help, win7+offline files = random 100% cpu usage

[skanky]

running a x201s win7 pro x64 and set offline files to cache a folder on my qnap ts419p nas device.

after a sucessful initial sync (tested and i can see the drive with no active network connection), i notice that sometimes the cpu is pegged at 100% with svchost.exe showing in task manager as taking a lot of the time up, in turn restarting cscservice fixes this, for no reason at all.

any ideas? google doesnt seem to know why its trying to start a sync for no reason and the sync center either says "sync requested" or nothing useful at all as the sync bar doesnt seem to move.

[ozzymud]

Although the files on the NAS might not change, Windows still needs to check each and every files timestamp to see if it has, for a large number of offline files this can take a while. It runs this check quite often and can easily get into a situation of running said check almost constantly.

If the files do indeed not change often (like photos, mp3, etc), I would suggest something like Microsoft SyncToys 2.0 and you can schedule daily or whatever syncs.

Offline files is better at it's job when there are just a select number of files, it blows for whole drive type instances.

[skanky]

Although the files on the NAS might not change, Windows still needs to check each and every files timestamp to see if it has, for a large number of offline files this can take a while. It runs this check quite often and can easily get into a situation of running said check almost constantly.

If the files do indeed not change often (like photos, mp3, etc), I would suggest something like [url=http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... d0592d8c52]Microsoft SyncToys 2.0[/url and you can schedule daily or whatever syncs.

Offline files is better at it's job when there are just a select number of files, it blows for whole drive type instances.

i think i have no choice but to stick with offline files as it does what i need to (my itunes is able to reference my music share and it'll work on or offline and same goes for my "documents" folder).

22,000+ files over 102mb, yeah i suppose i have no cause to complain!

[ozzymud]

You might also give SecondCopy a shot, they have a trial and several people recommend this as a 3rd party replacement to Briefcase/Offline Files.

Also, I don't see the relavence, but one user supposedly fixed the cpu usage by disabling the SuperFetch service in Vista/7 (try it, you can always re-enable the service, it's just a cache)

[skanky]

You might also give SecondCopy a shot, they have a trial and several people recommend this as a 3rd party replacement to Briefcase/Offline Files.

Also, I don't see the relavence, but one user supposedly fixed the cpu usage by disabling the SuperFetch service in Vista/7 (try it, you can always re-enable the service, it's just a cache)

using a ssd, so superfetch is already disabled in services.

its not really for the backup features i need offline folders for, rather so i am able to take set my itunes to a location and not have to worry about it. i suppose i could try synctoy (i took ages to scan, i gave up) to a local location, then set itunes to run from that then i can sync when needed.

i wish they'd kept the XP way of doing things, never had any issues with it randomly sync'ing during a session, it was simpler: you're either on or off! none of this automatic sync rubbish!

[ozzymud]

i wish they'd kept the XP way of doing things

In more ways then one! They think change is a must... or they need to keep up with the jones(mac, linux)

XP was/is popular for a reason... things just work, there are just too many "what were they thinking" things in 7 for me to be comfortable with it

Yea, SyncToy isn't click and go, needs more setup, but once setup doesn't hog the system every 5 minutes.

[skanky]

XP was/is popular for a reason... things just work, there are just too many "what were they thinking" things in 7 for me to be comfortable with it

Yea, SyncToy isn't click and go, needs more setup, but once setup doesn't hog the system every 5 minutes.

giving synctoy a shot now, have a feeling i might need to run it a few times as its failed on a few already, i wonder if i can put the synctoy sync into a command line so i can batch file it.

however not looking forward to having to redirect all my itunes links (to keep play count/ratings etc) to the new location, took me half a day to do the last time when i decided to link to the files on my nas

as i know when new files are added to the music share (cos i'll be adding them!) i can do a manual sync when i need to!

even after doing a full sync, it even seems to kick off a sync when i come back from hibernate, i didnt even change a file, theres no reason for you to check!!

[ozzymud]

Run All:
"C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0\SyncToyCmd.exe" -R
Run Specific:
"C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0\SyncToyCmd.exe" -R"name of folder pair"

i didnt even change a file, theres no reason for you to check!!

