Uninstalling with DIM didn't delete the files (Solved)
Charlie Judge
Posts: 13,243
After my main hard drive crashed so that DAZ Studio would recogognize it in products and smart content I used DIM to reinstall my DAZ Studio content to an external hard drive where it had already been installed. Then I wanted to get a little extra space on the drive so I used DIM to uninstall the 'Now Crowd' billboards I have. That should have freed up a little over 50 gigabytes but it didn't While DIM uninstalled the items from DAZ Studio, it left the files on the hard drive and I had to go through and manually delete them. Does anybody know why that would happen and how to fix it so it won't happen again? And Yes DIM was pointed to the external drive both during the install and during the uninstall.
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Comments
@GlenWebb "lot of products I had to remove manually which DIM didn't"
Removing from Studio and deleting from the drive are two different things. Which do you mean? FWIW, I have never had DIM fail to uninstall a package from Studio.
That makes little sense to me. I don't use DIM, but if I installed a file with DIM, I would think that everything that DIM installed, would be removed when uninstalled.
Was the content location unchanged? If the reinstall had a different drive letter then DIM wouldn't find the files (the install record has to use absolute paths).
I don't see how they are different things. Having the conent files in the Daz Studio library makes them available in Daz Studio. The only way I can see to remove them from Daz Studio is to remove the files from the library.
It was unchanged at least after the crash which wiped out everthing on my main drive (C:) including DAZ Studio and DIM. So, what I had to do was download and install DAZ Studio and DIM. So, what I then had was DAZ Studio and an external drive that still had the content files but they weren't reocognized in smart content or products. Since DIM had no record of installing them (ie lost with crash) all the products should up in DIM as "Ready to Download" I then used DIM to to install them to the exact location where they already were on the external drive. Finally I used DIM to uninstall the Now Crowd products but it still left the files on the external drive.
Ah, right. If a file is already there when DIM runs it gets added to a file whose name I have forgotten (and I don't have one to look at since I lost by data drive a couple of months back) which tells it that the file was already theer and therefore should not be uninstalled n case it's from a manually isntalled product (e.g. it might be somethign like an environment map that a vendor uses in their Daz and Renderosity sets). If you look in the root of the content directory you should see the file - try installing the product again, remove the file, and uninstall, then put the file back (assuming there may be things on there that you wouldn't want DIM to remove - if the folder is all DIM installs then you could probably keep zapping it, though there is a risk of breaking products that way).
OK. Thanks Richard. I wish I had known that before I installed over top of the existing files. I could have deleted the stuff on the drive first and then installed. But as it is now I probably should just leave it as it is. Otherwise I'd have tohave Dim unistall all the products, then delete the entire directory on the external drive, then reinstall all the files again. Considering it is some 17,000 items and almost 2 TB of data that could become too time consuming
I think I was partly wrong above - DIM does use the same list for tracking files it has itself installed more than once, it isn't just files from manual installs.
DIM will remove the files from the Daz Studio Library, where ever it is installed. I just tested this and watched the file disappear from my hard drive. What i originally meant was that DIM would not delete the product zips from the hard drive when uninstalling from Studio. DIM will remove any files that it installed.
Hope this is close enough to topic, though not related to a crash, restore situation. I just discovered that in my Windows 10, Users directory, Public, Public Documents, I have two folders, DAZ3d and My Daz 3d Library. The DAZ3d folder has a Install Manager folder with Downloads and Manifest sub-folders. The Downloads folder has the zip files of my products (20 gigs worth). Is there any reason to keep those there as I am trying to free up some space? I always dl the zips manually and store them on an external. Does Daz actually access these? Files in the Manifest folder very small, not a space problem. PS "My Daz Library" sits on my D:drive.
Also think it's kinda weird they are in user public, not my actual user folder.
Thanks for reading.
Bob
If you remove the zips from the Downlods folder but keep the .dsx files then DIM will still notify you of updates, assuming you let it go online at all. You certainly don't need the package archive folder to use the content.
Thanks! I'll give it a go, and hopefully don't have to look back. :-)