Curse

Rakeris · Jan 09, 2007, 01:33 AM // 01:33

Indeed, thanks! Worked great, now down to 2.7gigs. ^^

shibbypower1 · Jan 09, 2007, 02:51 PM // 14:51

Does i need to download updates again or it will be copied from old Gw.dat file?

Aqualung · Jan 09, 2007, 02:55 PM // 14:55

They'll be copied.

shibbypower1 · Jan 09, 2007, 03:01 PM // 15:01

Hmmm... when i runn GWSETUP.exe from my hdd it start to download updates. I tried 3 times and its same every time. Any suggestions?

/edit
Need to runn Setup.exe not GWSETUP.exe

Lex · Jan 14, 2007, 11:01 AM // 11:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Njaiguni Blaze

So, the conclusion is: there is no and never will be an official size.

Read Gaile's quote in my 1st post here:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

I was asked about this earlier, and here's the official response from Mike O'Brien: The full Gw.dat file size is currently about 2.7 GB.

Njaiguni Blaze: so there is something like "official size" of GW.dat as you see above.

Now I have the question for ObiWan07 and next ppl who redownloaded/reinstalled GW & used his advice to modify ini file. After you use "gw.exe -image" how big file was downloaded? It was already 2.7GB then? OR It got smaller just AFTER reinstallation?

Rakeris in this thread said that he used "gw.exe -image" and got 6GB file... So.. what is going on?

And how did you find this way to get smaller file, ObiWan07? I'm asking about explanation here because I dont know German language.

Aqualung · Jan 14, 2007, 04:53 PM // 16:53

I got a 9gb file after I download the entire game.

Copied the files, edited the ini and the game Reinstalled from the 9gb Gw.dat file to a 2.69gb gw.dat.

Rakeris · Jan 14, 2007, 05:10 PM // 17:10

The size seems to be based on how fast you download. Which doesn't make much since...

But what ObiWan's idea does is makes the game install from your gw.dat file. So it will make a new gw.dat file that will have everything from your old one. But it will be a lot smaller...me thinks the client has some compressing problems or something.

EternalTempest · Jan 14, 2007, 06:03 PM // 18:03

I've reloaded a pc very recently and re-installed GuildWars via web client. As soon as the main exe was loaded. Deleted the gw.dat file and did the image switch.

It downloaded about 5gb. I do know it should be under 3gb at size at the moment. I think that bug that Gaile reported fix about downloading factions.. twice via image switch is back.

ObiWan07 · Jan 15, 2007, 02:58 PM // 14:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rafal

And how did you find this way to get smaller file, ObiWan07? I'm asking about explanation here because I dont know German language.

I just tried everything possible, and I think there was one point during the installation process that was thought-provoking me.

PS:
For me the size problem only appears when GW tries to download and decompress at the same time.
So I think the decompress process tries to unzip an incomplete archive which ends in an CRC error, and instead of deleting the garbage right after, it is left in the file.

Gaile Gray · Jan 16, 2007, 06:51 AM // 06:51

I have sent a note to QA asking them to check into this, because it seems odd that you'd need to jump through hoops to get the DAT to a reasonable size. I mean, it's great to have the helpful advice, but I want to make sure that it's necessary to take those steps.

QA is great about checking out bugs and getting back to me real promptly, so I'll have some info for you soon, and thanks for the reports!

MegaMouse · Jan 16, 2007, 09:14 AM // 09:14

Must be a bug that I never caught. Both my gaming machine and my laptop have 2.61 gig dat files for Guild Wars. Truthfully I have never seen it get above 2.7 so I guess I got lucky.

Mega Mouse

fivoroth · Jan 16, 2007, 10:09 AM // 10:09

Mine is 8.5 GB

I really don't care how big it is.I've got about 150 GB of free disc space.

Angel Netherborn · Jan 17, 2007, 03:07 AM // 03:07

Well, the more space it takes, the more your GW data is fragmented, and possibly the more time it takes to lookup and load.

Mine's like 3.5 gigs or so atm. Maybe I'll give Obiwan's tip a shot.

Kuldebar Valiturus · Jan 17, 2007, 03:58 AM // 03:58

Obiwan's tip works very well!

I went from 3.9 gig to 2.63 gig DAT file. I wasn't concerned about disk space, I just feel that a file shouldn't be larger than it need to be for efficiency reasons.

Lex · Jan 17, 2007, 08:49 AM // 08:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by ObiWan07

I just tried everything possible, and I think there was one point during the installation process that was thought-provoking me.

I havent tried your tip *yet* but I think I'll give it a go *soon*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

I have sent a note to QA asking them to check into this, because it seems odd that you'd need to jump through hoops to get the DAT to a reasonable size. I mean, it's great to have the helpful advice, but I want to make sure that it's necessary to take those steps.

QA is great about checking out bugs and getting back to me real promptly, so I'll have some info for you soon, and thanks for the reports!

Thank you Gaile for your response. I'm looking forward to your next post about these weird file sizes.

Maybe there is really still some "trashed"/not needed data storaged in this file and maybe ANet could release some small "external tool/program" for cleaning this bad data out when game isnt running/connected to any server - that would be best method I think.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fivoroth

Mine is 8.5 GB

I really don't care how big it is.I've got about 150 GB of free disc space.

Well, I have much smaller HDD so..

Big and fragmented file means also a little slower data loading

mega_jamie · Jan 17, 2007, 11:50 AM // 11:50

3.71 gig here.

jiggerjay · Jan 17, 2007, 02:28 PM // 14:28

3.38gig here

but i have over a terabyte so i am not too worried !

Njaiguni Blaze · Jan 18, 2007, 09:33 AM // 09:33

And still I don't think there's an official size. I'm noy ignoring Gaile's comment, but everyone seems to have different sizes and it seems to make difference about what download speed you have.
It doesn't bother me though. Got enough room.

Kuldebar Valiturus · Jan 18, 2007, 10:50 AM // 10:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Njaiguni Blaze

And still I don't think there's an official size. I'm noy ignoring Gaile's comment, but everyone seems to have different sizes and it seems to make difference about what download speed you have.
It doesn't bother me though. Got enough room.

I think there probably is an "official" DAT file size based on the downloaded files, but the problem appears to be some sort of file compression/depression issue that throws a wrench into the process of predictability.

I'm not really certain what the extra gig in my DAT file contained, or if it had any impact on load times, etc.

EternalTempest · Jan 18, 2007, 02:20 PM // 14:20

When I did the trick on page 2 to "shrink" the data file on my laptop and pc, the gw.dat file goes to the exact same size on both, and it's always smaller.

I'm not at those machines and can't give you the exact size atm but it's about 2.7 gb.

It also comes to play that some people are reporting file size, and other people are reporting the size on disk. It depends on where your looking at the file as to which size is reporting (size/size on disk).