Moving DAZ to a new system

bashrag_7b41cbcd6d

I'm installing a new motherboard/processor/ram. So I'm going to have to reinstall Windows. Every single time I've done this in the past I've lost a ton of work by old scenes simply not working any more. I'd like to avoid that for a change.

I'm planning on re-installing Windows 7

Can anybody tell me exactly what directory/file structures I'll need to preserve in order for that to happen? Are the scene files only going to refer to stuff that are listed in the content directories, or do I need to preserve a bunch of hidden stuff that Microsoft didn't feel were worth allowing us puny mortals to deal with?

Thank you for the time.

Szark

I think this might help http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/306/

Kendall Sears

Bongzilla said:

I'm installing a new motherboard/processor/ram. So I'm going to have to reinstall Windows. Every single time I've done this in the past I've lost a ton of work by old scenes simply not working any more. I'd like to avoid that for a change.

I'm planning on re-installing Windows 7

Can anybody tell me exactly what directory/file structures I'll need to preserve in order for that to happen? Are the scene files only going to refer to stuff that are listed in the content directories, or do I need to preserve a bunch of hidden stuff that Microsoft didn't feel were worth allowing us puny mortals to deal with?

Thank you for the time.

the "data" directory for your Studio install must be transferred, otherwise your scenes will (for most intents and purposes) will die. Under a default DS4 install, this is in the "My Library" area.

Kendall

Takeo.Kensei

1 - Go to your Content directory manager on your old comp and write down all the directories there
2 - Do a fresh install of DS on your new computer with the exact same version as before
3 - install your plugins (optional). The other way is to copy back your DS directory from 'C:\program files' or 'C:\program files (x86)' to the same place on the new comp. It's easier and quicker but you may not be able to uninstall plugins after that.
4 - Copy all the directories you've writen before at the exact same place on the new comp. The only change is if you changed your user name on the new one. You have datas that are in 'C:\Users\yourusename\Documents\DAZ 3D\' so if you changed your username copy them accordingly
5 - Fire up DS. Register every plugin and let it add all the contents to the CMS. When it's done, check your Content directory manager so that it matches what you had before on the old comp. If you changed some directories configure accordingly

After that, enjoy :)

Mattymanx

1.Using a file compression utility of your choice (winrar, winace, 7zip) compress all your saved scene files and the matching PNG files to a single archive

2. Compress the Data folder next (can take a long time)

3. Move the new archives to a removable media of your choice (or internal hdd)

4. After reinstalling ALL you content on the new system, decompress the two archives to the new Content folder location and all should be well.

NOTE: When decompressing the two archives, especially the DATA folder archive, make sure you tell the program to overwrite duplicates since some of the files in the Data folder are going to be installed with some of your content prior to this.

JQP

Hi Bongzilla,

I feel your pain. A couple of suggestions. First as Matty suggested, backup your data. Find out where your crucial apps store data, and make copies before you do your upgrade.

Second, consider using a system partition, and keeping as much of your crucial data as possible not only off that partition, but off that drive altogether. Windows loves to eat partitions on the same drive of the system partition it just ate.

If you use a system partition and keep as little data as possible on it (basically, stuff that gets put there automatically by Windows or other software), depending on what you have installed, you should be able to do a whole partition backup (Nova Backup, Acronis, etc) and keep the whole thing under 15gb. I keep the big installs like Photoshop off the system partition though, so YMMV.

Anyway, the point is to let Windows have as little fun as possible when it inevitably screws the pooch. This will limit any data loss to hardware failures, rather than Windows.

If you haven't tried whole partition backups yet, you should. You can backup a partition in like 10 minutes, and it runs in the background. And you can restore just as quickly. One cool feature (at least of Acronis - I don't recommend Acronis because of some of the newbie-unfriendly stupid choices the devs have made, but it's what I'm familiar with and inertia has kept me with it so far) is that even if a partition backup won't work with your new hardware setup, your data is still there. You can browse the backup file and dig up whatever specific data you want. I did this recently when my system went FUBAR and I couldn't restore from a backup. A day or so of digging around and I had all my application data (including DS) back.

Protip: if your partition structure starts getting complicated (mine got a bit complicated; I have 6 or 7 HDDs and most of them are single partition, but my system drive has two partitions and another has 3 I think), write down which partition goes with which letter; Windows is not mature enough to handle persistent partition letters yet.