The Built-in Driver Setup rule is now faulty.
- Thread starter JCitron
- Start date
I'm still slogging through content as I install my purchased payware from Jointed Rail, K&L, and elsewhere. I have a bunch of missing dependencies on my routes and some dependencies I've installed but I'm not concerned. I need to pick those up from my "bad" install and export them. The problem is it's a long slow process and periodically I stop and defragment the hard drive due to the number files opened and written to the drive.
This install, if it works, will be a pared down install compared to yesteryears. I was planning on cleaning out and pruning content, this was one way to do it!
I'm wondering if my database was so large that the program toppled over, figuratively, due to processing all those assets.
Time will tell.
I'm installing content still and doing the usual KUID hunt among my local CDPs and elsewhere. So far, the results have been good and the database has been stable. Hopefully, I'll get things up and running soon.
I wonder if part of my problem may have been self-inflicted. I'm famous for those, so I'm not surprised. I noticed with this version that my hard drive thrashes a lot after installing content as the data is being cached or committed after being submitted into the database. If this is what's going on then I may have shut down my computer too soon and trashed everything.
With that said, I've been treading carefully now and I recommend others head my advise, and do the same.
I wonder if part of my problem may have been self-inflicted. I'm famous for those, so I'm not surprised. I noticed with this version that my hard drive thrashes a lot after installing content as the data is being cached or committed after being submitted into the database. If this is what's going on then I may have shut down my computer too soon and trashed everything.
With that said, I've been treading carefully now and I recommend others head my advise, and do the same.
John - time to ditch your prejudice about SSDs. Time to forget conventional HDDs (except for the massive 20+Tb storage strictly-for-archives ones). 
Trainz performance (and database operations) are so much faster and more reliable on SSDs.
Check out the latest TH Benchmarks and Hierarchies comparisons here:
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/ssd-benchmarks-hierarchy
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/ssd-benchmarks-hierarchy
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/lowest-ssd-prices
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssds,3891.html
Your blood pressure, patience and stress levels will thank you! (Though not necessarily your wallet, but prices are the lowest on SSDs per Gb ever right now).
The only HDDs I keep on my rigs these days are in long-forgotten drawers and there's just one per rig as backup drives
Trainz performance (and database operations) are so much faster and more reliable on SSDs.
Check out the latest TH Benchmarks and Hierarchies comparisons here:
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/ssd-benchmarks-hierarchy
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/ssd-benchmarks-hierarchy
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/lowest-ssd-prices
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssds,3891.html
Your blood pressure, patience and stress levels will thank you! (Though not necessarily your wallet, but prices are the lowest on SSDs per Gb ever right now).
The only HDDs I keep on my rigs these days are in long-forgotten drawers and there's just one per rig as backup drives
Thanks PC_Ace.John - time to ditch your prejudice about SSDs. Time to forget conventional HDDs (except for the massive 20+Tb storage strictly-for-archives ones).
Trainz performance (and database operations) are so much faster and more reliable on SSDs.
Check out the latest TH Benchmarks and Hierarchies comparisons here:
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/ssd-benchmarks-hierarchy
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/ssd-benchmarks-hierarchy
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/lowest-ssd-prices
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssds,3891.html
Your blood pressure, patience and stress levels will thank you! (Though not necessarily your wallet, but prices are the lowest on SSDs per Gb ever right now).
The only HDDs I keep on my rigs these days are in long-forgotten drawers and there's just one per rig as backup drives
I've been looking at 8TB SSDs lately but I need to hold off due to my Jeep requiring all 4 new tires before passing the annual safety inspection.
My concern with SSDs and Trainz is their longevity. With all this drive thrashing how long do the SSDs last with the constant writes?
This is typical tech stuff that I was used to doing but yeah, my BP is a bit high from it this time! I rarely have to do this for myself. During my tech days, I was famous for data recovery and restoration. I saved many users their jobs and possibly careers by recovering lost data through various tools I had in my figurative toolbox.
The MTBF and minimum RW cycles of modern SSDs is vastly superior to earlier SATA builds. Also, you can 'over-provision' them by using a small percentage of the disk allocation to extend longevity for decades.
The sheer speed and performance alone compared to spinning rust hard drives (and earlier SSDs) is more than sufficient for making the switch.
Reckon use multiple PCIe 4 2Tb drives to achieve the price/performance 'sweet spot' for the current market place.
The sheer speed and performance alone compared to spinning rust hard drives (and earlier SSDs) is more than sufficient for making the switch.
Reckon use multiple PCIe 4 2Tb drives to achieve the price/performance 'sweet spot' for the current market place.
