Curse

Carth` · Nov 01, 2006, 02:42 AM // 02:42

OK, a while back my gw.dat hit 7GB, and I posted about it, and Gaile made this reply:

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. Anyone whose Gw.dat file is larger than that is suffering from an old bug where space wasn't being reused efficiently. That bug was fixed in March. People with larger Gw.dat files should see them stay the same or slowly shrink over time.

Now, more info for you: If you want to, you are welcome to delete and pull a completely new .dat file. But keep in mind that if you do this, you will be downloading a lot of files, and that each time you join a mission you'll need to fetch a new map. So doing this is up to you. Reacquiring the GW.dat file will reduce the size of the file right away and by a considerable amount, if that is a goal that you feel is important. It will, however, take a bit of time and trouble on your part, and you may choose to stick with what you have, knowing it will adjust for size over time.

Oh, well thanks for the info. My gw.dat didn't slowly shrink over time, so yesterday I decided to "pull a completely new .dat file". I deleted the old one, and ran GW with -image. This morning it had a "disk full" message. Wtf? I knew I was a little low on space, but I thought deleting the old one and pulling a new one would need less space.

So I looked at my gw.dat file, and it is 11GB! Is this the correct size?

xerverkillah · Nov 01, 2006, 04:39 AM // 04:39

i did a repair & -image like 2 days ago. mines 3.5gb atm

Carth` · Nov 01, 2006, 10:20 AM // 10:20

Great, so what should I do? I don't want an 11GB gw.dat, it gives me horrible lag and pauses for a few seconds at a time while my hard drive thrashes.

I tried waiting for it to fix itself, didn't work. I tried redownloading it, that made it even bigger.

Doing things like clicking on a Merchant causes Guild Wars to freeze for 5+ seconds while it searches through the massive file. In PvP I get the same pauses at the start of a new game when the enemy players come into view (I presume while it loads their details). I got slight pauses like this before, but after redownloading gw.dat, I get it a whole lot worse.

xerverkillah · Nov 01, 2006, 11:28 AM // 11:28

mine used to be like 11gb too.

this is what i did when my dat file was huge. (im assuming you have nightfall).

1-put in ur guildwars cd and copy everything onto your pc eg. C:\GW_Install\

2-move & replace your big gw.dat file into C:\GW_Install\DATA\GW\

3-open the CDROM.ini file and remove the line that says Bytes=(some number)

4-Go start > run > regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ArenaNet\GuildWars\

you should have a key in there that says "CD" and value of D:\ or whatever ur cd drive letter is.

change it to C:\GW_Install\

5-now run GuildWars.exe with the -repair switch

it will reinstall ur GW.dat file and hopefully fix the problem. it did for me.

Veneficus · Nov 01, 2006, 11:54 AM // 11:54

Did a fresh install last night via original CD's on 2 Seperate Computers, downloaded all updates via -image

Both .dats are sat at 5.61gb.

Im not bothered, i run dual 400gb's so space isnt an issue.. But why so much variety in the sizes?

xerverkillah · Nov 01, 2006, 01:59 PM // 13:59

odd. I did a -image just now. mine still sitting at 3.5gb

Veneficus · Nov 01, 2006, 02:19 PM // 14:19

Well i only seem to notice lag when opening my Inventory.

Maybe its because i installed from the cd's and -imaged the rest, il try doing a full download of the .dat sometime when i can allocate a 4gb download haha.

Moiax · Nov 01, 2006, 02:45 PM // 14:45

My GW.dat was getting clode to 4gb and, having remembered what they had said about the intended size, I decided to re-install it. It's now 6.5 with the -image.

Omega X · Nov 01, 2006, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Mine is currently 3.09GBs. Though there are more than one account played on this machine.

The official size increased since the Nightfall release/halloween event.

Stemnin · Nov 01, 2006, 11:24 PM // 23:24

3.57 GB here, it's always been normal size, a year playing this.

Brood · Nov 02, 2006, 12:31 AM // 00:31

i did -image after nighfall release and my .dat is 3.08 gb with all 3 games on my account

Farin · Nov 02, 2006, 04:17 AM // 04:17

3.14gb

Xenrath · Nov 02, 2006, 11:38 AM // 11:38

If you have the time and patience (and fast connection) - you can do this:

- Rename your GW.DAT to GW.OLD or something
- Change your GW shortcut (right click on it, Properties) and in the "target" bit at the end add " -image" without quotes.

Fire it up then wait for it to download the whole game, could take a while if there's heavy server load too (variable download speeds)
After it has done all that don't forget to remove the -image from your GW shortcut.

My one is currently 3.30Gb, though I ran the Nightfall DVD (no -image)

EatMoreCarbs · Nov 02, 2006, 11:46 AM // 11:46

3.01GB. Havent ran an -image in a while though. Ill run an -image while im at school today and see what it is after.

jjdefan · Nov 02, 2006, 11:54 AM // 11:54

I use -image anytime there is an update. My dat file is currently 3.06

Shady Rome · Nov 02, 2006, 06:27 PM // 18:27

3.81gb total

still got 150gb left

Carth` · Nov 02, 2006, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenrath

If you have the time and patience (and fast connection) - you can do this:

- Rename your GW.DAT to GW.OLD or something
- Change your GW shortcut (right click on it, Properties) and in the "target" bit at the end add " -image" without quotes.

Fire it up then wait for it to download the whole game, could take a while if there's heavy server load too (variable download speeds)

That is what I did, except I didn't rename the old one, I deleted it. It made my gw.dat get bigger. I don't want to do it again because I have already downloaded more in the first day of this month than I would normally download in 14 days.

Wrath O war · Nov 02, 2006, 11:07 PM // 23:07

mine with all 3 campaigns currently sits at 2.72 gb..none have which were d/l'd from disc..all done from site

Ghozer · Nov 03, 2006, 02:05 PM // 14:05

I recently deleted mine, and did a -image and its now sat at 3.78 gb

Fender · Nov 03, 2006, 02:28 PM // 14:28

3.24 GB here. That's an install from CD for all 3 campaings and running -image every major update.