Offline files adds 1 minute to startup

[eean]

Hi, we use offline files.
From logon screen to windows, off network, takes 10 seconds but from there the computer is very busy (like you can't do much) for 1 minute while windows faffs about with offline files. My computer is 1.6 dual core with 512mb ram. About 3GB are offline files.

After 1 minute the offline files balloon appears and all is fine.
Is there anyway to speed this up a bit?
Do you notice a similar problem?

I notice that if you log off again and log on, it doesn't take any time.
I've tried disabling McAfee Virusscan, not much effect (5 secs, possibly).

[Oops_my_bad]

About 3GB are offline files

There lies your answer, my friend

[mattx]

There lies your answer, my friend

Beat me to it... :-)
Speed of your network ?

[eean]

OK, but what the hell is it doing in this time? Looking through it all to see what has changed so it can be synced up - but WHY? The network isn't there, so it's not going to be able to copy it anyway.

I'm sure it could be more efficient! If I was a computer, I’d check to see if the network was there first before bothering to do anything. If it was, then, I’d check in the file allocation table or an special index for files that changed since the last sync. Surely it doesn’t scan every file, windows search style?

Speed of your network ?

Not an issue. This happens while you are off the network.

Thanks anyway, at least I’ve found out that it is a problem I can’t solve!

i have found offline files to be a right royal pain in the arse and have them disabled
is anyone esle using them?
and why

[Geoff]

You must understand that Off-line files works on the same logic as DFS. Whereby, it doesn't just copy down the changes in a file. It copies the entire file, even if it's only changed slightly. This can lead to an amusing waste of bandwidth. As I'm sure everyone realises.

[eean]

i have found offline files to be a right royal pain in the arse and have them disabled
is anyone esle using them?
and why

On the whole, I find they work quite well. We use them on our teacher's laptops - I find it particularly useful for our planning folders (which are on a shared drive). I can do planning on home and it'll appear on the network automatically and my year group partner can do the same and it'll work it's way back down to my laptop at home through syncing. It's like a vpn, only cheeper. (and not quite as good!).

The only problems I've had are:
- this one.
- where a teacher went on a course and copied 3 DVD's worth of data then tried to sync it (it didn't work because she had completely filled up her hd).
- where someone has asked it to sync too much data and it fills up the HD (you'd think it'd stop when it gets down to 100mb free )

On the whole, I think it's a good idea but it would be nice if it worked very slightly better!

[mattx]

Not an issue. This happens while you are off the network.

I thought your issue was when you were on the network.

[stevef1]

We use offline files on laptops and generally it works great, some staff don’t seem to realise that things take time to copy from the server to the laptop, they just plug in, quickly check email and disconnect from the network and expect 2 gig of files just to appear as if by magic offline.

stevef1

P.S hi all, just found this site and i think it rocks

[eean]

I thought your issue was when you were on the network.

To quote myself:

From logon screen to windows, off network, takes 10 seconds

Yep. Definitely said off network

IIRC it happens both when you are off the network and when you first go into work and first connect to the network. If you then work online, restart the computer back online again, you don't have this problem. Sorry, I should have made this clearer.
I think it must be searching through so it can get the information for the bit that says 'Unavailable for reconnect 15 modified files'. Why it needs to search for this information I don't know!

I started off with the GP settings as default but then I found that even if you said 'include sub folders' when you manually asked an item to be available off line, if a new sub folder on the network was created it wouldn't include it. So I changed the GP settings to always include sub folders. Now, it would be nice if I could manually un-check some sub folders, but the option is greyed out - so I'm guessing it's impossible?

[sidewinder]

I have offline files disabled on everything except teachers laptops.

And of course they get delays like this, so half of them end up asking for them standalone, which means no supporting to do, so suits me!