Best way to restore DAZ Studio, etc after re-installing Windows
CO3DR
Posts: 159
Due to issues unrelated to DAZ, I have to reformat my C drive and re-install Windows. I will need to reinstall all my apps, including DAZ Studio 4.9 and related apps (like DAZ Install Manager, Bryce, Carrara, iClone, Poser, Headshop, Hexagon, etc). Part of what will also change is that some of these were installed to D:\Program Files, and after the re-format, all programs will be on C. Most of the serial numbers are up in the cloud in my DAZ Account, so getting the programs themselves back doesn't look too difficult.
I have multiple Content Directories, and I've used robocopy to ensure I'll have backups of those directories. I also have backups of my InstallManager/Downloads directory will ALL the zip files and manifest files. Will merely putting these files back to where they were (and re-creating the Content Directories list) be sufficient? I'm trying to avoid blundering into a situation where I have to use Install Manager to re-install everything.
I posted a related question in another thread (I think this one will be easier for folks to find later) and Richard Hazeltine responded:
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The content manager database is in C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Roaming\Daz 3D\cms (settings) and the \Content Cluster subfolder (the actual database) by default.
DIM tracks its installations via the manifest .dsx files in (as I recall) Public Documents\Daz Install Manager\Manifests
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Is there anything else from AppData that I need to preserve? Will Daz Connect data be preserved if I just robocopy the files from that directory?
If you've been through something like this and have experience to add, I'd love to hear from you!
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Comments
The Manifests folder is the obvious omission from the list of things you have backed up.
Thanks. I'll ensure the Manifest files are backed up (they seem to be in the InstallManager/Downloads folder for me).
My Windows 10 configuration was 'unsupported' because I had most of my "Users" directory on the D drive. As a result, a lot of existing content is installed under D:\Users, and a couple of my existing Content Directories contain D:\Users in the path. After I re-install Windows, I would like to return to the supported configuration of C:\Users, and I'm also using this forced Windows re-install as an opportunity to do that cleanly.
Is there any reason this change from storing the content files on D:\Users to storing the content files on C:\Users will cause DAZ content to break? Or do I simply change the Content Directories to C:\Users when I manually re-enter the Content Directories?
DS 4.9 uses relative paths in its database, so there shouldn't be an issue on the DS side. The manifst files for DIM-installed content do use absolute paths, so that may be an issue.
However, I'm not aware of any problems using a separate drive for documents and so on - I have my system that way, having trold Windows to move the Documents (and other) folders before I isntalled any applications - find the default foldrs in C:\Users\YOU, right-click on them, select Properties, go to the Location tab, and Move... You do need to do this before isntalling applications to avoid possible confusion, especially with those that don't have user-configuration otpions.
Did you copy the Manifesst folder from the previous set-up? That's what tells DIM what is installed.
Thanks! I've fixed the DAZ3DIM problem. Basically, I was confused what the term "Manifest folder" meant, because I had some "manifest files" that appeared among my Zip files, and some "manifest files" that appeared in a folder called "ManifestFiles" located within the "InstallManager" folder (or at "../ManifestFiles" from the manifest files that were with the Zip files). The former appear to be something like stubs, and they get re-written everytime I start DAZ. The latter had only a couple dozen files and no files with dates after about a month that I first installed DAZ Studio years ago. I had put all these files back where they were and thought this was sufficient to restore the manifest files.
But, no. There is ANOTHER set of manifest files that apparently got put under C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\Install Manager\ManifestFiles
There were all the files for all the products I ever purchased, and they all had a tag in XML indicated where they were installed. Luckily, I had unwittingly back this place up when I back up my C drive, otherwise I would have never thought to look there.
DAZ3DIM is now working fine; most of my products are installed, except for add-ons which aren't installed because of what probably is an unrelated problem, except that you might encounter it installing from scratch.
However, DAZ Studio is not working fine. I've separately reported a video corruption problem, but with regards to content, I'm having the problem where the "Content Library" tab works as expected but "Smart Content" doesn't.
When I click "Smart Content", the only products I see are grayed. And, it's only a small fraction of the products I own. It's as if Smart Content is only showing me the products I could get through DAZ Connect, I guess. The Smart Content All tab shows grayed products, Smart Content Installed tab shows nothing, Smart Content Available tab looks like the same thing as the "All" tab.
My preference has been to install and use all the products I can through Install Manager, and I want to only use DAZ Connect for products that are available ONLY through DAZ Connect. If it's available both ways, I want to get it only through Install Manager.
