your HDD normally。

    Nope, my SSD is brand new I've ran a CHKDSK command on it no issues, the problem is Windows Explorers file transfer this issue has preceded since Windows 8 from what I've researched and still exists in Windows 10, you would think Microsoft would've fixed this issue by now but they haven't yet. Here is what happens, Windows explorer will transfer small files just fine but as soon as you transfer multitudes of files like i.e. i can transfer 1-4 files at a time but once in a while, If i  do more than that the transfer speed suddenly drops down and halts its transfer. Like you i thought it was a possoble failing or corrupted drive but it wasn't, i did some research and found multiple people experiencing the same issue since Windows 8, so I tried a third party file explorer called One Commander and the transfers are just fine even for big/multiple files.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-09-30T03:40:12+00:00

    To solve this question, you'd better check the partition of your HDD in advance. The Windows built-in tool CHKDSK can help you to do this operation. if you are not familiar with the command prompt, you can also check partition and fix errors with third party software. if there has bad sectors on your HDD, fix it and you can use your HDD normally。

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-09-09T19:46:27+00:00

    The same issue with Windows 10 I'll be transferring large files then the transfer speeds dip down to 0Mbps and stops transferring sometimes i will transfer 2 at a time or 1 and that seems to help but if Windows is having this issue since 8.1 then this is a huge problem.

    If anyone else is having this issue download a file manager called Commander you can get it off file hippo it's two windows system so y9ou can access your data from the main drive in one panel and have another drive or folder open in the other panel. Seems to work better than windows own file transfer until they fix this. You can find Commander on Filehippo. or try One Commander from the Windows Store.

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