Recommended practices for upgrading Trainz.

JCitron

Trainzing since 12-2003
Given the issues that many people have had in the not so recent past during upgrades, I've been following the process outlined below with excellent luck. This is a recommendation, not necessarily the best practice, for handling Trainz upgrades and has worked well for me more than once. Before beginning an upgrade, it's important to ensure everything is in working order, by this I mean no open for edit files, the database is error free, and there are no faulty assets, missing dependencies not withstanding here.

- Ensure you have plenty of disk space. The patch needs space not just to fit from the server, it also needs to decompress to execute. If there is not enough disk space, things can get weird to put it mildly.

- The first and foremost thing to do is backup your data! Put a copy of your user data somewhere. I highly recommend purchasing one of those inexpensive, under $100USD USB 1TB external hard drives for this. It's good to have backups anyway, but performing a full backup of the data first will generally ensure there will be no problems - the reverse of Murphy's Laws here. :)

- Ensure your data is error free. Spend time and go through the Trainz assets and ensure there are no faulty ones. Having faulty assets and updating the program can lead to problems. We've seen this with more than a few posts as people have gotten stuck during some phase of the update due to a faulty asset so having clean database to start is a good move. You may want to do this first before backing up. You might even want to run a database repair before updating to ensure there are no database errors as well.

- Allow plenty of time. This is no time to rush. If you don't have the time to focus on the process carefully, wait until it's convenient. You need to watch messages, and with them written in N3V Brew Crew language it can be difficult understanding what exactly is needed. A press of a cancel instead of an OK, or clicking on the wrong thing can trash the upgrade.

This goes without saying too, never cancel an upgrade if it's in process. You have a backup, right, so let it run to its completion. If things aren't right, you can always reinstall the program and restore your data though inconvenient that might be.

- When prompted to do the database repair, do it. Don't cancel the process and expect things to work. Even if there is no prompt, do one anyway because the data has changed in some fashion.

- After the upgrade defrag your hard drive. The data has been moved around and opened and closed, which can fragment a hard drive (SSDs are the exception) so a good disk defrag after the upgrade really does help here.

- Once the process is done, shutdown Trainz and reboot the PC before running Trainz for the first time since upgrading.


John
 
You nailed it John. I'm no whizz when it comes to computers, but it makes common sense.

I always believe if you've got faulty files currently on your computer, then fix 'em first or delete 'em; then do a database rebuild on your game before you start any upgrade.

You can't expect any game upgrade to rectify every problem you may have inside your computer. (Although many people look for miracles to happen)

So if you do have a clean database to begin with, then you add another clean upgrade,... you're smiling, because you've given yourself the best chance to running your Trainz game at 100%.

Good advice John. Cheers,
Roy
 
Good one John. It may also be worth pointing out that you don't need to wait for an update to give Trainz a spring clean and make a backup, it should be a regular activity along with the rest of your data on the computer. Backups ideally should be made to somewhere other than where the OS and Trainz are installed so should the HDD/SSD fail or you unfortunately get that virus which results in a reformat your data is protected. If the finances cannot stretch to a portable HDD or similar you can always use a second computer or cloud storage many of which are free of charge. Peter
 
Thanks guys, I'm glad this is useful.

Yes, and prayer to the computer gods that things will go well always works. I also spin in my chair a few times to ebb the tide in my direction too! :D

@Peter

I agree backups are an under-estimated activity that many of us don't consider part of good computer maintenance. I am a firm believer in them and do regular backups to an external hard drive using FileCopy, which is a free utility that does just that - it copies files to another location without waiting for the calculating files. You can then setup a diff backup once a fill backup is completed.

In addition to that, I do regular maintenance of course including defrags, dusting out, and all the other good stuff. :D

John
 
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