How Can I Move My SETI To A New Machine?

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Message 1901683 - Posted: 18 Nov 2017, 10:29:46 UTC

BIG32, one of my two crunchers seems to be having a disk problem - it gets scads of read and write errors, and certain programs fail utterly (wireless! and I have no Ethernet to where the machine is). So it runs SETI ok, but cannot communicate with Berkeley. (NB: SMART says the disk is ok, not even a caution from Crystal Disk Info, though it shows a high read error rate and write error rate (but no reallocation events or reallocation events or reallocated sectors).

My question is, assuming I can get the data off the disk, what is the exact procedure to moving my BOINC program folder and data folder to a new hard drive - I am going to reinstall Win 7 on a new HDD, and then want to copy (as opposed to reinstall) as much of the SETI programs and data as possible. With emphasis on the data; I can reinstall Lunatics as before, if necessary, and then how do I copy the data?

I plan on having the new machine also be BIG32, and use all default names for the BOINC directories, so naming should not cause a problem. Anybody have a procedure for doing this, in baby steps (because I am not so smart)?

Thanks all...
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Message 1901715 - Posted: 18 Nov 2017, 17:12:24 UTC - in response to Message 1901683.  
Last modified: 18 Nov 2017, 17:19:43 UTC

I have used acronis true image in these exact circumstances to clone a disk. I think they have a trial version. As I recall Seagate (or maybe WD) provided a lame copy of Acronis that was good for cloning a disk in their retail version.

You must run a surface scan to repair any file problems before booting the acronis (or whatever) CD and starting the clone process. Be sure to remove the old disk before rebooting.

[EDIT]

Just realized you want to reinstall 7.

I highly recommend the following:

First, fix any file problems, then download and run that still free upgrade to windows 10. You can select "keep my settings and programs". I have converted all my 7 machines to 10 even really old ones and they work fine. Windows 10 has a "reset" feature that reinstalls itself to a "clean machine" and where you get a new serial number and Microsoft remembers it for you (if you have a Microsoft account). That free 1 year upgrade seems to be good for life or until Bill Gates decides otherwise.
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Message 1901717 - Posted: 18 Nov 2017, 17:19:36 UTC - in response to Message 1901683.  

Just copy the BOINC folder to some other media and put it back right where it was installed before on the new disk. For your Windows 7 machines that would be C:\ProgramData\BOINC as the default location that BOINC normally installs to unless you made a different choice during installation. After moving the directory, check that you have permissions to read and write to the directory and sub-directories just to be safe.
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Message 1901718 - Posted: 18 Nov 2017, 17:23:15 UTC - in response to Message 1901717.  

Just copy the BOINC folder to some other media and put it back right where it was installed before on the new disk. For your Windows 7 machines that would be C:\ProgramData\BOINC as the default location that BOINC normally installs to unless you made a different choice during installation. After moving the directory, check that you have permissions to read and write to the directory and sub-directories just to be safe.


Are you sure you can still do that on a new installation? I recall classic SETI stopping people from transferring their project results to other users as some people were selling the results on ebay or trading between users.
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Message 1901719 - Posted: 18 Nov 2017, 17:24:48 UTC - in response to Message 1901718.  

Just copy the BOINC folder to some other media and put it back right where it was installed before on the new disk. For your Windows 7 machines that would be C:\ProgramData\BOINC as the default location that BOINC normally installs to unless you made a different choice during installation. After moving the directory, check that you have permissions to read and write to the directory and sub-directories just to be safe.


Are you sure you can still do that on a new installation? I recall classic SETI stopping people from transferring their project results to other users as some people were selling the results on ebay or trading between users.

Absolutely, everybody does it all the time around here. Unless you are running BOINC << 5.0 or something.
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Message 1901721 - Posted: 18 Nov 2017, 17:28:26 UTC - in response to Message 1901683.  

BIG32, one of my two crunchers seems to be having a disk problem - it gets scads of read and write errors, and certain programs fail utterly (wireless! and I have no Ethernet to where the machine is). So it runs SETI ok, but cannot communicate with Berkeley. (NB: SMART says the disk is ok, not even a caution from Crystal Disk Info, though it shows a high read error rate and write error rate (but no reallocation events or reallocation events or reallocated sectors).

My question is, assuming I can get the data off the disk, what is the exact procedure to moving my BOINC program folder and data folder to a new hard drive - I am going to reinstall Win 7 on a new HDD, and then want to copy (as opposed to reinstall) as much of the SETI programs and data as possible. With emphasis on the data; I can reinstall Lunatics as before, if necessary, and then how do I copy the data?

I plan on having the new machine also be BIG32, and use all default names for the BOINC directories, so naming should not cause a problem. Anybody have a procedure for doing this, in baby steps (because I am not so smart)?

Thanks all...



