How to stop "not responding" on an app

Question

I run Windows 11 Pro on a Dell Inspiron laptop. I had to rebuild my system from scratch; in doing so, I installed the Microsoft Store version of TeraCopy. I tried several times to upload a large file to cloud storage and offline storage; each time, TeraCopy stopped responding in the middle of the process, so I stopped it after several minutes and started over. After several futile tries, I uninstalled the Store version and downloaded and installed the version from the TeraCopy website. I got exactly the same results, which makes me think something is haywire with my system. What could be causing this, and how do I fix it? (Note: I've already emailed Tera copy about the matter and am waiting for a response.)

Answer 1

Hello Roger Blair,

Since both TeraCopy versions behave the same, please copy the same file to the same destination using File Explorer.

• If File Explorer also stops, the issue is likely with the transfer path, drive, or cloud destination.
• If File Explorer succeeds, the issue is specific to TeraCopy and is best continued with TeraCopy support.

Answer 2

First, confirm it's not just TeraCopy. Try copying the same big file with plain drag-and-drop in Explorer, or open a Command Prompt as admin and run:

robocopy "C:\source" "D:\destination" yourfile.ext /Z

If that also stalls, you know for sure the problem is deeper.

---

Missing Dell drivers — this is the most common gotcha after a clean rebuild. Windows installs generic storage and chipset drivers that mostly work, but can fall apart under sustained load (like a multi-gig file copy). Go to dell.com/support, punch in your Service Tag, and grab the latest chipset driver and Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver. Install both, reboot, try again.

---

Disk health — a flaky sector on either the source or destination drive can make copies hang without an obvious error. Open an admin Command Prompt and run:

chkdsk C: /f /r

Do the same for whatever drive you're copying to. It'll probably ask to schedule it for next reboot — let it.

---

USB power saving — Windows loves to put USB controllers to sleep to save battery. If your destination is an external drive, go into Device Manager, expand USB controllers, right-click each "USB Root Hub," open Properties, and on the Power Management tab uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power."

---

Antivirus interference — Windows Defender (or whatever security you're running) scans files in real time. On a big transfer, it can lock a file mid-write and cause a hang. Temporarily turn off real-time protection and test. If that fixes it, add an exclusion for TeraCopy's process or the destination folder.

---

If the hang happens during a cloud upload specifically — the network stack might need a reset after the rebuild. Run these in an admin Command Prompt, then reboot:

Also make sure your Wi-Fi or Ethernet driver is the Dell one, not the generic Windows version.

---

Start with the robocopy test and the Dell drivers — those two alone resolve it more often than not. Let me know what you find and I can help you narrow it further.

02:35 PM