Computer crashes if connection is lost with network drive

Question

Level 2

156 points

Computer crashes if connection is lost with network drive

Whenever I have a network drive mounted via AFP and I loose my internet connection (or if the computer that is hosting the mounted network drive crashes or shuts down unexpectedly) my computer completely seizes up and forces me to reboot.

This has been a widespread and ongoing problem at our office and at my home. This is repeatable and everyone that I have talked to that uses a network drive on a regular bases tells me that they experience this problem frequently.

Short of unmounting the networked drive as soon as I am done transferring files, what's the solution?

Mac Pro (early 2008) 2 X 2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Oct 16, 2009 11:25 PM

Reply

Answer 1

iHatePC Author

Level 2

156 points

Oct 29, 2009 5:10 AM in response to iHatePC

Am I the only one having this problem?

Reply

Answer 2

Oct 29, 2009 5:37 AM in response to iHatePC

So you have network problems at both locations? Are these separate machines with different AFP shares or are you mounting the same disks from different locations?

Reply

Answer 3

iHatePC Author

Level 2

156 points

Oct 29, 2009 6:13 AM in response to DaddyPaycheck

Yes, same problem at both locations.

We have one machine that we are using as our main file server. It is running Leopard 10.5.8. We are accessing the files from both LAN and WAN via AFP.

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 29, 2009 7:39 AM in response to iHatePC

I'd be taking a look at your common links: the file server machine and associated network gear.

How are the AFP drives physically connected to the main machine? What model is the file server? Is there a switch between it and the LAN and WAN?

Reply

Answer 5

iHatePC Author

Level 2

156 points

Oct 30, 2009 7:59 PM in response to DaddyPaycheck

I think this problem is a bug in Leopard 10.5.x or a bug in one the the third party applications that we are running. Timbuktu? Dragthing? Who knows. The problem does not exist on our Snow Leopard computers.

Take any two computers running Leopard 10.5.x. Turn file sharing on one of them. Connect to it from the another Mac over your LAN or WAN. After you have the AFP volume mounted in your finder, unplug the network cable on either Mac. What happens? On our Macs they seize up, requiring a forced reboot.

Can anyone else reproduce this problem?

Reply