I used to run an Enterprise Edition of Windows 7 and had to reload every 90 days. What I did was copy the BOINC folder from Program Files and ProgramData to a flash drive where I added 2 file folders I put the BOINC folders. Keep the 2 BOINC folders separate. I also added my video driver and BOINC install programs there too.

Now you can install fresh windows (on a new drive if you need to) then you can drop the BOINC folders back into their respective directories. I then installed the BOINC installer like I'm upgrading. Now when you launch BOINC you start right were you left off.

Make sure you install your video driver before starting BOINC. And if you have Lunatics installed, it will be still installed, you will not have to reinstall.
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Message 1901722 - Posted: 18 Nov 2017, 17:30:45 UTC - in response to Message 1901719.  

Just copy the BOINC folder to some other media and put it back right where it was installed before on the new disk. For your Windows 7 machines that would be C:\ProgramData\BOINC as the default location that BOINC normally installs to unless you made a different choice during installation. After moving the directory, check that you have permissions to read and write to the directory and sub-directories just to be safe.


Are you sure you can still do that on a new installation? I recall classic SETI stopping people from transferring their project results to other users as some people were selling the results on ebay or trading between users.

Absolutely, everybody does it all the time around here. Unless you are running BOINC << 5.0 or something.


I guess when they let BitcoinUtopia provide humongous BOINC credits for bitcoin cash, that pretty much put an end to any credit trading morality.
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Message 1901727 - Posted: 18 Nov 2017, 18:32:08 UTC - in response to Message 1901722.  

I'm not sure where you got the idea that there is lots of credit trading going on. It was never simple to spoof someone else's credit to yours because of the unique system identifier and user id in client_state and a few other files that had to be manipulated. Some projects alott a lot more credit per unit-time of BOINC processing. Nothing anyone can do about it as there is no mandate rule for credit awarding. And "credit-new"/"credit-screw" here at SETI certainly never helped.

What the OP was asking for was a solution for a common problem where you have to install new hardware and simply want to preserve your work, system id and BOINC id so as not to make a new host and lose all your credit history for the original host. I had to do this very same thing when I corrupted my Linux installation and needed to completely re-install the OS. I saved the BOINC folders to a thumb drive and put them back after I was done with the re-install. Unfortunately, I missed a couple of file permissions on a few files and errored out some tasks before I could stop BOINC and fix the issue. Hence my warning about checking for executable status and file owner permissions.
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Message 1901730 - Posted: 18 Nov 2017, 19:00:35 UTC - in response to Message 1901729.  

Absolutely, everybody does it all the time around here. Unless you are running BOINC << 5.0 or something.

Well that is news to me at any rate. Yes there was an element of cheating going on in Classic days, the vast majority was dealt with when BOINC came out. In any case what is the point in cheating, you don't earn any money for amassing credits, and if you do climb the leader board its by false pretences.

I think you will find that Keith is saying that "everybody" transfers Boinc to new machines/HDD's in this way, NOT that everybody cheats.
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Message 1901732 - Posted: 18 Nov 2017, 19:29:21 UTC - in response to Message 1901730.  

Absolutely, everybody does it all the time around here. Unless you are running BOINC << 5.0 or something.

Well that is news to me at any rate. Yes there was an element of cheating going on in Classic days, the vast majority was dealt with when BOINC came out. In any case what is the point in cheating, you don't earn any money for amassing credits, and if you do climb the leader board its by false pretences.

I think you will find that Keith is saying that "everybody" transfers Boinc to new machines/HDD's in this way, NOT that everybody cheats.

Yes, I can see now how my comment was transferred to a completely different topic. I was not saying everyone cheats, I was saying that is a very common procedure to re-install BOINC and your tasks.
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Message 1901936 - Posted: 19 Nov 2017, 21:42:31 UTC

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

For cloning, I have used clonezilla and Caspar in the past, both successfully. The problem is that cloning seems to take a long time.

As a compromise between cloning and straight OS build + obnoxious app reinstalls, I have used PC Mover (after OS build, to move the apps over), and that has worked OK, too. And is overall faster than either cloning or build + reinstalls. And I don't have to worry about moving BOINC progs or data. Only problem is that I will have to buy (ugh!) a new license for it - hey, maybe they give a senior discount?
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Message 1902986 - Posted: 26 Nov 2017, 9:56:58 UTC

Here's an update. The problem was solved without any disk change/copy/clone.

The problem was NOT with the disk "failing" - apparently, the wireless driver was somehow corrupted even though I deleted and reinstalled several times. Turns out that Seagate does its own thing with the SMART codes for seek errors, etc. that I was looking at (I Googled it), and uses them in an unorthodox manner. So the huge error counts meant nothing.

So I decided to try a different wireless device. And when installed, I had (and have had) no repetition of the problems mentioned above.

Computers can be so weird!
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Message boards : Number crunching : How Can I Move My SETI To A New Machine?


 
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