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Folks, have any of you experienced this “slow to update” file information on a mapped network drive between two Windows 7 machines? Any advice / comments very much appreciated.

The setup we have is for BMX race timing and scoring. Two PCs are used, one running MyLaps DataCollector to communicate to the track timing equipment and using Live File Export of the passing files and the second PC running the Bmx Event Manager (BEM) race program.
Basic operation is that the DataCollector machine writes small text files (passing records) to a “Passings Folder” on its local drive in “save on deletion” mode so the it will only create a file when that file does not exist. The BEM PC has a drive mapped to the Passings Folder on the DataCollector PC and moves the passing files to its local drive for processing. Once the file has been moved then DataCollector will write a new file as required.

We have operated with this configuration successfully for the past two years using both exclusively XP and a mixture of 1 XP and 1 Windows 7 machine. The problem we are now experiencing is when both PCs are running Windows 7. Frequently there are delays varying from seconds to minutes where the BEM PC cannot see the files on mapped drive to the DataCollector PC.

The issue is easily demonstrated by opening Windows Explorer on both PCs and when the problem is occurring, the file(s) are visible on the C drive on the DataCollector PC but not visible on the mapped P drive from the BEM PC. See screenshots below for an illustration of this scenario. It’s as if the PC with the mapped drive has an out of date image of what it believes the contents are and doesn’t actually check what is physically on drive when the BEM program is checking if a new file exists (uses VBA Dir command).

Leaving everything else the same, I replaced each of the Windows 7 PCs in the configuration in turn with an XP machine and the problem of the files not showing up never occurred which is consistent with the experience from the last two years.

Another configuration change that appears to be a work-around (but not a cure) is to have the DataCollector PC write its passing files to a mapped drive on the BEM PC rather than to its local drive. With this configuration the problem with files not showing up does not occur.
Note that this scenario is not restricted to the individual PCs and router as the same scenario has been reported from other race scorers using completely different hardware. The common issue is both PCs running Windows 7.

I’ve searched a number of forums and one solution that may be applicable (but not yet tried) is to disable SMB2 (Server Message Block) and rolling back to SMB1 which I understand is effectively the operating mode between Windows 7 and XP.
See http://forums.overclockers.com...wthread.php?t=942932

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No. The MyLaps Toolkit program is a bit of a mystery to me mainly because I haven't had time to work out why I can't get an error free competitor list import into it. No problems with this aspect with DataCollector.

Have run the past few events OK with two Windows7 PCs using the previously mentioned work-around of having DataCollector's Live File export directed to the mapped drive on the BEM PC.
We usually don't bother the data acquisition software to manage the database, just export the passings, and use the results software to take chip id and tod in, match it up to a chip id/racer number file and calculate results.

I did a quick test in a Toolkit file, imported an athlete file, created a custom output and it looks like you can do a readlite format, custom txt, csv, html, etc, choose the delimiter, choose an auto save on an interval, only if a file is deleted, choose to save as a new file, or append to the file, etc...looks like it might be worth a shot to work around your issue in another way.
Hi Jenna, thanks for the suggestions and will give it a try when (if) I gain enough confidence in Toolkit to run a race meeting with it. I still believe however that the core issue is with Windows7 and not DataCollector.

As you suggest, for scoring purposes we also only use the transponder number and TOD from the passing records and make the association with the competitor in the BEM race program.

The reason we upload competitor information (name, class, race number etc.) into DataCollector is because a typical BMX Race Meeting will run 75 – 80 races per hour with two and frequently three races on the track concurrently. Having the competitor details for display purposes on the DataCollector screen provides a useful guide to the operator as to what’s happening on the track.
Makes sense, you can do the same with Toolkit.

While the problem seems to be Windows 7 based, I don't believe that that datacollector has been updated in a while, and I believe MyLaps is phasing it out so there will likely be more and more issues with using data collector on Windows 7. Toolkit may just be a work around.

Good luck!

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