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Profile old_user197041
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Message 24151 - Posted: 1 Sep 2006, 4:32:36 UTC

I know the necessity of making a backup to guard againt crashes.

However, I haven\'t seen anything about doing this when you have more than one project running.

I\'m thought that I could just backup the CPDN part of the folder, but there are the XML files in the main BOINC directory.

I have a dual core, but it\'s only got 256 megs of RAM (yes, I know it\'s low for the project, I\'ll be installing more soon) so I don\'t want to run 2 CPDN models. But since the computer isn\'t doing anything useful atm I\'d like to use both cores.

On that box I\'m attached to Einstein, Chess960 and Maleria Control.

It\'s a Pentium D 2.6 ghz (I think).
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Les Bayliss
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Message 24152 - Posted: 1 Sep 2006, 4:41:45 UTC
Last modified: 1 Sep 2006, 4:41:15 UTC

There\'s this thread where I worked out a way to do it, which includes adrianxw\'s experiment log, where he documents his tests, and this page in the BOINC Wiki, where it got written up.

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Message 24154 - Posted: 1 Sep 2006, 16:54:46 UTC

Thanks for the links.

Given the limited amount of RAM in that box atm, I decided to only run CPDN on it.

So I detached from the others.

Got a backup now.

If you could clarify for me, if this thing crashes (please god don\'t let it do that) and it actually reports back to the servers, it\'s still ok to restore it and let it go on? Or should I just start another model.

Is it best to suspend network connections and connect once a day to let it send it\'s trickles?

Sorry for the noobish questions. Been running BOINC about a year but never courageous enough to do CPDN.
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Profile geophi
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Message 24155 - Posted: 1 Sep 2006, 18:30:33 UTC - in response to Message 24154.  

If you could clarify for me, if this thing crashes (please god don\'t let it do that) and it actually reports back to the servers, it\'s still ok to restore it and let it go on? Or should I just start another model.

Yes, it\'s still OK to restore it. The only thing will be the status on the webpage that will continue to say error, but that status is not used by the project people to determine whether the run was successful.
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Message 24156 - Posted: 1 Sep 2006, 18:57:24 UTC - in response to Message 24155.  

If you could clarify for me, if this thing crashes (please god don\'t let it do that) and it actually reports back to the servers, it\'s still ok to restore it and let it go on? Or should I just start another model.

Yes, it\'s still OK to restore it. The only thing will be the status on the webpage that will continue to say error, but that status is not used by the project people to determine whether the run was successful.



Great.

thank you so much.
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Message 24183 - Posted: 4 Sep 2006, 10:33:24 UTC - in response to Message 24154.  

Is it best to suspend network connections and connect once a day to let it send it\'s trickles?

Yes. I do so, because that method is the only one preventing those nasty \"error\" status messages on your model webpage (As stated before - you still may continue with error status, but for \"stylish\" reasons... ;-) ) . It gives you more control over your model and it\'s reporting.

Sorry for the noobish questions. Been running BOINC about a year but never courageous enough to do CPDN.

Not noobish at all. Good luck!
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Message 24234 - Posted: 7 Sep 2006, 20:22:47 UTC - in response to Message 24183.  

I have a question about backup and restoring:

I have made a BOINCBU.bat file to back up the model. It contains the following:
XCOPY \"c:\\Program Files\\BOINC\\*.*\" \"c:\\Backups\\cBOINC\" /C /M /E /Y
and I have made the Backups folder and the cBOINC folder inside the first folder.
The icon for the .bat file is on my desktop.

My Q is: After I have rightclicked and exited BOINC, shall I just doubleclick the BOINCBU.bat file, and thats it?

Will the current BOINC folder be copied then?

And the next time I run the file, will it replace the older backup?

Is it better to rightclick, copy and paste the entire BOINC-folder?

The first model I ran crashed when I started the graphics while I had another heavy graphics-program running. Is that typical?

Is the snooze-function the solution? (I run ver 5.4.9)

If the .bat file is working it seems easier but I\'m not sure since I dont know what happens when I use it, and honestly, I dont know how to use it...
(doubleclick the icon?)

Thank you
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Message 24236 - Posted: 7 Sep 2006, 21:51:51 UTC

Hi,

I think the answer to your first two questions is yes, not sure about the third.

The best thing to do is experiment with a fake folder (i.e., you could copy it via the clipboard, and then use the \'copy of boinc\' folder as a way to test it without putting the real one at risk).

I\'m not sure the *.* is necessary.

The right-click, copy, paste method is just the simplest way to do a backup for someone who isn\'t highly IT literate, not the best way - there are dozens of variations. I tend to use PKZip myself and maintain a father/grandfather backup.

Sensitivity to environmental factors such as running a game vary from PC to PC, it depends on which graphics drivers are in use, and how much memory + CPU the PC has. Systems with plenty of memory and nVidea drivers tend to be more stable than systems with little memory and ATI drivers.

Snoozing before running a game will help, but beware that snooze only lasts for an hour. You may prefer to \'exit\' totally.

If the icon is on the desktop, then doubleclicking will run it.

I'm a volunteer and my views are my own.
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Alex Plantema

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Message 24241 - Posted: 9 Sep 2006, 9:27:58 UTC - in response to Message 24234.  

And the next time I run the file, will it replace the older backup?

The old backup might contain files that are no longer needed, so it\'s better to delete it first.
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Message 24272 - Posted: 11 Sep 2006, 8:52:39 UTC - in response to Message 24234.  
Last modified: 11 Sep 2006, 8:52:38 UTC

I have a question about backup and restoring:

I have made a BOINCBU.bat file to back up the model. It contains the following:
XCOPY \"c:\\Program Files\\BOINC\\*.*\" \"c:\\Backups\\cBOINC\" /C /M /E /Y
and I have made the Backups folder and the cBOINC folder inside the first folder.
The icon for the .bat file is on my desktop.

My Q is: After I have rightclicked and exited BOINC, shall I just doubleclick the BOINCBU.bat file, and thats it?

Sorry for that late reply, but I just saw it now.

My backup-\"system\" for CPDN is based on *.bat - Files. This works well especially if you install BOINC as a service. Then it\'s possible to include stopping and starting BOINC before and after a backup process.
My \"backup_BOINC.bat\"-File looks like this:
net stop boinc
pause
del /q /s \"D:\\X_BOINC_Backup\\*.*\"
xcopy \"C:\\Programme\\BOINC\\*.*\" \"D:\\X_BOINC_Backup\\*.*\" /E /V /C /I /H /R /K /Y
net start boinc

[edit] Keep in mind I have different directories![/edit]

The \"pause\" after \"net stop boinc\" gives me time to ensure that I also exited the BOINC-Manager (right-click on the icon - Exit).
The next line deletes my previous backup, while the \"xcopy\"-line is doing the backup. After this is finished BOINC-service is started again - automatically.

I hope my post doesn\'t add confusion, but solution...
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Message 24384 - Posted: 22 Sep 2006, 21:03:02 UTC - in response to Message 24272.  

Thank you for all the answers, the back-up is now function well.
Good luck further with the crunching :-)

regards

Steinar
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