Mind reading software... can't wait for that, jack me in

[skanky]

Run All:
"C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0\SyncToyCmd.exe" -R
Run Specific:
"C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0\SyncToyCmd.exe" -R"name of folder pair"

seems to work quite well, however it'd be nice if there was some sort of progress bar as i couldnt tell if it'd crashed or not. did have to run it twice in the end as it was unable to copy a few files, didnt take as long as expected overall but the scan takes a fair while.

my convoluted itunes process is now:

-synctoy to mirror music share locally
-musicbridge to save ratings/playcounts (doesnt work if the path changes though, grr!)
-itunes library updater to scan the "share" and automatically update itunes where needed
-music bridge to restore saved ratings etc

it adds an extra step but i'll take it for no maxing my cpu all the time.

endtasking the rogue process in task manager does also seem to kill aero, which is weird as i've disabled the offline service so it cant be running a sync!

[ozzymud]

You can also automate MusicBridge...

Q: How can I set MusicBridge to run on a schedule?
A: MusicBridge has a full featured command line interface. You can use this along with Windows scheduler to run MusicBridge as and when desired. This is described fully in the readme.

As far as the drive letter issue... how about using subst... you can set like a Z: drive subst on all machines so that they all use the same drive letter.... subst X: C:\

then automate iTunes...

"%PROGRAMFILES%\iTunes Library Updater\ITLUconsole.exe" /a /l /r "X:\Your Music Folders"

make a batch file for the whole shabang... run when needed

EDIT: for persistent subst's... create a .reg file with the info in it or manually add to registry...

Code: Select all

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\DOS Devices]
"M:"="\\??\\X:\\Your Folder"

[skanky]

You can also automate MusicBridge...
As far as the drive letter issue... how about using subst... you can set like a Z: drive subst on all machines so that they all use the same drive letter.... subst X: C:\

then automate iTunes...

"%PROGRAMFILES%\iTunes Library Updater\ITLUconsole.exe" /a /l /r "X:\Your Music Folders"

make a batch file for the whole shabang... run when needed

i already have it running in a batch file thankfully, the synctoy part just adds more time to run the whole process which i guess is most definitely the lesser of 2 evils!

the itunes lib updater is using the path \\nas\music instead of a drive letter and so the properties for each file in itunes specifically reference that share, so subst the drive wont work as it will still look to the original share.

when i sync the files locally and in turn change the path to where they're stored, i can see no easy way to repoint the files to look at the c:\users folder, which is an entirely different path that what itunes was expecting.

when i changed over to use the files on the nas last weekend, i had to manually (!) select each of the 3500+ mp3 files on the nas share, 6 hours later, i swore i'd never do that again now that my entire music collection is in itunes, the task has doubled in size.

i looked into musicmatch's XML output file after the playlist is exported, i can see it references the current path to where they are on the nas but even when editing them to reflect the new file paths, it wont restore playcounts/ratings! :/

[skanky]

i gave in, tried synctoy and manually repointed 3000+ mp3s. however i decided that if im being really honest, i wanted to use offline files as it was a small pain when editing files i needed to set up a 2nd pairing to sync back.

it was just more faff than how offline files does it all transparently so went back to offline files, luckily i still had a backup itunes XML database so didnt have to redo that, again!

i might have figured out something on the offline files front too, i had downloaded an addon for football manager and long story short, i got rid of it from the share i was sharing and saved me 2gb but more importantly, its 88,000 (yep thats not a typo!) files less it has to keep track of.

[ozzymud]

So did removeing 88k files speed up offline files? I would be curios to know at what # it starts crapping out

[skanky]

So did removeing 88k files speed up offline files? I would be curios to know at what # it starts crapping out

11k files being sync'd which in total is just a shade over 100gb, a lot better than it was as it doesn't seemingly peg the cpu at 100% all the time by scanning so many files.

deleting the files alone took about 20 minutes! :p

[ozzymud]

guess offline files is definately out for me...

643 GB (691,040,324,866 bytes) 600,516 Files, 32,289 Folders

[skanky]

guess offline files is definately out for me...

643 GB (691,040,324,866 bytes) 600,516 Files, 32,289 Folders

yeah, i'd say so