Backup, Backup, Backup ….
Or how I almost lose everything.
First off I had not been backing up my content. Strike 1.
I had also modified some content but kept them under the original creator’s kuid.
I had not backed up any of that content. Strike 2.
I had not been backing my full trainz installations (more later). Strike 3.
Nearly out.
Ok what I had happen is that I had not backed up anything in an about 2 years.
Everything had been working good. I had been working on a route when I had ended using trainz the night before.
So, I go to start Trainz about two weeks ago. It started an Extended Database Repair. I am not sure why. It got about a third to half of the way through when it said TADDameon has crashed and closed. Ok try again. No luck. I tried about 4 -5 times again. Every time it would crash and close.
Now a full EDR takes about an hour to an hour and a half. So it would take up to an hour before the crash.
Understand that I have about 18000 items installed into Trainz, 80 or so gigabytes.
It had taken 2-3 evenings to do all of this so far.
I had been at work trying to think of a way to get the EDR to finish. After day three, I knew I had to try something else.
So the first thing I did was to copy the whole Userdata folder to a safe place... Then I deleted the userdat folder in trainz. The restarted Trainz, which created a new userdata. I had a new beginning. I copied this over to anther folder for safekeeping.
I decided to try to copy over some of the previously saved data. I copied over the first folder in the local folder. After an EDR Success.
Now the problem is that the local folder contains 256 folders (named hashxx) with 30 and more folders of content (This is the actual content that has been committed in CMP). I proceeded to copy a few hash folders at a time. This part takes time.
Copy some folders, start Content Manager and to an EDR. Things go good until I hit about half way. Then the familiar TADDameon Crash. Therefore, I go back and remove the last couple of Hash folders. EDR and back on track. So I Proceed without those and finish the local folder.
I wanted to find out which content was causing the problem. But how without starting over.
I used the other trainz folder without any content.
Then I discovered something interesting.
When you commit an item in CMP, it converts the config.txt to config.chump.
There is now way to edit a chump that I know of. Just as a test, I copied a single folder (that has a config.chump) out of the troubled hash folder into cmp of the Trainz install without content.
It imported. I did not know you could do that. So I copied each item one by one, did and did an EDR after each one. This way and EDR takes about ten minutes and when it did not work, I knew which ones were bad.
After all of this I had to go through the same thing with the Original folder.
So after many late nights and weekends I was able to get about 95 -99% back.
Oh and if you are confused about which files and folders were copied to where so was I at times!
I now have backed up my content, the content I have modified, and my full working trainz installation. I have, in the past made a backup of my Trainz installs with all content. I would also backup any recently created or modified content.
When I would reload my system, I would reinstall trainz, copy over the backup install (with content) over the new install. Then import my content and modified content.
Time to go back to my old ways.
As I now say “Back it once, Back it up twice, Back it up three times to be sure.
Hope this helps out some of you.
Kenny
P.s. All of this is with TS12 With the latest Service Packs.
When I said I did an EDR I would open CMP and start it from there. The other times it would be done is after TADDameon crashed.
Or how I almost lose everything.
First off I had not been backing up my content. Strike 1.
I had also modified some content but kept them under the original creator’s kuid.
I had not backed up any of that content. Strike 2.
I had not been backing my full trainz installations (more later). Strike 3.
Nearly out.
Ok what I had happen is that I had not backed up anything in an about 2 years.
Everything had been working good. I had been working on a route when I had ended using trainz the night before.
So, I go to start Trainz about two weeks ago. It started an Extended Database Repair. I am not sure why. It got about a third to half of the way through when it said TADDameon has crashed and closed. Ok try again. No luck. I tried about 4 -5 times again. Every time it would crash and close.
Now a full EDR takes about an hour to an hour and a half. So it would take up to an hour before the crash.
Understand that I have about 18000 items installed into Trainz, 80 or so gigabytes.
It had taken 2-3 evenings to do all of this so far.
I had been at work trying to think of a way to get the EDR to finish. After day three, I knew I had to try something else.
So the first thing I did was to copy the whole Userdata folder to a safe place... Then I deleted the userdat folder in trainz. The restarted Trainz, which created a new userdata. I had a new beginning. I copied this over to anther folder for safekeeping.
I decided to try to copy over some of the previously saved data. I copied over the first folder in the local folder. After an EDR Success.
Now the problem is that the local folder contains 256 folders (named hashxx) with 30 and more folders of content (This is the actual content that has been committed in CMP). I proceeded to copy a few hash folders at a time. This part takes time.
Copy some folders, start Content Manager and to an EDR. Things go good until I hit about half way. Then the familiar TADDameon Crash. Therefore, I go back and remove the last couple of Hash folders. EDR and back on track. So I Proceed without those and finish the local folder.
I wanted to find out which content was causing the problem. But how without starting over.
I used the other trainz folder without any content.
Then I discovered something interesting.
When you commit an item in CMP, it converts the config.txt to config.chump.
There is now way to edit a chump that I know of. Just as a test, I copied a single folder (that has a config.chump) out of the troubled hash folder into cmp of the Trainz install without content.
It imported. I did not know you could do that. So I copied each item one by one, did and did an EDR after each one. This way and EDR takes about ten minutes and when it did not work, I knew which ones were bad.
After all of this I had to go through the same thing with the Original folder.
So after many late nights and weekends I was able to get about 95 -99% back.
Oh and if you are confused about which files and folders were copied to where so was I at times!
I now have backed up my content, the content I have modified, and my full working trainz installation. I have, in the past made a backup of my Trainz installs with all content. I would also backup any recently created or modified content.
When I would reload my system, I would reinstall trainz, copy over the backup install (with content) over the new install. Then import my content and modified content.
Time to go back to my old ways.
As I now say “Back it once, Back it up twice, Back it up three times to be sure.
Hope this helps out some of you.
Kenny
P.s. All of this is with TS12 With the latest Service Packs.
When I said I did an EDR I would open CMP and start it from there. The other times it would be done is after TADDameon crashed.