[Samba] Vista (pre-installed OEM editions) creating new files or folders on network shares

[Graeme Perkes]

Hi,

This post is to prevent other people that are having trouble with Vista
clients from going down a blind alley investigating problems in their samba
configurations.

After some research I have found (see link below) that there is a general
problem for pre-installed OEM editions of Vista Business (and possibly other
vista versions) in creating files and folders on network shares.

The problem presents itself on the Vista clients when navigating into a
network share (Linux or XP-based share) and trying to create a new folder.
These are the steps

1. In Vista OEM client right click in open folder on share
2. Select "Create -> New -> Folder"
3. Vista will automatically create a new folder called "New Folder"
4. On attempting to rename the folder to a more sensible name, an error
dialog pops up and says 'The "\\..." folder does not exist. The file may
have been moved or deleted.

Given my network shares are samba based I initially investigated
incompatibilities in my older samba 3.0.20a WINS / fileserver. I have
installed samba 3.0.24 with latest patches on a test server and I am still
experiencing the problem.

I found the following forum thread about the issue.

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=522208&SiteID=17&PageID=0

The current solution is to perform a clean install of Vista rather than
cloning an existing installation (which seems to be the way OEM systems are
built). I unfortunately don't have this option since the two new Acer Vista
clients we purchased did not come with Vista install CDs.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has been able to resolve this issue
without reinstalling Vista.

Thanks / Regards,

Graeme