Hello:
I know that SETI@Home hasn't really had work to give out (or something to that effect), but I've just received a couple of strange messages in the Notices tab (and have received these messages before once or twice):

First:
SETI@home: Notice from server
"AstroPulse v6 needs 60.00MP more disk space. You currently have 0.00MB available and it needs 60.00MB."

SETI@home: Notice from server
"SETI@home Enhanced needs 32.00MB more disk space. You currently have 0.00MB available and it needs 32.00MB."

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I find these odd as I have plenty of disk space available for BOINC and SETI@home to do its job. Do I perhaps have a disk usage setting incorrect, or...? I just don't know what to do.

In case it matters I run Win7 64-bit. I just recently installed BOINC, and it installed it in C:\Program Files. I noticed that the uninstalled version had it installed in C:\Program Files (x86). In the x86 leftover folder there was a text file called "stderrgfx.txt. I moved it to the desktop just in case I later needed it. But there's a text file in the new install directory with the same name, but not nearly as much information. So maybe it has something to do with that? I'm just guessing. When it comes to BOINC I just like to run it and know I'm helping someone else with my extra cycles.

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Kind Regards,
Daniel aka siouxdax

The messages are from your PC not the server.

In BOINC Manager select "Tools", then "Computing Preferences", then the "Disk and Memory usage"

Set "use at most" to something like 5Gb (10Gb would be better)
Set "Leave at least" to 1Gb
Set "Use at most" to 10%

Now, shut down BOINC - the way I do this is to shut the window, then right click the icon in the task bar and select "exit", you should now get a dialog box which has an option to "shut science applications", tick this and the OK it. Wait a few seconds, and from the start button restart BOINC Manager and S@H will start automatically.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Hello:
First, thanks for the instructions Rob. I already had "use at most" set to 10, I changed "leave at most" from 10 to 1. I don't remember what I originally had "use at most" set to, but I corrected.

I restarted, then I get a SETI message saying it needs 32MB more disk space. I feel I should mention that at times I barely have a GB free on that drive, but I try to keep as much free space available as possible.

One thing I'm noticing is that only FreeHAL is the only project that will run, everything else is "communication deferred".

I had sort of ignored BOINC for about a year and now I really want to get involved again...

Suggestions?

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Kind Regards,
Daniel aka siouxdax

OK, so its not the easy fix....
stderr.txt (and similar named files) are normally fairly small files, and are used by BOINC applications to report errors and status, so should be left where they are.

What is possible is that one of the projects that has "stalled" is leaving a mass of unwanted data in the BOINC data directory.
The next thing to do is to see what is using your disk space - which is quite simple - in BOINC manager open the "Disk" tab, you will see a pie chart of what BOINC applications are using space, and how much.
I do know that Einstein and LHC are both poor at cleaning up the disk after a job has finished. If one of these has a very large disk use, and no tasks to run then I would detach it for a day, which would allow S@H to get some work, and then re-attach. Detaching clears the selected project from your disk, and re-attaching creates only a set of essential data.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I do know that Einstein and LHC are both poor at cleaning up the disk after a job has finished.

And again, please stop it with the misinformation. Einstein uses Locality Scheduling, which means that it will download the data files for work to your computer once, then slice these data files into pieces (tasks).

This to make sure you don't have to download their 8MB files each time you ask for and get work. That's why it leaves 'old' data files on disk, so that when it returns to using that work unit set, it doesn't have to download all that data again.

@Daniel, what is the size of the disk drive that BOINC is installed on?
How much space does it have free?
Is it a full drive, or a partition? If a partition, please state its size and the size of the complete disk drive.

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When you say "detach" do you mean the "remove" button?

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Kind Regards,
Daniel aka siouxdax

Ageless:
My hard drive is 465GB that BOINC is installed on. It has less than a gig free at the moment, but that changes every few days. I'm constantly looking to free up space. It's a full drive, no partition.

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Kind Regards,
Daniel aka siouxdax

And your disk set preferences are specifically?

Set "use at most" to 5 or 10GB?
Set "Leave at least" to 1Gb?
Set "Use at most" to 10%?

??

For if so, when you have less than 1Gb free, you shouldn't set "leave at least" to 1GB, as then you'll still be stonewalled as that means 1GB and more to BOINC. Instead set "leave at least" to 0.1GB. The smallest value you can set is 0.01GB (10MB), if you require more space.

By the way, the "Use at most" is calculated over total disk space, which is why I asked if BOINC was on one of more partitions, or a one partition disk drive.

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You are correct - "Remove" is the new word for "Detach".

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Okay, after making the changes it seems that my active projects are starting to download work, or they're at least doing something. (I'm a bit too tired to really look into it) But later today I'll check into how things are going and let you guys know.

BTW, thank you so much for your (very valuable) help!

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Kind Regards,
Daniel aka siouxdax

Glad to hear something is moving at last - hopefully by the time you get up, and I get in from the gig I'm about to vanish to things will be running smoothly.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?