I've been shooting and transfering files off the 5D Mk2 CFcard to the computer hard drive for many years now and it seems like for the last couple of months I'll start a transfer of MOV files from a full 16GIG card in the camera via the USB cable to the USB on the computer. It'll go for a little while and then stop with an error message saying that it lost connection with the camera. Whenever I connect the camera to the computer like that I always have to press the shutter button to get the computer to recognize the camera's usb connection and create the drive in Windows explorer. I then highlight all the MOVs on the card and drag to the target directory and the copying dialog opens and the progress bar starts its thing. then after a few minutes it stops and says lost connect to the files and no files are transfered.

I can baby it and copy one file at a time alright but that's not the workflow i want. If I use a card reader connected usb no problem but I don't always have a card reader handy.

Is there a workaround or setting that I'm missing that i can correct this behavior with?

TIA

Use a card reader. The USB connection on the camera is slower than a USB CF reader. A Firewire800 card reader will be much faster than a USB2 card reader.

Of course you are correct Nigel. Checking out Firewire800 cards and readers today. Any speed increase will help workflow. And apparently you've not had any problems with the firewire connected transfers right?

I keep a card reader at my editing computer and another in my camera case for when I'm out of town with a laptop.

I Use the firewire 800 card reader and love it. It's pretty fast.