Transferring work units from a dead laptop

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Message 1840766 - Posted: 8 Jan 2017, 2:49:05 UTC

I had a laptop die yesterday morning. I've bought a new PC and the drive from the dead laptop is removed and enclosed in an external drive case. Several years ago, someone told me how I could move the workunits I had already received to the now dead laptop to the new computer and it worked. Anyone remember how to do this?
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Message 1840776 - Posted: 8 Jan 2017, 3:45:52 UTC - in response to Message 1840766.  

If I'm reading this right, you had an AMD CPU with AMD GPU, and New computer is Intel with Intel GPU ..

If the hardware was similar I would say to place the BOINC folder in the same place as it use to be C/prog/BOINC ... and just run it (and let seti issue a new computer ID), but with things being that much different it will probably just toss all the tasks because of hardware/app mismatch - which might be a good thing in the end to release the tasks in progress to others. I think it was only 44, but it helps.

It could likely be done with editing the client_state to new apps and plan_classes, but is it worth it?
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Message 1840851 - Posted: 8 Jan 2017, 17:48:55 UTC

Wouldn't it. at worst, toss the ones that had been started?
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Message 1840881 - Posted: 8 Jan 2017, 20:53:15 UTC - in response to Message 1840851.  

Wouldn't it. at worst, toss the ones that had been started?

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Message 1840883 - Posted: 8 Jan 2017, 21:07:39 UTC - in response to Message 1840881.  

Wouldn't it. at worst, toss the ones that had been started?

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Does it help to know that I do not currently (and did not, recently, on the dead laptop) have any of the optimized apps running?
I do see in the post you linked that it would discard the 5 work units that were being worked on, but would anything worse happen?
I now seem to recall I have to have BOINC not running when I make the transfer of files. Correct?
I have the BOINC folders open both on the PC and the external drive. Which folder are workunits stored in? Is it a hidden folder?
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Message 1840886 - Posted: 8 Jan 2017, 21:18:46 UTC

Not really - the best you can hope for is that mounting the hard drive from your dead laptop and pointing BOINC to use that SETI data directory will allow you to complete those tasks already there, but given the significant change in underlying hardware I would guess that they are going to be lost to you, returned to the servers and sent out to someone else rather than sitting around waiting to time out.
It would certainly be far easier to do a clean installation on your shiny new laptop, get some nice clean tasks, the "right" set of apps, and say "farewell" to those tasks that were sitting on your departed and missed laptop.
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Message 1840887 - Posted: 8 Jan 2017, 21:25:12 UTC

Sarge I usually just copy the 2 BOINC folders (1 is hidden by default in C:\ProgramData\BOINC) to where I want them on the new system (I always install to my D:\ drive), run a BOINC repair and then let it run.

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Message 1841087 - Posted: 9 Jan 2017, 21:06:05 UTC

No luck. Found the folder on the new PC and the workunits, but then searched for \ProgramData\BOINC in the external drive, with "show hidden folders" selected/ Could not be found.

Maybe I'll try one more time with a different search engine, but if not .... . Is there a way to cancel the workunits so they're sent to someone else, rather than waiting for the due date to pass? (An online way to cancel, since of course I can't turn on the old laptop and cancel within BOINC.)
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Message 1841366 - Posted: 11 Jan 2017, 7:56:58 UTC - in response to Message 1841087.  

Was it a Windows XP computer?

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Message 1841425 - Posted: 11 Jan 2017, 14:03:59 UTC - in response to Message 1841366.  

Was it a Windows XP computer?


No,
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Message 1841432 - Posted: 11 Jan 2017, 14:26:56 UTC - in response to Message 1841087.  
Last modified: 11 Jan 2017, 14:27:23 UTC

Search for account_setiathome.berkeley.edu.xml on the old computer's hard drive. That'll ought to get you to the correct directory.
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Message 1841568 - Posted: 12 Jan 2017, 4:15:47 UTC - in response to Message 1841432.  

Search for account_setiathome.berkeley.edu.xml on the old computer's hard drive. That'll ought to get you to the correct directory.


Don't know if it is the search you provided me versus Wiggo's, or that I used the program Kuriuz to seach this time (hate Windows 10 searching), but I found it. Which file types should be moved?
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Message 1841930 - Posted: 13 Jan 2017, 16:50:00 UTC

File types I'm pretty sure I should not transfer:

Application
Application extension (.dll)
JPG
PNG
Text

Not sure:

BIN
CL
VLAR
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Message 1842435 - Posted: 15 Jan 2017, 18:27:30 UTC - in response to Message 1841930.  

File types I'm pretty sure I should not transfer:

Application
Application extension (.dll)
JPG
PNG
Text

Not sure:

BIN
CL
VLAR


?
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Message 1842449 - Posted: 15 Jan 2017, 19:19:08 UTC - in response to Message 1842435.  

Just shutdown any BOINC program you have running and click on BOINC.exe on the external drive and see what happens.
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Message 1843215 - Posted: 20 Jan 2017, 14:41:09 UTC - in response to Message 1840886.  
Last modified: 20 Jan 2017, 14:49:53 UTC

Not really - the best you can hope for is that mounting the hard drive from your dead laptop and pointing BOINC to use that SETI data directory will allow you to complete those tasks already there, but given the significant change in underlying hardware I would guess that they are going to be lost to you, returned to the servers and sent out to someone else rather than sitting around waiting to time out.
It would certainly be far easier to do a clean installation on your shiny new laptop, get some nice clean tasks, the "right" set of apps, and say "farewell" to those tasks that were sitting on your departed and missed laptop.


. . I am probably way too late and I may be off line but what I would do is fire up the new laptop with the drive attached but DO NOT run BOINC. Then I would run BOINC install using the advanced option to point it to the existing folders on the recovered drive. The install will recognise the current installation and should preserve the BOINC ID and simply install the appropriate drivers for the new hardware. Any WUs that had been running when the crash occured will error out {unless they had not been running long enough to save a checkpoint, in which case they may simply restart at zero} but the other units should load and work OK with the new apps. And this would preserve the ID stats that were built up prior to the crash.

. . Well that is what I would do.

Stephen
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Message 1843217 - Posted: 20 Jan 2017, 14:49:53 UTC

The whole point is moot.
Seti will at some point resend all lost WUs.
It may take some time, but it shall be done.
There is no lost work on Seti.
Get over it and move on.

Meowfreakingmeow.
"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

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Message boards : Number crunching : Transferring work units from a dead laptop


 
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