When I tried to update 2 systems to 6.2.x, it wouldn't allow me to choose the install folder that would have made it "see" my existing work units.

I've always had the installation done to C:\BOINC, which placed the data under C:\BOINC\projects.

However, in prior upgrades I always was able to choose the root as C:\BOINC and have everything work out.

In this case, probably due to the new folder placement for security issues, the install wouldn't let me choose this root folder. I then pointed it to C:\BOINC\projects directly, which allowed the update & project attachment to proceed.

However, this actually left my prior units unseen, and checking the task list etc they are definitely orphaned- hundreds of units.

After the install, the new folder structure includes:

C:\BOINC\projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu
C:\BOINC\projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu\projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu

on the first system I tried, and on another when I tried to get around the problems from the first upgrade, I ended up with this folder structure:

C:\BOINC\projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu
C:\BOINC\projects\projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu

I then tried copying the actual work units to the "new" folder location and rebooting, but they are still orphaned.

Any suggestions on how to get around this?

Why didn't the upgrade use my primary path as established, including for the new data folder and just make that a subfolder of my primary path? It properly set the program folder to C:\BOINC but it choose the data path folder defaulted to the my documents... folder.

Also, I have more systems to update, so suggested alterations to the install method? I ensured that the 2nd machine I touch I followed the instructions precisely, with the exception of choosing a data folder that was rooted inside C:\BOINC rather than inside the my documents tree.

Thanks!

Why didn't the upgrade use my primary path as established, including for the new data folder and just make that a subfolder of my primary path?

Come with BOINC 6.2 the BOINC and Data folder need to be two separate directories, to allow BOINC to be fully Vista compatible. In Vista it is allowed to put BOINC in the Program Files directory, but it won't allow programs to actively write to that directory.

And so, the installer will check for a couple of directories you filled in and deem if they are correct or not to go install in. It should not matter if you told it to install BOINC in C:\BOINC\, as long as you tell it to put the Data elsewhere, no longer as sub-directory of the original directory. So point the data directory to C:\BOINC Data\ and it'll work.

If you now uninstall BOINC through Add/Remove Programs, it will revert all your data to the C:\BOINC directory. The installer keeps tabs on where it took the old information from. If you then follow proper procedures and install BOINC in the separate directories, it should be handled without problems. I've uninstalled, clean installed and reinstalled the past 6.2 versions plenty of times on two different Windows systems and seen it work. If it doesn't... user intervention.

BOINC won't install any things into directories you didn't tell it to install into.

Do see how to install BOINC 6 and the big BOINC 6 answers FAQ for more information.

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Why didn't the upgrade use my primary path as established, including for the new data folder and just make that a subfolder of my primary path?

Come with BOINC 6.2 the BOINC and Data folder need to be two separate directories, to allow BOINC to be fully Vista compatible. In Vista it is allowed to put BOINC in the Program Files directory, but it won't allow programs to actively write to that directory.

And so, the installer will check for a couple of directories you filled in and deem if they are correct or not to go install in. It should not matter if you told it to install BOINC in C:\BOINC\, as long as you tell it to put the Data elsewhere, no longer as sub-directory of the original directory. So point the data directory to C:\BOINC Data\ and it'll work.

If you now uninstall BOINC through Add/Remove Programs, it will revert all your data to the C:\BOINC directory. The installer keeps tabs on where it took the old information from. If you then follow proper procedures and install BOINC in the separate directories, it should be handled without problems. I've uninstalled, clean installed and reinstalled the past 6.2 versions plenty of times on two different Windows systems and seen it work. If it doesn't... user intervention.

BOINC won't install any things into directories you didn't tell it to install into.

Do see how to install BOINC 6 and the big BOINC 6 answers FAQ for more information.

"The installer keeps tabs on where it took the old information from."

Well, after the install the old data was still in the old folder, and the new folder only had newly download units from AFTER the upgrade. Further, BOINC itself only reported the new work units downloaded after the install- the total was missing all the existing older units. Additionally, I had to enter my account information, password and such completely from scratch. For whatever reason, the upgrade not only didn't "see" the older units, it also didn't see the prior existing account log in and project information. I would have thought that the upgrade pulled all the path and even account information from the registery etc. It felt as if it simply didn't even seen BOINC was installed.

