Re-installing Server

[sleonard]

I have a Sage server w/ 3 PVR250's and a USB-UIRT controlling 3 cable STB's. It has a 20GB C:\ for OS, Sage, and programs plus a 450GB D:\ raid for storage.

I am formatting c:\ right now in preparation for reinstalling XP sp2 and SW. I have saved the entire c:\Program files\Frey folder from which I will need the wiz.bin, .properties, and zoned IR file.

After reinstalling everything I'm not sure I want to copy the .properties back over since I have used a few different .stv and changed some other things around. I'd rather start fresh w/ a new .properties but I'm not sure how this will work since I will have already restored the wiz.bin that references the d: drive but the brand new .properties will not have that info untill after I start Sage for the first time and go thru the setup process.

Should I edit the brand new .properties to reflect the proper video directories before starting Sage the first time?

[mls]

This may not be the best or proper way, but when I do a clean install here's what I've been doing... I make a copy of the whole Frey folder first (as you did).

When I install SageTV I run thru all the set up stuff EXCEPT for changing the Video and Import settings. I leave them set at the default folder on the C: drive and make all my other setup changes and then test things to make sure everything works correctly.
I don't run the SageTV service (so I don't end up with 2 properties files to confuse things).

After I'm sure everything is working right, then I close down SageTV completely. Then I copy back the old wiz.bin and wiz bak files.

Then I open up both the old properties file and the new fresh one that SageTV just created. I find these 2 lines in the old properties file:

seeker/archive_directory=
seeker/video_storage=

I delete those lines in the new properties file and copy/paste each of those lines with the ones from my backup properties file. This way I don't have to remember all the video folders and size settings I had used before and don't have to set them up at all in the Detailed Setup screen.

As long as you set everthing else up first (except the video folders) and then shut down SageTV completely, and then copy back the old wiz.bin files and get these 2 lines into the properties files correctly you should be all set.

Since I don't have a USB-UIRT I'm not sure exactly at what point you would need to copy back your zoned IR file. I imagine you would do that before even starting SageTV the first time so it would be there when you are making the other initial setup changes.

Hope this works for you, but be carefull.

[Opus4]

You _should_ be OK with a fresh properties files, since wiz.bin contains the location of each recording. As long as the recordings are still in their original directories, you should be fine. I've also gone in and manually added the original video directories to a new properties file by copying that line from the old one. I think you should be fine either way, but manually adding that property before starting SageTV can't hurt -- I usually do that anyway, since there are other things I always copy to a new prop file, such as custom recording quality settings & so on. I'm going to get very decisive here & say that I think you should do it one way or the other.

- Andy

[mls]

The reason I don't copy back the wiz.bin or change the video folder settings right way is just so I can make sure I get everything else set up (tuners, decoders, etc.) and test everything first without messing with my good copy of wiz.bin or any files in my real video folders.

Then when I do move my backup wiz.bin in, the reason I copy and past those lines for the properties is just to make sure I don't do something dumb when changing the video folder settings... like accidently setting it to use only 15G when it should have been 150G. If I were to screw up like that, it would start deleting the other 100G of my video files. Or, might have them show up as Imported (not likely though, 'cause I've had it delete files before when I messed up that part of things). And who knows what it might do with the wiz.bin under that situation.

Anyway, as long as you are REALLY careful either way will work.

[sleonard]

OK, I installed Sage, went through setup except for video directories, exited Sage, restored original wiz.bin and wiz.bak, edited .properties by adding the video directories and restarted Sage. I can view live tv and imported videos but recordings give the following error

There was a Playback Error in playback. Details:
sage.PlaybackException:ERROR(-3,0x80004005):
There was a problem accessing the filesystem for
playback.

Sage immediately goes to work on wiz.bin and .bak changing the filesizes by quite a lot. Lots of disk thrashing. It does not delete any recordings though

Exited Sage, re-restored wiz.bin and .bak, deleted .properties for fresh start, got the same error

Uninstalled Sage, deleted Frey folder, rebooted, reinstalled Sage, went through setup leaving video folders default. Exited Sage, re-re-restored wiz.bin and .bak, left .properties alone. Started Sage, added video directories to the default ones and get the exact same problem

Help!

[sleonard]

Tried renaming the new Frey folder and restoring the entire backed up Frey folder. Still get the same issue. Also, all of the recordings are there and I can access them w/ WMP locallay and from network. I was very careful when installing Hauppage drivers and decoder. very little else has been installed. Except Java. 1.4.2_06 was installed yesterday when it was released. Could this be the issue?

[mls]

Did you test things with the new SageTV install without changing the default video folders. By that I mean test with the default setup first without having moved your wiz.bin files back.

If it works from a fresh install with the defaults, then I don't know why it wouldn't work later after you put back your wiz.bin and change the video folder settings to match your old configuration.

If it doesn't work from a clean install with its own defaults, then you have another problem somewhere.

As for the new JAVA, I answered in your other thread.

[sleonard]

Well, the only thing that doesn't work is playback of shows recorded before all this so, without restoring the wiz files there is no way to test this.

[mls]

Only other thing I can think of at this point is that you mention doing a reformat and fresh install of everything. If the computer name this time around is not exactly the same as it was previousely you could have a problem.

Check the info in the 4th question of post #25 in the FAQ thread about using the "make_all_mediafiles_local=true" property and see if that applies to your situation.

[sleonard]

If the computer name this time around is not exactly the same as it was previousely you could have a problem.

That was it. I didn't notice that I typo'd the computer name. Corrected that and all is well so far.

Thanks, that really helped.