That's great to hear. I'm currently using Seagate Iron Wolf 8 TB and one 12 TB hard disk for data. At the time, I went with the Datacenter-quality drives because I was eating consumer-quality drives annually if not sooner. The ROI of these drives is excellent and I may move to an offline storage archive system and replace them with SSDs when I can afford it, but right now as I said my Jeep ate my budget. The new tires cost me about $1200 USD and I could've gotten at least 4x 8 TB SSDs if not more for that price.
Due to my current system not having enough internal space, whereas my old one did, I put my drives in an Oyen 5-bay enclosure that connects to my desktop via a USB-C cable. The through-put of this setup is just as fast as internal SATA connections. I do keep a 1 TB internal hard disk for page-file use only because I don't want huge page files eating up my M.2 stick and Windows doesn't like to put page files on drives in an external disk bay.
Do you actually do a "shutdown?"
Yup, most nights I do. Even with a UPS, I've had to get up in the night and turn equipment off due to power outages. The power has gotten better the past few years, but I don't trust National Grid for squat.
I think every time my power has gone out it's been bad weather so that's late afternoon. I can't recall ever getting up in the night and turning off things when the UPS is howling... I let my machines "sleep." I've seen one too many circuit board solder "breaks" from temp going up and down (from turning things on and off every day.) But I could be totally wrong. Plus, I have large files that sync overnight (cloud) and auto backups that run. I had a fellow work companion on the other side of the world who kept claiming they put files in DropBox to sync but when I looked they were never there. Found out they were turning off their machine before the files could sync.
Anyway... you raised a very valid point. Make sure your Trainz tasks are all done before that shutdown (I know you will)
Anyway... you raised a very valid point. Make sure your Trainz tasks are all done before that shutdown (I know you will)
I had coworkers do that. They claimed they backed things up but turned their machines off instead. Oops! Some also had backup drives that were full and their backup software went through the motions of backing up nothing without producing an error message. One guy, a VP of sales, found out that the hard way when his laptop hard drive died and there was nothing to restore.I think every time my power has gone out it's been bad weather so that's late afternoon. I can't recall ever getting up in the night and turning off things when the UPS is howling... I let my machines "sleep." I've seen one too many circuit board solder "breaks" from temp going up and down (from turning things on and off every day.) But I could be totally wrong. Plus, I have large files that sync overnight (cloud) and auto backups that run. I had a fellow work companion on the other side of the world who kept claiming they put files in DropBox to sync but when I looked they were never there. Found out they were turning off their machine before the files could sync.
Anyway... you raised a very valid point. Make sure your Trainz tasks are all done before that shutdown (I know you will)
I've always turned my machines off without worrying about solder joints cracking. The bigger issue was in the olden days with some hard disks sticking and ruining the platters. The heads would get stuck to the fine layer of lubricant during the day while the drives were hot and then not be able to move when the drives cooled down overnight. The only way to break the heads free is to repeatedly power the drive up and down until the heads finally moved. This process sometimes killed the motor or caused the heads to scratch the surface. On some drives, this was caused by static and was called stiction or static-friction. The remedy was the same. I think Seagate and Micropolis were the culprits. Overall, hard disk technology has gotten pretty stable and while we think it's obsolete, it really isn't. SSDs are good for short term use due to their shorter lifespan compared to hard drives. The constant writing to an SSD wears them down no matter how good they are. This is what backups are for to real hard drives that don't have that issue.
I do keep my machines on sometimes to do overnight tasks with the hopes that they'll make it through the night without me needing to get up and power things off. It's gotten better with tree trimming done, but since 2009 when we were without power for 14 hours due to the severe ice storm, I've been paranoid. The issue usually occurs during storms and bad winds and we get plenty of that here. These past few nights have required me to keep my machine on as I copy data, defrag my large hard drive and backup content. There's no way I'm waiting all night for these processes to complete and I've been lucky.
I don't use the cloud for anything other than stuff I want to share. I don't trust others with my data and backup data locally. It's one of those things that can go away in an instant and also be hacked.
At any rate, listen to your system and watch task manager to ensure that the drives are quiet before rebooting or shutting down. This wasn't an issue with previous versions but seems to be with this version.
mrjunction
If it rides on Rails....
I was worried that you could be the next "Euphod". Big presence on these forums and then gone. Never to be heard from again. I believe his last post was wishing N3V "good luck with that" (when they announced their subscription plan) You are also a big presence and have offered sage advise to untold Trainzers. Glad you worked it out. To loose you would be a shame.
Thank you for the kind words, mrjunction. That's very much appreciated. I miss Ed Wells very much as well.