I think my system blew out..DS not working
daveso
Posts: 7,150
Earlier today, I went to start DS and when I clicked the icon to load, nothing happened and an error popped up. My D drive which has the program was not listed in the system resources in windows explorer. I rebooted and the D drive was again listed. I went about other stuff.
Just a bit ago I tried to load DS and got the error box ...
So hmmm ...I then tried DIM ... and a box popped up to install a lot of stuff
Not sure what to do ... what a mess.
I also just found my PSP will not load. Not sure what else. 1st step I'm rebooting agian, but I have a feeling I have a serious virus or my internal HD is crashing.
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Comments
try checking your drives with Speccy
I got this before. If you open Daz before it properly installs your content, you will get this message. I also noticed that the DIM installer showed content that I already installed yet it shows that I haven't. Forget DIM unless installing content manually. Uninstall products that has errors when trying to load. Reinstall them and check for updates. Check any content that you recently downloaded and installed.
It is either folder location changed, deleted or due to Daz Studio settings reset. If you can locate installed folder(s) then you need to update Daz Studio settings for content folders.
Could be caused by a number of things, but the most likely culprits in my experience would be either a failing hard drive, a loose cable, a loose cable on the hard drive, a failing port on the motherboard, or possibly a system glitch. The first thing I would do is check the drive integrity to make sure it isn't failing. Most drive manufacturers have software you can download for free to check the drive. Sorry, it's been a while since I've had to do it, so I don't remember the name of utilities I've used (the utility Wendy linked to may do it as well as checking the system for possible issues). If it's an external drive it could also be the enclosure electronics failing. A good HD integrity checker will give you a good idea on if you need to replace it ASAP because it is failing, or if the issue lies somewhere else.
If it is a failing HD, the loss of the HD listing on your system indicates that the boot sector or file allocation table was not accessible. The fact that rebooting brought it back may indicate the head wasn't able to find the boot sector or file allocation table. The restart may have reset/reseated the drive head to where it could find things again. This typically means the drive head is failing (assuming it's a mechanical drive). Good HD diagnostic software should allert you to any issues your drive might be experiencing.
Even if the issue hasn't happened again, I would check the drive with diagnostic software. I've had drives that showed an issue once, then worked great for a while, but ultimately failed and were unusable without any other issue until completely failing.
If you can rule out a failing HD, most other issues have potential work arounds and typically won't cause data loss. So checking drive integrity is IMHO the most important first step.
I could be completely of base, as this is just from my experience. Hopefully you have already found the cause of the problem and nothing I mentioned is needed. Good luck!
thanks everyone. I was more than freaking out over this. I unplugged everything to my system. Reseated the hard drive cables. Rebooted and it appears all is working. The entire thing started when I purchased and hooked up a new external drive. It didn;t sound quite right and was making a clunking noise every 15 seconds or so ... I think that somehow messed up the works. Anyway, its going back.
One thing very important that came out of this ... BACK UP YOUR STUFF !
not sure anymore the best backup method, was looking at RAID, but I also read that an external HD is better for backup ... but I think it needs to be hooked up and active , continuously updating the files on it. I do like the RAID 1 setup though where you always have 2 drives up to date and if one fails the other still has the files.
any suggestions on backup equipment and proceedure are highly appreciated.
How much data do you have that needs backing up is the first question?
Nothing beats an external drive.
Have been a PC enthusiast since 87 and all through this time, the backup solutions have been slow, expensive and far too small compared to the needs at that time.
The last device I bought for backup was a blueray drive... Thought the 50GB disk would help me backing up my files, but then I realized I already had Terabytes to backup.
Now I just copy files to disks I remove from the system due to them getting too small.
The only HD makers I trust are Seagate (1st) and Samsung (2nd).
Normally starting DAZ Studio, going to the Content Tab, right clicking on the tab there & "Start CMS" (or Restart etcetera etcetera) will do the trick & if not then rebooting.
I'm at at least 3TB right now..but also tons of digital work ... probably 4-5TB overall. Mu current data drive has 1.7tb, nearly full and my OS drive 400gig. Plus an archive on the new drive -around 2.5 TB and numerous small drives...
