Basically, what I got from my Mac when I attempted to mount one of these problematic share is a “connecting to server sorry the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -41)”. When attempting to mount the share via command line the process hung. In searching I found the following error on my XP machine Event Logs.

Product: Windows Operating System
Event ID: 2011
Source: Srv
Version: 5.2
Symbolic Name: EVENT_SRV_IRP_STACK_SIZE
Message: The server’s configuration parameter “irpstacksize” is too small for the server to use a local device. Please increase the value of this parameter.

The times seemed to match my mount attempts. Recall that this only occured on some of my shares, two out of 10+ on the machine. Further research gave the following from Microsoft.

Explanation
The server is configured with too many file system filter drivers (for example, Quota and anti-virus) and/or too many devices, or the irpstacksize parameter is set to less than the default of 15 stack frames. The irpstacksize represents the number of kernel modules that can store information in the input/output (I/O) Request Packet (IRP). The IRP is used to track I/O requests in the kernel.

User Action
The irpstacksize parameter can be increased by changing the registry value.

To change the registry value

Using Regedit, open the following registry key:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\IRPStackSize
In the Value data box, type 15.

I didn’t have this key so I created it. Microsoft recommended increasing the binary value of this key by a value of 5 until the error stopped. Not wanting to waste time I set an initial value of 20, restarted the Server service and was immediately able to mount my problematic shares.

wtf? I certainly don’t get…

I’m rebuilding some servers for the company I’m leaving in less than two weeks. One of the machines is going to running both SQL Server 2005 and ColdFusion. For some damed reason the Just-In-Time debugger that installs without permissions as a component of Visual Studio 2005 believe that the CF installer is throwing an exception and refuses to let the installer continue. In the spirit of documenting stuff the following registry keys had to be removed to disable the debugging.

*HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug\Debugger
*HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft.NET\Framework\DbgManaged\Debugger

Now I never have to see that dialog box again for stuff that will continue to work when it’s handling it’s own exceptions…

I’ll say it again, Fucking Microsoft.