Is there some small tweak I'm missing to:
1. Make Smart Content work like it was working before and show my Install Manager installed products, AND
2. Configure DAZ Studio to never try to get anything through DAZ Connect that it could get another way.
Did you bring across a back-up of the cms database? By default, assing you were using postgreSQL, it would have been in C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Roaming\Daz 3D\cms\ContentCluster. If not you will have to manually reimport metadata for your isntalled content - open the Content Library option menu (lined button in the top corner, or right-click the tab)>Content DB Maintenance, check Re-import Metadata..., and then you presuambly will want the user data and the product data.
It turns out that I did save that content cluster, mostly because I saved everything, but by the time I saw your reply, I had done the Re-import Metadata. Now, Smart Content is finding most of the things I expect it to.
I do have some final questions about "Content Library" tab. I'm in the Products part of the tree.
First, there appears to be some kind of color coding of the dots that appear in the corners of the product pictures in the list of products, but I cannot find a legend to explain what they mean. Sometimes, the dots change when I select a particular product in the list.
The upper right hand corner appears to be gray when it is a product that I could download with DAZ Connect (or maybe ONLY available that way?). These grayed products appear within each letter of Products after the alphabetically sorted list of other products.
For the lower right hand corner, it appears a light blue square in the lower right hand corner of the product picture means "New". Sometimes the lower right hand corner of the product picture has a black square. Sometimes, there is no colored square.
With respect to the lower left hand corner of the product pictures, sometimes I see nothing. Sometimes I see a small yellow dot. Sometimes when I select a product with a small yellow dot in the lower left hand corner, the yellow dot changes to a large red square in the lower left hand corner of the product picture. When this selection happens, it appears every time that I cannot load the product from the "Content Library" tab, Products tree, but if search for the product by name I can get access to its files that way.
I have some things that were installed by ContentPackageAssist, mostly Renderosity purchases. These never appear to have a product picture, or rather the product picture is always a black exclamation point on a white triangle. The products are installed, but they seem hard to get to, ie not accessible via Product, but if I know where they are I can get to them.
The greyed icons are uninstalled (as far as the CMS is concerned), which is why they are listed afterwards. I can't recall what the other coloured squares mean.
Are the Renderosity sets things you have packaged or things that were packaged by their creator?
I used an incorrect word. I should have said "some things that were packaged by ContentPackageAssist". I bought zip files from Renderosity and used ContentPackageAssist to make packages. Then, I used Install Manager to install all the packages from DAZ or Renderosity.
The only things that I know are NOT using Install Manager are content that is DAZ Connect Only.
I did just check one into something on the Products tab that was grey with a grey box in the upper right hand corner, choosing something under the letter "S" that appears out of alphabetical order at the end of the "S" products: Shanda Hair for Genesis 3 Female. Install Manager says this is installed into one of my content directory paths. But the Products tab only gives me the option to install this product. I cannot get to the product under Smart Content, even when I have a Genesis 3 Female selected in the scene. However, if I search my Content Library for Shanda, the item (but not product) "Shanda Hair G3F" is found and I can use it. Is there a way to make "Shanda Hair for Genesis 3 Females" a known product in DAZ without reinstalling it through DAZ Connect?
You could try reimporting its metadata - open the Content Library option menu (the lined button in the top corner, or right-click the tab), then Content DB Maintenence, check Reimport Metadata, and in the dialogue uncheck everything then check just Shanda Hair (and any other products that are installed but not showing that in Smart Content or Products).
Thanks for the idea. Unfortunately, I do not see it listed. As you know, that's a pretty difficult list to navigate because you have to know the "DAZ 3D Store Index" to find anything. When I look at the product page for "Shanda Hair for Genesis 3 Female" it says the "SKU" is 28103. There's no product listed in the re-import metadata dialog box that matches.
Not sure what the issue could be then, the metadata should be installed (in /Runtime/Suport) along with the rest of the product.
Why does this have to be so complicated! I just want to be able to reinstall windows. Daz is the only program with completely undocumented steps to do this.
So to check my understanding:
Copy DIM manifest from somewhere to somewhere else (It would be great to know where this resides)
Ignore everything else.
This doens't sound right.
The location of the manifest files is set in the Settings of DIM - click the gear icon at top-right. By default it's the Daz Install Manager/Manifests folder in the Public Documents folder as I recall. That will tell DIM what was installed, and where. It perhaps isn't documented as it uses absolute paths, so may well not transfer over to a new PC.
It really doesn't have to be all that complicated. The main thing to realize here is that Daz, like many other professional software, puts you in full control. Ergo, it's your responsibility to keep track where you stored your data.
I've been through this procedure myself in the past week (I moved from Windows 7/32bit to a new PC with Win10/64bit) and the major thing you have to keep in mind is that c:\users is an important location. For both your own files as well as the (public by default) manifest files. Not even PostgreSQL (the cms system) gave me any problems. I expected that I would need a (manually made) backup, but simply copying my data (%appdata%\Daz 3D\) was enough.