I run DS offline, always. Will that still work?
Head parking? Some WD drives used to park the head every X seconds, but there is a tool that can fix that. Really bad idea, depending on use the drive might easily exceed the max number of head parkings very quickly.
Hmmm, never tried it like that. You can try & see.
With over 2TB of Daz assests, I don't back it up. Not the stuff I can just re-download from the shop. I only back up the stuff that is gone forever, like the stuff I bought from HiveWire3D. I also back up my scene files, presets, etc. But the actual straight-up assets from the store? Nope.
I also no longer use spinning drives. I had two WD Black drives that I used for backup and Daz stuff that were each less than a year old and they were doing odd things. Throwing system errors, even after putting them into my new build. So I said screw it and swapped them out for 4TB SSD's. I do not regret it in the least. My entire system runs on SSD (a total of 7 between M.2 PCIe and 2.5"). No errors, a lot less heat, and a lot less noise.
Not a fan of WD myself either, they have mostly been short lived (1-2years) while SG's have lasted generally over a decade unless I have removed them for being too small compared to the new ones.
For internal hard drives, nowdays I buy nothing else but "WD Black", Never had any trouble with them until long after their expected lifetime. What I have had trouble with are Seagate, and Hitachi drives. I don't know if they were from the low end of their line or what, but most of the dead drives I found in my and other people's computers were those two brands, and also from the low end of the WD brand, (WD blue).
Even my external drives are mostly WD, although I have ended up with a couple Seagate externals over the years. I've retired a lot of external hard drives but I have NEVER had an external hard drive die on me. Probably because they are only on for a few hours a month.
I had an Hitachi drive that was over 10 years old. I always had really good luck with them ;). Toshiba too. I think they're both based on what was formerly Maxtor. The only gripe I've had with them is that they're noisy. LOL Seagate is the one I always seem to have issues with. I guess it's just the luck of the draw. LOL.
Laurie
My internal HD is a Seagate Barracuda. Not sure how that ranks. Not sure I can afford large SSD drive. will need to buy cables as well. don't see any empty power or sata cables.
I prefer WD drives too, I think I've bought over 30 over the years. A few have died early, usually from bad sectors. In this PC I have 4 WD drives, they have a power-on time (total spin time) from 3.9 to 6.1 year. So most of them last quite long. Just cool them well, mine are usually below 40° C and hardly ever get over 45° C on a hot day.
My 4TB SSD's are Samsung QVO's and I got them for ~$350US each, which isn't bad for 4TB in the realm of things...especially considering that my game drive, a 2TB Samsung 980 Pro M.2 PCIe 4.0, cost even more than that.
I just couldn't stand dealing with HDD's anymore. They were hot, and they were noisy, and I always wound up with bad sectors, even with brand new premium drives. I really don't regret moving to 100% SSD.
With the speed of current USB C (USB 3.2) ports I have decided to buy 2 external Sandisk 1050mb/s ruggedized SSDs. They have them in 2TB & 4TB size. I will put that entire Windows Documents structure on one and clone it weekly. 1050mb/s is fast enough for initial loading and saving. 1050mb/s is fast enough to install the whole OS & programs for portable configured OSes. Unfortunately, most licensed apps aren't portable like that. But I'll do the Windows Library folders like that and I will just move them back & forth between laptop & desktop. I then only need a 2TB system disk & it's clone internally for my computer & future computers. Modern FreeBSD & Linux systems can read/write to those NTFS file systems too. It's nice to see when technology reaches the point where it finally solves a recurring hassle.
SSDs can get quite hot when used heavily, allow for proper cooling.
The hottest drive I have is 42C and that's because my OS is on it so it's always in use, and it's M.2 and sitting right behind the GPU. All my other SSD's sit between 30C and 34C. Whereas my HDD's (WD Black) were always 50C or above...which is right at the cusp of OH CRAP HOT for HDD according to the specs. That was their idle temp.
I read about that in the Amazon reviews of these two products and they meant really hot. The internal ones do as well so I guess trade heat, mass, weight for speed, weight, and more heat.