I’m the administrator of a 6TB DX4000 which is the NAS at our office of 4 PCs. The Sentinel holds about 25GB of our working data (word, excel, pdf, and other files), which I back-up every 2 days onto a WD My Passport Ultra UDB drive. I can do this using Copy/Paste functions in Windows Explorer. The USB drive can be connected via my PC or, for faster back-ups, via one of the USB ports at the back of the Sentinel (I have configured the USB drive as a shared folder).
During and after the backups, everything works well (all of us at the office can save, modify, and create new folders and files). The only problem is that Windows Explorer stops displaying files/folders, also the WE search function stops working for a few hours in all PCs. Thus, we cannot locate files when the search function is not working, which is a big problem for us. This happens irregularly (sometimes after each backup and at times every couple of weeks). I’m quite certain that this issue is being originated by the backup process.
I have tried a few things: restarted PCs/Sentinel/Switch/Modem to no avail. All updates have been carried-out. Also, I checked other forums/threads but haven’t found a similar problem.
Everything is working fine, except that we can’t do searches in WE (also searches don’t work in Word or any other software). Inexplicably, WE starts to work again by itself in full capacity a few hours later.
Please let me know if there is a solution to this issue.
Many thanks for your thoughts. It took me a while to try various ideas, hence my slow response.
When Windows Explorer was not working, Remote Desktop Connection was not working either (it was hung-up and would not load further than saying something along the lines of: updating desktop settings). However, the Dashboard remained operational during this time.
In answer to your query: Yes, I shared the USB My Passport from the Dashboard when I first set-up the system 9 months ago.
Following your ideas, I unshared the drive using the Dashboard. This took few hours. Then I rebooted the Sentinel and all the PCs. I’m glad to report that the WE is now fully operational and that the WE search function is now working. Also, RDC is working again.
I’m beginning to agree with your thoughts that File Indexing is the problem since I have been disconnecting the USB My Passport as soon as the copying of files was completed (thus Indexing may have been incomplete).
Please let me know if there is a way of testing if “File Indexing” has been completed.
I just did a Sentinel RDC and got to Administrative Tools / Component Services / Services (Local) and located “Computer Browser”. In “Properties”, I can confirm that the default setting in the Sentinel is: Started/Automatic.
I did the same in the local PCs, but found the service to be Running but on Manual Startup in most of them. So I changed the Startup to Automatic.
I am just not sure it is a good idea to share usb drives. IMHO
Open Indexing Options by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type indexing options, and then click Indexing Options.
Click Pause. If you’re prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. (The index must be running in order for the Pause button to be available.)
It says at the top indexing complete and the pause button is not an option.
PS:The computer browser stuff is not related to this. That is for computers showing up in net hood
