I've been a longtime Trainz operator in Canada since the very first edition including Trainz, T4, T6, T9 and T10. A couple of years ago, I started spending five months of winter in Yuma Arizona in the USA and returning to Canada for the remaining seven months each year. For a while, I packed a small desktop computer back and forth, then purchased a Seagrave 2TB portable hard drive with the idea of installing Trainz Simulator 2009 World Builder Edition (49933) on it so I could just carry the hard drive with me when I flew back and forth. I have a decent HP Pavilion P6.2033w in Yuma and things seemed to work okay this year until my Canadian internet service provider changed its name from Sympatico.ca to Bell.net and I could not get Auran to recognize my new American email address at Roadrunner.com. It took a while but I finally got re-registered with a new identity but my pc froze so many times when I was trying to resolve the registration that I now have continuous problems and I wonder if having the whole simulator on a portable hard drive is a good idea?? Currently, the game re-runs an asset update every time I start the launcher and then freezes up when it gets to "faulty assets" and nothing short of a complete power off will close the program. Is it a good or bad idea to keep all my Trainz programs and files on one portable hard drive? I expect I'll have similar problems when I return to Canada in two weeks.... Is there a better way? Any advice? Thanks for your time. Bobber Gibbs
Trainz 2010 On A 2TB Seagrave Portable Drive
- Thread starter bobberg
- Start date
Welcome back Bobber, I remember your name from ages ago!
I suggest contacting the helpdesk and see if Zec can help you with the registration process so that your Trainz versions, at least the current ones, so people don't keep bugging you about registering your software. We're pretty tough on the pirates around here and don't let them in the door.
You should be okay with Trainz running on the USB drive. I've done that quite a bit with my installation. Like you I don't want to carry a huge desktop with me so I'll take my gaming laptop and carry the program with all my content on a 2TB portable. The only thing I suggest is you make a backup of your install on the portable drive because like any hard drive, they can die and you'll lose everything.
Now, getting back to your current problem. It sounds like you have a bit of a database corruption issue. This happens if the computer has been shutdown before Trainz as has completely cleaned up its files in the background. You need to do a couple of things and after this you should be all set.
1) Run a quick database repair.
Ensure that nothing else is running on your computer, and you can leave it running for an extended time. So being a laptop ensure that the power management has been set NOT to turn your hard disks off, and for the machine NOT to go into hibernation.
Once all of this is set, open up Content Manager.
Click on the File Menu
Click on Quick Database Repair.
Let her run. The "Quick" database repair isn't quick and take some time. That's why I suggest leaving it alone and overnight. Besides, you don't want to do anything else while this is running.
2) Enable show Database Processes on the Developer's tab.
This is done in Trainz from the Launcher.
Once your database is fixed, start Trainz normally.
Click on the Options menu item.
Click on the Developer's tab.
Click on Show database process window.
These are little DOS windows that run at the same time and sit down in the task bar. Now when you start up Trainz, they will appear and run at the same time. When you shutdown, they will disappear. When they are gone, it is safe to shutdown your computer.
I hope this helps and gets things straightened out for you.
John
cascaderailroad
New member
I have previously heard that Trainz on an external HD, hooked up via a USB cable, will cause lag ... IDK
It can, but the new USB 3 drives aren't bad and neither are the Seagate Go-flex series. I've used my USB 2.0 GF drive and the performance is actually pretty good.