In the first case, I exited BOINC before doing the upgrade- mainly because I have it set to 100% CPU usage so it would go faster. Just in case somehow this caused the upgrade to not see the existing installation, I left it running in the case of the 2nd upgrade, but once again I had to tell it the folder where it was to put BOINC [it didn't pick up even the root folder's path, but defaulted both program and data paths to the my documents tree]. It also had to be told all the account information over again.

Could it be because my original install was not in the default path's used by the typical BOINC install?

Still, I did as you suggested and proceeded to do the add/remove programs. After using uninstall, the entire tree was removed- nothing left, not even the old stuff. The entire c:/boinc tree was gone.

Fortunately, I do nightly backups so I simply restored the old version- which means only the current days work progress and new units were lost.

I will let it continue processing the old units but retrieve no more. Once the old ones are depleted, I'll then upgrade and thus nothing will be orphaned.

I understand that you have done this many times without a problem. Cannot think why it didn't work properly on 2 of my systems. Both are running Windows XP PRO, with all the latest patches. I have several more systems to upgrade, so will try once more the same approach on one to see what happens. On the other I will not touch the default folder paths to see what happens- compare the two approaches.

It's a mystery, but not a big deal...


Thanks!

Why didn't the upgrade use my primary path as established, including for the new data folder and just make that a subfolder of my primary path?

Come with BOINC 6.2 the BOINC and Data folder need to be two separate directories, to allow BOINC to be fully Vista compatible. In Vista it is allowed to put BOINC in the Program Files directory, but it won't allow programs to actively write to that directory.

And so, the installer will check for a couple of directories you filled in and deem if they are correct or not to go install in. It should not matter if you told it to install BOINC in C:\BOINC\, as long as you tell it to put the Data elsewhere, no longer as sub-directory of the original directory. So point the data directory to C:\BOINC Data\ and it'll work.

If you now uninstall BOINC through Add/Remove Programs, it will revert all your data to the C:\BOINC directory. The installer keeps tabs on where it took the old information from. If you then follow proper procedures and install BOINC in the separate directories, it should be handled without problems. I've uninstalled, clean installed and reinstalled the past 6.2 versions plenty of times on two different Windows systems and seen it work. If it doesn't... user intervention.

BOINC won't install any things into directories you didn't tell it to install into.

Do see how to install BOINC 6 and the big BOINC 6 answers FAQ for more information.

"The installer keeps tabs on where it took the old information from."

Well, after the install the old data was still in the old folder, and the new folder only had newly download units from AFTER the upgrade. Further, BOINC itself only reported the new work units downloaded after the install- the total was missing all the existing older units. Additionally, I had to enter my account information, password and such completely from scratch. For whatever reason, the upgrade not only didn't "see" the older units, it also didn't see the prior existing account log in and project information. I would have thought that the upgrade pulled all the path and even account information from the registery etc. It felt as if it simply didn't even seen BOINC was installed.

In the first case, I exited BOINC before doing the upgrade- mainly because I have it set to 100% CPU usage so it would go faster. Just in case somehow this caused the upgrade to not see the existing installation, I left it running in the case of the 2nd upgrade, but once again I had to tell it the folder where it was to put BOINC [it didn't pick up even the root folder's path, but defaulted both program and data paths to the my documents tree]. It also had to be told all the account information over again.

Could it be because my original install was not in the default path's used by the typical BOINC install?

Still, I did as you suggested and proceeded to do the add/remove programs. After using uninstall, the entire tree was removed- nothing left, not even the old stuff. The entire c:/boinc tree was gone.

Fortunately, I do nightly backups so I simply restored the old version- which means only the current days work progress and new units were lost.

I will let it continue processing the old units but retrieve no more. Once the old ones are depleted, I'll then upgrade and thus nothing will be orphaned.

I understand that you have done this many times without a problem. Cannot think why it didn't work properly on 2 of my systems. Both are running Windows XP PRO, with all the latest patches. I have several more systems to upgrade, so will try once more the same approach on one to see what happens. On the other I will not touch the default folder paths to see what happens- compare the two approaches.

It's a mystery, but not a big deal...


Thanks!

The installer should be able to install BOINC into c:\program files\BOINC and the data in to c:\programdata\BOINC with the original source in c:\BOINC.

If you are having trouble, uninstall BOINC. Move the result into the new DATA directory (not a subdirectory of the new install, but someplace else - avoid program files, windows and any other directory that will trigger UAC). Now do an install of BOINC 6.2 specifying both the executable and data directories. Note that the split is within the BOINC directory, not between the BOINC directory and a sub directory.

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