Windows reinstall and DIM
rbel_295e7c1d4c
Posts: 99
I reinstalled Win 7 which in turn required me to reinstall DS and DIM.
It looks as though all my previously installed content is still present in the My Library folder (on a separate drive to Windows), which is good, but on opening up the reinstalled DIM it is showing all my content listed under 'Ready to Download' rather than 'Installed'. Should I leave it at this status or do I need to go through the install process again even though the content files appear to be in place?
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Unfortunately the manifest files, which record the file versions installed, are kept on the C: drive. It is possible to move them by using an OS trick (a symbolic link) but if you didn't they will be gone, unless you did a reinstall without reformatting and they are in the Windows.old folder (C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\DAZ 3D\Install Manager\Manifest Files was the original path, to which they should be restored if you have them). If you can't restore them then yes, you will need to redownload to get the updates notification working.
Thank you for the speedy response. Should I manually delete the existing content files in the Library folder prior to running the DIM download and install routines, or will the DIM install simply overwrite them?
Up to you - if there's nothing but DIMed stuff there delete, if it's a mix I'd be more inclined to hope simply overwriting works.
This strikes me as a pretty severe system-level failure. Are DAZ assuming that everyone losing their manifest files can spare the already-depleted bandwidth to download their entire library that they already have all over again? I know several people here have mentioned their strict bandwidth limits. Why can't we download just the required manifest files? Something to consider for when the DIM finally comes out of Beta?
In this case, it's not the manifests which download with the product, but the manifests which record what has actually been installed on a user's computer. It would be useful for DIM to have an option to back these up.
Ah, so there are manifests and manifests? Are these generated by the DIM on download, on install, or what?
It's beginning to look more and more like the DIM better not come out of Beta for a little while yet. (Of course, the last time I said that D|S4.0 went gold two days later, followed by the inevitable ensuing hilarity...)
We need to be able to control where DIM installs and where it stores all is little data file. It would be best if it could be made self contained so it could be installed on a removable drive.
They're generated on install -- that's how DIM knows exactly what was installed, so that it can alert you about updates and install the updates most efficiently.
How does the fact that DIM actually keeps records of what it installed a reason for it not to be ready to come out of beta? Many programs do so.
I don't mean just this little maybe-it's-a-problem. I mean all the other maybe-not-so-little-problems being reported with DIM in other threads. It would be a lot better all round if these were seen to while it's still in Beta.
From what I've worked out so far, there are effectively THREE manifest files.
The one that you download with DIM as a separate file seems to be the customer manifest - order number, order date, product id, product tags, and a file hash for the product. I've been assuming that this is the only file actually in your 'my account', but I may be wrong.
Then there is the one in the zip file; this is the file content manifest. Product ID, file hash, complete list of files in the zip, and assorted other installation-related information.
When DIM installs a product it creates an installation manifest by combining the other two, adding the install path and install date. This gets written (currently) to "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\Manifest Files". I would love the option to have this on another drive. In the meantime, I recommend copying or backing up the entire InstallManager directory.
:ohh:
How many different locations is that now written to for various purposes by a no-defaults-changed pristine installation of DIM...?
By my count, somewhere in the near vicinity of too many. :roll:
Two.
C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager -- this has all the settings, the manifests, the downloads, etc. From the Changelog it looks like this will be split -- private info like email accounts are being moved out of the Public folders. In addition, it looks like some of these will be configurable, so if you change them from the defaults they'll be in different locations.
C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library -- the default location for installing content, which is already configurable.
Pretty much minimal for anything which has both user files and settings, such as Poser, DS Photoshop, word processing programs, spreadsheet programs, browsers, email programs, etc.
ETA: And none of it is in hidden/system folders.
And that's what I get for not maximizing my windows; I never made it down to 'Users'. If you take my path, by way of 'Documents and Settings' you run into at least TWO hidden directories.
But I count three locations - C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZDIM for the executable. (Nit-picking, I know - :-) )
Hey guys just thought I would weigh in here and talk about how to make sure you don't face this issue again.
I've been in your position several times where I've had to recover from a crash or worse corrupted data. The last time, I had just rebuilt my system and I was about to start reloaded when the DIM came out and Oh yeah, I downloaded and installed my content while I slept and it was ready to use by the time I woke up the next morning. But I didn't do thing with all defaults.
