Previously, I ran Windows XP on my home media server/player, and my OS X 2.6 Snow Leopard laptop as client could easily browse its shares without issue. Now suddenly I have quite a weird problem.

I upgraded my server from XP to Win 7 Ultimate and:
- My server doesn't automatically pop up in finder anymore (in the left-hand bar a 'network' icon used to pop up listing my server). Not a massive deal but I figured I'd mention it.
- Suddenly, swaths of files disappeared out of the sharing folders. Some but not all files are there, and I say swaths are missing since it seems to be a bit 'alphabetic'. I can see files starting with c, and da-de but not df-e, then e-f fine, ga-gr gone..

Extra investigation:
- When I create a temp folder on the server and move the files I want to see into it, everything works, so it doesn't have to do with the actual files or their names.
- Using another Win7 machine to browse the same shares has no such problems.
- Other 'finders' like pathfinder/adobe bridge exhibit the same behavior.

Anyone encounter this weird bug?

[edited for SEO]

You could try a file browser as an alternative to the Finder.

There are two I know of PathFinder and Adobe Bridge:
http://www.macwindows.com/snowleopard-filesharing.html#090210b

Another reader recently sent in a workaround using Terminal:
http://www.macwindows.com/snowleopard-filesharing.html#041311c

Sadly nope.

Tried both, in one specific case I'm seeing 59 files with Finder/PathFinder (demo)/Adobe Bridge CS5. Win7 sees 109 files.

So bizarre that there's bunches of files with close filenames ("all E's") don't show up.

I am observing sort of the same thing.

Windows 7 network writable share has a folder with 500 mp3's in it.
1. Copy above folder to the CD2 MacBook (10.6.7) and it copies ONLY 232 files...

2. Split folder in two on the 7 machine (2 Folder with 250 files each)
copy again and osx only puts 140 files in each directory...

3 Zip (store only) the 500 files, copy to the MacBook and extract, all 500 files are extracted fine. So it's not a file issue...

Files just do not show up in the list, complete sections are missing... Very Strange

Have you found any solution or cause of this?

Not yet. I think we're experiencing exactly the same thing.

When you enter the 500mp3 folder of yours, does OSX finder also only report (bottom of the finder window) the 200-odd files?

One thing I think I've noticed is that this only happens in large folders. Folders with only a couple of files have been fine so far.

One more fun update:

When I try to create a directory that already exists but is 'invisible', finder DOES complain that the dir already exists. Bizarre..

I am having exactly the same issue.

My shared folders are on a windows 7 x64 machine. I can not think of any change prior to the issue occurring. Sharing used to work just fine.

When browsing using Mac OS X 10.6 finder, or my d-link boxee box file browser, the more recent files are missing.

If I use another windows machine to browse the shares, all files are shown.

The user id I logon to the shares with, has "owner" permissions of all the shared folders and files on the Win 7 machine.

Since Boxee Box is also UNIX based seems like this is some sort of UNIX windows issue.

Both Boxee and OS X suddenly failing to see all files would seem to point to some change on the Windows 7 shared folder machine. Perhaps a recent automatic update?

That's quite interesting extra information. Apparently this indeed is not something that Apple has done, but more likely that MS has subtly broken their own implementation of their SMB system.

Perhaps there is a way to configure Windows to be more 'compliant'?

From MacRumors:
Some people in the Apple discussion "Snow Leopard 10.6.4 not showing Windows 7 Machines on Finder's Shared." It might be worth a look:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2635359?threadID=2635359&tstart=0

Anyone feel bored and want to try this?

Information just do not appear in the list, finish areas are losing... Very Strange