Curse

Cyavhn_Grayx · May 17, 2005, 12:45 AM // 00:45

at times i get large white cubes moving about where characters should be...and on exiting and restarting i get a repairing data archives message, which seems to solve the prob...can anyone explain what is going on...?

Pharalon · May 17, 2005, 12:50 AM // 00:50

The white boxes mean the game can't find the required resources required for the model- either texters/meshes/shaders. THe white box is just a placeholder. Repairing Data Archive occurs when your gw.dat get corrupted, either by errors when you streamed data or hard drive corruption.

If you're having this happen quite often, I'd be tempted to scan your hard drive for errors, becuase it might be a sign that it's on the way out.

Cyavhn_Grayx · May 17, 2005, 01:03 AM // 01:03

well i scan for errors pretty regularly (about once a week, and defrag)...i have 2 WD 80GB drive...the main drive is less than a year old and the second is 5 months...no other probs with any of my other games, mostly FPSs`...and they are serious resource requirement types...so i can`t really think that my HD is failing...but lol, if it is, then it`ll be an excuse to go sata...

nechronius · May 17, 2005, 01:05 AM // 01:05

I had a brand new 200GB PATA drive from Maxtor go bad on me after a month of very light use. Old data on teh drive was safe, but any new data written to the drive was corrupt.

I'd maybe uninstall/reinstall teh game. All the data is on a.net's server's so you have nothing to lose.

Kayla Lightstorm · Jun 14, 2005, 03:50 AM // 03:50

I get Repairing Data Archive quite often also. It's like a long load time (5 mins) to start the game, and my hard drive is less than a month old!

Ignotus · Jun 26, 2005, 01:36 AM // 01:36

I came here to request info on this too. I would like to see something from Gaile or someone else from Anet telling what exactly it means. I haven't searched their site yet, so it may be there. Anyway, I got the "repairing data archive" just now when I tried to load the game. I didn't have any trouble when I last played and I have no other indications of drive problems. Are any of you using the beta client as opposed to the retail install? That's what I'm using. Perhaps we have that in common.

EDIT: I got 3 results at the support site for "repairing data archive". None of them actually deal with "repairing data archive".

Moltov joss · Jun 26, 2005, 06:36 AM // 06:36

I just experienced this problem tonight too. White blocks and everything. No other program or game for me has had technical difficulties such as this. Ive experienced "Repairing data archive" 3 times thus far.

(retail version btw)

Zakarr · Jul 08, 2005, 07:31 AM // 07:31

Sometimes I'm experiencing "repairing data archive" at startup and white boxes in game. Those happened like 3-4 times in couple days once I got the game. Now it happens like once a week. Don't really know what is the problem. Maybe it's data management bug in game code or something. Other more stressing games don't crash or get corrupted files so I think my hardware is working properly.

MaglorD · Jul 08, 2005, 08:54 AM // 08:54

Haven't had to do this since the day I got the game in Apr, so probably something unique to your setups.

Algren Cole · Jul 08, 2005, 02:11 PM // 14:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyavhn_Grayx

well i scan for errors pretty regularly (about once a week, and defrag)...i have 2 WD 80GB drive...the main drive is less than a year old and the second is 5 months...no other probs with any of my other games, mostly FPSs`...and they are serious resource requirement types...so i can`t really think that my HD is failing...but lol, if it is, then it`ll be an excuse to go sata...

If you're defragging once a week or even twice a month you're slowly killing your hard drive. Defragging a Hard Drive is BRUTAL on it. You should only defrag AT MOST once a month

Inskipp · Oct 06, 2005, 10:10 PM // 22:10

I just got this message for the first time ever, and I've been playing since the first beta. I have over 500 hours on already, yet this is the first time I saw this message. I didn't have anything unusual happen, like a crash or power failure either. I quit playing about an hour ago, then as soon as I clicked my shortcut I got the message "Repairing Data Archive". It took a few minutes, during which I didn't notice any newtork activity (I use bandwidth monitor pro to watch), then the game started normally.

I don't agree with the above statements about defragging. I run a defrag at least once a week, using O&O defrag. I have multiple smaller partitions, so each drive doesn't take long at all, and as long as you don't move tons of data around, its not too brutal on the drive. Its not like it has to defrag the same data over again once its done. It definately helps to have the OS on its own partition, and your apps, games, data, and other stuff on other partitions.

So, does anyone know what actually causes the problem?

EternalTempest · Oct 06, 2005, 10:33 PM // 22:33

From what I've read in these forums that I think solved the problem with one of the users is to remove guildwars (lose the gw.dat) and re-install the game.

Corruption of data could also be caused by a bad memory (ram) sector too.
For testing memory: http://www.memtest.org/

Also may want to consider updating your mother board chipset drivers (they updated, usb, agp, and usually ide controller). It's *rare* for this to happened but bugs in motherboard / or chipset drivers could lead to corruption of data.

Also something I've notice, with Nvidia drivers, they will have a great driver but following release have "issues". The latest "great" driver I've found for my FX5700 Ultra is the 77.77 driver. Newer cards may want to consider the 78.xx driver.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kayla Lightstorm

I get Repairing Data Archive quite often also. It's like a long load time (5 mins) to start the game, and my hard drive is less than a month old!

Run diagnostics on your hard drive now. I've found that new computer equipment fail within a month if there faulty, if it lasts, tend to last there expected life span w/o issues (unless you get issues like unclean 'power' or heat).

st3ady · Nov 18, 2005, 09:23 AM // 09:23

thanks for this thread i am dealing with the same issue

pkodyssey · Nov 18, 2005, 12:54 PM // 12:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Algren Cole

If you're defragging once a week or even twice a month you're slowly killing your hard drive. Defragging a Hard Drive is BRUTAL on it. You should only defrag AT MOST once a month

WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING????!!!

PROVE THIS TO BE TRUE

Oh! you can't, your "banned"

EternalTempest · Nov 18, 2005, 02:17 PM // 14:17

I've heard off and on about not to defrag too much. Not sure if it's true.
Defrag is fairly disk intensive process so I can see more ware and tear on the platter.

Here's what I do, I defrag 1 a month in general.
Things that will trigger me to defrag more often

If I install a new game (large game) Fear comes to mind
An online game has a bunch of changes (used to be FFXI, and GW - Sorrow's Furnace after I visited for the 1st time)
You do a lot of un-installing / installing of large software packages.
For all things file sharing (BitTorrent - Linux Distros). I have on a separate hard drive but if you download to your drive that windows is installed you should do it much more often.

cannonfodder · Nov 19, 2005, 08:11 AM // 08:11

There is very little truth in saying if you defrag too much it will kill your Hard drive.

I run a raid setup, and those who use raid know that it quite quickly fragments, so I use Diskeeper and set it to run every weekend. and it keeps my disks in tip top condition. However If you are not using raid then defragging every week is too much, your disk would not get very fragmented in 7 days, so in that case once a month is fine. What I said seems to contradict, but there are differences between raid and normal.

EDIT- My problem with the "repairing data archive", was bad ram and a duff windows install, so I got new ram and reformatted, never had a problem since.