Lets talk about those Manifest files and how to recover them once you have your system rebuilt. The first part is a DIM setting and last is a batch or just a manual drag and drop.
The DIM setting you are looking for is in the setting, Downloads and "Download To:" here you can set where you send those files and where the DIM will look for them. Before you change this, Copy what you have in the Download folder First, and then change the location of the download folder and make it some place off the system drive. I actually download my installers to a NAS using a "Mapped Drive", and it works very nicely.
Making a back up of the remainder of the "Install Manager" folder and be sorted out with a Batch file or script. In Windows you can set a Batch file or script to run, when you exit an application. You could use this little jewel to execute a script to make a Backup copy of the "Install Manager" folder, (mine is about 6MB after I removed the Content). The script would copy your files from the "C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\DAZ 3D\Install Manager" to a backup location of your choice. Thus taking it off the System drive.
My Data Rule states: "Data should never be on your system drive" and here is my reason for saying that: The system drive is the most active drive in your computer and therefore it is more prone to be corrupted. If you keep your data on a second physical drive, when you have a System Drive Crash or the System Drive becomes corrupt, your data are still safe because it is not involved with the physical disk with the crash. BTW: There is a way to move the whole Users directory off the system drive. It is a System Hack and it works.
The Second Drive idea also has other advantages, you don't have the system, the program, and the data trying to be read off the same drive and this can actually speed up your computer. If you can do it you can move the CMS DB to a separate drive. On one of my system. I use three drives, One of the OS and programs, one for the data, and the last has the CMS.
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So you have move you Data off the system drive, now let talk about the most forgotten thing in home data protection, Backing up your content Libraries.
This can be done with a external hard Drive, which is twice the size of your content (Leaves room for expansion). Every Saturday night you connect up a external Hard Drive and kick off your backup software (making sure to check the box that says Verify Backup); and while you sleep the night away the software packs the External drive with a copy of your data. You can even have it run the script which stops the CMS, copy that Database, and start it back up.
As any a Backup specialist will tell you, "You don't have a backup until the data are verified and you have done at least one Test Recover." There are people who never verify or do the test recover and then are surprised when they crash and find out that the Media is blank (not a happy time). So the first thing you do on Sunday morning is check the external backup by trying to restore a random file to a test directory on your system.
If you are a Content Creator, you are going to want to several backups of your creations. For finished products I suggest DVD's, Archive a copy to several discs. One goes on the shelf, another in a save location like a Safety deposit box or you could send one to a family member who does't live near you.
The manner in which you decide to do backups and the Media you use is your choice, the important thing is that you are doing them at a set interval or after a major system change and you are rotating media, Son, Father and Grandfather or Today, yesterday and the day before. The more important the data are, the more important it is that you remove the backup media from the location where it was written. A bank safety deposit box works very nicely, if you have data of high value.
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Next, Studio has the ability to have multiple Content Libraries and I use that ability. Content form DAZ 3D goes into the My Library content folder, RDNA things go in the RDNA folder, and so on. This makes it easy to totally wipe out one store's content without disturbing the others.
So separate Libraries. If you are using the DIM and you have it all mixed up now, the easy way is to uninstall the DAZ 3D content from the Library you are using now, Reinstall it into a new content Library folder and presto you have separated out the DAZ content from the Other stores.
BTW this is also an easy way to test Freebies, you install them into a Test Directory, before installing else where. I separate out Freebies from sites like ShareCG. (Someone really needs to design an installer for that stuff, that doesn't forget there may be content outside the Runtime folder.)
I hope that helps save you from this the next time your system needs to be rebuilt.
Haslor
An interesting thread and Haslor, many thanks for your detailed advice.
The Daz applications are on my system drive, all my data is on another drive with backups to a third. My problem seems to stem from not appreciating the importance of the manifest files, consequently when I carried out a windows restore from a system image and reinstalled DIM the manifest files was cleared. I think that I will arrange for my routine data backup to include the DIM manifest files which should, hopefully, get around the problem when I next to decide to use a system image.
The manifest files seem to be as vital to the DIM as the /data/ folder is to D|S itself; mark them "nicht gefingerpoken" and "remember to back up".