This can be caused by many conditions, not the least of which is marginal or overloaded network resources on either end, or in between.  FTP is not an elegant protocol, it's just basic and universal.  In situations such as yours, often the solution is exactly what you found, upload smaller batches.

Jeff

At least I'm not alone. I was getting frustrated thinking that my stuff was the issue. It's good to have Kin!

Perhaps a checkvalue that lets you know if the web folder contains the correct number of files and byte size of a default installation.

The part that is most irritating is when you've copied (or thought you did) all the files over and then accessed the site only to have the install blow up because of missing files. If it hangs before the DB is contructed then it's not too bad but having the DB get boogered up so that  you can't just re-run really torques me.

Thanks, I needed that!