How do I move BOINC off the C drive?

Questions and Answers : Windows : How do I move BOINC off the C drive?
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Profile David@home
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Message 1898040 - Posted: 29 Oct 2017, 9:00:07 UTC
Last modified: 29 Oct 2017, 9:46:33 UTC

Using Intel's SSD toolkit I can see that in two months of running BOINC that I have reduced the estimated life remaining on my SSD by 20%.

As such I need to move BOINC to a spinning disk. As BOINC installs into c:\ProgramData and c:\Program Files is it possible to move it to my E: drive and keep all my statistics, work units etc?

Many thanks
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Message 1898138 - Posted: 29 Oct 2017, 21:36:54 UTC - in response to Message 1898040.  

Exit BOINC (BOINC Manager->File->Exit, check "stop running tasks"->OK.
Uninstall BOINC through add/remove programs.
Move the data directory to the new place. For instance, from C:\Programdata\BOINC to E:\BOINC\
Install BOINC using its installer.
In the third screen of the installer, click Advanced.
In the next screen, change the path to the data directory from C:\Programdata\BOINC to E:\BOINC\
Continue installation as normal.

You don't need to move the programs directory as that's not written to.
BOINC will still write to some files in C:\Users\Your name\Roaming\BOINC, as this is a copy of the logging files in the data directory.

Doing it the above way makes sure that permissions on the data directory are in place.

As for durability of an SSD, you'd have to write hundreds of gigabytes per day, every day, for years, to affect an SSD.
SSD endurance is commonly described in terms of full Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) for a certain warranty period (typically 3 or 5 years). In other words, if a 100GB SSD is specified for 1 DWPD, it can withstand 100GB of data written to it every day for the warranty period. Alternatively, if a 100GB SSD is specified for 10 DWPD, it can withstand 1TB of data written to it every day for the warranty period. Another metric that is used for SSD write endurance is Terabytes Written (TBW), which is used to describe how much data can be written to the SSD over the life of the drive. Again, the higher the TBW value, better the endurance of the SSD. What’s important to be careful about in this endurance specifications is the methodology used to determine these values. For example, the shorter the warranty period, the higher the DWPD will be for that specific SSD. Or larger the SSD drive capacity, higher the TBW for that specific SSD.
Source: Understanding SSD Endurance.
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Message 1898237 - Posted: 30 Oct 2017, 8:06:06 UTC - in response to Message 1898138.  
Last modified: 30 Oct 2017, 8:06:37 UTC

Thanks Ageless,

I will reinstall BOINC and move it off C:\programdata to my E: drive.

Couple of follow up questions please:

1) Should I upgrade to version 7.8.3 or stick with 7.6.33?

2) Where does SETI save the checkpoint files? I struggled to find files being updated for the checkpoint. If they are in the projects folder then moving off C:\programdata will cover this write I/O as well.

I can only go by the Intel SSD Toolbox and it is reporting my estimated life remaining has dropped to 80%. In the past this has always been at 100% so running BOINC is definitely having a bad affect on my Intel SDD.
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Message 1898286 - Posted: 30 Oct 2017, 16:50:09 UTC - in response to Message 1898237.  
Last modified: 30 Oct 2017, 16:50:20 UTC

I will reinstall BOINC and move it off C:\programdata to my E: drive.
Well no, uninstall, move to the E: drive and reinstall. There's no use in reinstalling before you move to the E: drive.

1) Should I upgrade to version 7.8.3 or stick with 7.6.33?
That's up to you. If you want the bleeding last, then yes.

2) Where does SETI save the checkpoint files? I struggled to find files being updated for the checkpoint. If they are in the projects folder then moving off C:\programdata will cover this write I/O as well.
Seti saves the checkpoint files in the C:\Programdata\BOINC\slots\{a number}\ directories, where the number is anything from 0 to 512. So, moving the data directory will move everything in it, including sub-directories and all files.

I can only go by the Intel SSD Toolbox and it is reporting my estimated life remaining has dropped to 80%. In the past this has always been at 100% so running BOINC is definitely having a bad affect on my Intel SDD.
Seeing from past experience that toolbox doesn't always report the correct values. And if it's happened once or twice in the past, it's possible it is happening again. I'd check with a third party app what they say. This site has links to several different free apps that show SSD Health and more. (Including the Intel app)

Apropos, do know that Windows writes more to disk than BOINC does. You may still see degradation after the BOINC data directory move, and if so, it's about time to ask Intel if this is normal.
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Questions and Answers : Windows : How do I move BOINC off the C drive?


 
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