Merge data folders?

[Forester1]

Greetings. I have finally purchased TRS2022 PE during the recent sale. I already have a T:ANE data folder in excess of a terabyte, and a TRS19PE folder even larger. I must admit that once I had TRS19PE I rarely did anything with T:ANE except go back to check for missing and unknown assets I encountered in TRS19 PE or that people posted on the missing KUIDs folder. So I am thinking I really don't want to start with a brand new TRS22 data folder and have a third one of significant size if I don't really go back and use the other two except for potential assets. Ideally, (or maybe foolishly), I think what I would like to do is install TRS22PE and then build a super data folder with all of the assets in one place. That would eliminate duplicates and triplicates of routes and assets sitting on three different versions, although at that point T:ANE and TRS19 become unusable and there is no going back unless I save a backup of those data folders anyway. I would greatly welcome everyone's ideas about this, and how it would be done if it is even possible. Of course one other idea would be to start fresh and clean with TRS2022 and not be such a pack rat, but we all know how that goes.... Another is to buy yet another big hard drive of 4+Terabytes, but then I still have three large data folders to keep backed up. Thanks for everyone's ideas!

 

[Frank_Dean]

If you install new content in 2022 from the DLS or cdp's from third-party websites or from cdp's that you have saved, you will achieve great savings in space on your hard drive, since 2022 compresses tzark files much more efficiently.
If you copy the local and original Tane or 2019 folders to your new 2022, you will not get any savings on the hard drive, they will be the same size.
An example of what I said:
https://forums.auran.com/threads/fo...rs2019-to-trs2022-process.177596/post-2014599

 

[Forester1]

Thank you, Frank_Dean for that information. So it may be better to forego the assets currently in 2019 and T:ANE and reload them from DLS and elsewhere? If I were to export to CDP and then load into 2022 would it make a difference? I am also wondering if I could archive T:ANE and TRS19 by zipping the data folders with 7zip or something, but I have concerns trying to work with something over a terabyte in size, both in zipping and possibly unzipping, and in how much space it might actually save

 

[Frank_Dean]

If you want to save hard disk space with trainz 2022, it only works if you download from the DLS or install cdp's that you have on file.
Making cdp's is a very heavy and arduous task, it is up to you to decide what is more positive or faster for you.

 

[Frank_Dean]

I have done another comparative size test between 2019 and 2022.

<kuid2:140046:102608:2> Lighthouse St. Augustine, build 4.6, downloaded from the DLS in 2019, I found that it is archived in: original/hash-6E with the name: kuid2 140046 102608 2.tzarc and a size of 790MB.

I download the same maritime lighthouse from DLS again in Trainz2022, it is automatically saved in the same location: original/hash-6E and the same name: kuid2 140046 102608 2.tzarc, but this is where the difference is with 2019, which is the size, in Trainz 2022 it has a size of 346MB, therefore it has 444MB less than in 2019.

 

[Forester1]

Thank you again Frank-Dean. A small update: I read where 7zip can now handle up to exabytes, so I tried testing creating a 7zip archive file from the T:ANE data folder. It is nearly a terabyte in size. Well, it went really well for about one third. It looked like the archive would be about 20 percent of the size of the original folder, or less than 200GB. Unfortunately, at about 33% it threw the error: "The semaphore timeout period has expired," and quit. Because the data folder is on an external HDD and the archive was being created there as well, I think it had a point where perhaps the USB was having trouble keeping up. I considered starting over and trying it again, but I think with external hard drives I can probably expect this to reoccur when handling that much data. As well, I risk facing the same problem if I ever decided to re-extract the folder from the archive. So trying to zip the data folders looks like it might not be a good option.

 

[JCitron]

Where is the HD plugged into? If it's one on a hub, such as those found on a monitor can cause similar errors.

I recently ran into the USB hub issue when performing a backup. The backup would fail randomly on different large files with the semaphore timeout expired error and once I moved the connection from the hub back to my PC, the problem went away.

In the end, you may end up copying/moving, or zipping up a smaller number of files if you are unable to do that.

 

[Forester1]

Hi John. It is plugged directly into a USB port in the back of the desktop. It is plugged into one of the faster ports (blue), although the age of the desktop could be telling at this point. I think you are correct that I may have to break it down into folders, and maybe even break up the build folder. As always it will take experimenting!

 

[TfNSWv]

I have done another comparative size test between 2019 and 2022.

<kuid2:140046:102608:2> Lighthouse St. Augustine, build 4.6, downloaded from the DLS in 2019, I found that it is archived in: original/hash-6E with the name: kuid2 140046 102608 2.tzarc and a size of 790MB.

I download the same maritime lighthouse from DLS again in Trainz2022, it is automatically saved in the same location: original/hash-6E and the same name: kuid2 140046 102608 2.tzarc, but this is where the difference is with 2019, which is the size, in Trainz 2022 it has a size of 346MB, therefore it has 444MB less than in 2019.

If I transfer tzarc files from TRS2019 to TRS2022, when the files get copied other will the be compressed?

 

[Frank_Dean]

If I transfer tzarc files from TRS2019 to TRS2022, when the files get copied other will the be compressed?

Again I repeat what I said:

Do you want to save hard drive space with Trainz 2022?

1- Download from DLS.
2- Install CDP's from third-party websites or from backup copies that you have stored.
3- Install folders that are not compressed, such as when you open any installed item with the content organizer and a folder opens for inspection.

Do you want to save time because you have a lot of space on your hard drive?

1-Copy local folder from 2019 to 2022
2-Copy the original folder from 2019 to 2022
3-Do an extended database rebuild in 2022.

In the latter way its objects installed in 2022 in tzarc format, will have the same size as in 2019.

 

[Forester1]

Well, my experiment is almost complete. I have one more step to archive my T:ANE data folder. I used 7zip to compress all but the build folder into one .7z file. Then all of the build folder except original and local. Then one just of original. Finally, I have had to split the local folder in two because it kept stopping on CRC errors. The local folder has 256 hash subfolders. The first 128 went into local01.7z, now just have to get the second 128 into local02.7z. My nearly 1TB T:ANE folder will be archived down to slightly over 200GB. That will give me more than enough room to install TRS22 and I can leave TRS 19 as is.
EDIT: My T:ANE folder is now 226GB. God help me if I ever want to un-archive it!

 

[Forester1]

I now have TRS22 installed and with plenty of room to spare. Upon install the route selector appeared to work, but after that I could not get the route selector to move with the arrow keys, So I ran an EDBR to see if that would help. I have more purchased routes and assets to download from the store so will see where I am at after that.