How can I do a Completely Clean Install ?
johnkammer1962
Posts: 22
I am having a terrible time getting my content moved to a new system. Several issues as listed below. Any and all help on any of these issues would be appreciated.
Some background: Problems started when I discovered that DAZ had been downloading content to my C: drive which being rather limited in space filled up. I attempted moving the contents to a larger drive and this had various issues, not the least of which months of work categorizing data seems to have been lost and an old (unwanted) version of the categorization re-appeared as if by (evil) magic. Meanwhile I have upgraded computers and rather than just migrating everything I have tried to install the new version of Daz on the new computer and began installing and categroizing data using Daz Central. After loading a few things I noticed that it too was installing to the C: drive on the new computer So I stopped and tried to get that corrected only to see things totally bolluxed up. Since I'd not gotten too far in this effort I just went ahead, de-installed and wiped the various DAZ directories hoping to start from scratch.
Life is not that kind...
1: Reinstalled Daz Central and Daz Studio. Through Daz Connectt installed Starter Essentials for Genesis & Genesis2, 3, 8.
1a. Expected to be able to see these in Daz Studio. No such luck. Noticed that some of my settings had been saved from before I had wiped everything This seems to indicate that some data is being stored in a place I was not aware of. Hmmm...
1.b Installed one small package to see where it would go. Installed dForce Myles Beard for Genesis 8 Male(s) first using Daz Central.
1.b.i: The package ended up in the following directory but was not seen by Daz Studio :
D:\Daz 3D\Applications\Data\DAZ 3D\My DAZ 3D Library\People\Genesis 8 Male\Anatomy\AprilYSH
1.b.ii: So I tried installing it directly from Daz Studio as it was in my available tab. In this instance the files installed into the following directory:
D:\Daz 3D\Applications\Data\DAZ 3D\My DAZ 3D Library\data\cloud\1_76918\people\genesis 8 male\anatomy\aprilysh
Obviously I have a mismatch between Daz Central and Daz Studio. But I am not sure where..
1c. Also, since the product installed with categorizations I have previously given it which had not been done on this computer I have to assume it pulled that in from elsewhere and the dirrectory "cloud" indicates to me that it's somehow associated with my Daz account. THis might give me some hope that eventually I might be able to get my contents back with the categorizations I actually want, but that is probably too much to ask for.
2: Trying to figure out where my mismatch is between Daz Central and Daz Studio: Here are the settings:
Daz Central
Base Path Location : D:/Daz 3d
Daz Studio Install Location: C:/Daz 3d/Applications/64-bit/DAZ 3D/DAZStudio4
Daz Studio Install Location: D:/Daz 3D/Applications
Unreal Engine Install Location: D:/Daz 3D/Applications
Daz Studio Content Directory Manager:
Daz Connect Data: D:/Daz 3D/Applications/Data/DAZ 3D/My DAZ 3D Library
3: So I guess the questions becomes:
3A: Is there some way I can properly get Daz Connect and Daz Studio looking at the same place for data again?
3B: Barring that is there some way I can completely unistall the applications to start wtih a clean slate?
3C: If my categorization data is actually being stored in the cloud with my account, How can I find/access it directly?
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Comments
Anywhere I typed "Dax" instead of "Daz" is just a typo in the above.
Daz Central/Daz Install manager install to a common folder, Daz Connect installs each product to its own sub-folder of /data/cloud/ in the daz Connect data directory - the differnt locations is therefore expected.
Categorisation iss tored in the local database, by default in %AppData%/daz 3d/cmd/contentcluster/. Unless you transferred the AppData folder to your new machine you should not be getting customised categories.
You need to make sure that D:\Daz 3D\Applications\Data\DAZ 3D\My DAZ 3D Library\ is listed as a Daz Studio Format (and probably a Poser Format) content directory in Content Directory Manager, then you shoudl be able toa ccess the Daz Central installs.
I have somehow managed to get the whole thing screwed up.
Daz Central won't even load and start properly now.
So for reasons I do not understand,... when I came back the next day and tried to start it up --- for no apparent reason it seems to be working.
I wish to hell I knew what I had done. For now though things seem to be installing where I want them. I just have another few moths of re-categorization work to do now :-(.
I would not use DC at all. I did not have a good experience so far. It will scatter files all over the place. In the Studio Content Pane, I had four (!) different DAZ libraries. I have no idea when DC "decides" to move items to a special place. I have dropped everything, and sticking to DIM since then - with no issues. I am using an iMac, so things might be different on Windows. I, personally, cannot recommend DC. DC seems to be very "beta" at the moment, at least when it comes to macOS.
The problem is that the simplified "training wheels" DAZ Central system uses only one download/installation location for everything, and if you don't want to use the default, this must be set before it starts trying to download. If your existing content setup includes multiple content library locations, Central is supposed to pick up on that. When it doesn't, that's when the "DAZ deleted my content!!!" posts start. I wouldn't recommend anyone already using DIM and happy with it to attempt installing Central — that's not what it's for.
Argh.... someone should have thought that out better.
I did a plain install of DC, with no change at all. Still, content gets spilled all over the place. Never had such an issue with DIM.
You should find a DIM download in your product library. Just search for "Install Manager". As DC is now the way DAZ wants new users to handle things, it is not directly available.