Migration to New PC Woes

[jimerb]

I am a LONNNG time user of newsbin and it is one of the most amazing pieces of software to be found.

There's 1 things that has been bugging me for years and that is the complexity of backups and restores.

I purchased a new windows 10 machine and I'm migrating to 6.60 on the new machine. The process seems to be different than the last time I did this.

I copied over these files to my new data directory and fired it up only for it to tell me that no configuration is found:
AutoRAR.db3
Downloaded.db3
Downloads.db3
Filters.DB3
GROUPS.DB3
SIGNATURE.db3
Newsbin.nbi


It offers to "restore" from a backup and when I chose one to "restore" it asks me where I want to save it. Makes no sense since it's supposed to be a restore and not a backup. There's an option to "load backup configuration on restart" but when i do that it starts to ask me to save stuff again.

I need help straightening this out.

What do I need to move where and how can I get the data folder moved off of my SSD drive?

Thanks for the assistance and the awesome program.

[jimerb]

one other note: when i launch newsbin by double clicking on my nbi file it works fine. But the next time I click on just the icon it starts telling me there is no configuration again.

I'm trying to follow this:
http://wiki.newsbin.com/index.php/V550-Advanced#Copying_Newsbin_to_another_computer

[dexter]

Launching by double-clicking on the .nbi file is the way to go. You need to first edit the .nbi file with a text editor and make sure all the paths listed in the configuration file are still valid paths. For example if a drive letter changed or some paths you were using don't exist on your new machine.

To move the Newsbin Data folder, change the "DataPath" variable in the .nbi file to point to your new data folder location. Then move all your files from the old data folder location into that new folder. Then double-click on the .nbi file to launch Newsbin using that configuration.

If you download headers you'll want the spool_v6 folder as well.

Remember that editing the .nbi file has to be done while Newsbin is closed.

[Quade]

Install and run 6.61. It'll remember the NBI then.

[jimerb]

This was very helpful. The missing 6.61RC1 candidate I think is what was giving me the grief. It was nice to know I was supposed to be double clilcking on the NBI file but I couldn't get the settings to stick.


I still have SpoolPath=C:\Program Files\nbpro\ pointing to my SSD. Is that going to eat up a lot of space? Should I move that too?

Thanks for the guidance here.

[Quade]

I still have SpoolPath=C:\Program Files\nbpro\ pointing to my SSD. Is that going to eat up a lot of space? Should I move that too?

Nothing should ever write to "Program Files" or "Program Files (X86)". They're not supposed to be writable by your regular user to prevent viruses from spreading. I'd suggest making the data folder something off "My Documents" or make a new folder off the C:\ or some other drive and let Newsbin write data to that folder.

You don't actually have to set "Spoolpath" anymore. It's an optional setting to re-direct the download chunks. I just run it going to the default folder under the data folder.

[jimerb]

I've got the data folder now on a data drive.

Good to know about the spool path. I think I'm golden now.

Thanks Quade, your support is always timely and right on point.

[Chuck D. Bones]

I too am a long-time NewsBin user, currently running v6.60. MY spool folder is presently located on a spinning HD, would like to relocate it to SSD for faster local searches. How much re-writing of the spool files does NewsBin do? I don't want to wear out my SSD with excessive re-writes. I have plenty of free space on my SSD.
Thanks,

[Quade]

It's mostly write once. It's a database so, it gets read a bunch and only really written to when you download most headers. I have my headers on an SSD, after reading about how much endurance mosts SSD's have, I've stopped worrying about burning them out.

[Chuck D. Bones]

That's great. Thanks for the quick response.

[Chuck D. Bones]

One more thing, I copied the spool folder over to the new location on my SSD. I changed the entry SpoolPath= in my .nbi file to point to the new spool folder location. Did all that with NewsBin not running. When I restarted Newsbin, it used the old spool_v6 folder. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,

[Chuck D. Bones]

I think I've answered my own question. V6.60 does not use the SpoolPath= entry, correct? V6.60 uses the DataPath= to point to the spool_v6 folder and a bunch of other stuff. I relocated all of "that other stuff" onto my SSD, changed the DataPath= entry and everything is good.

Thanks,

[Quade]

DataPath is pretty much the main path. You can set a spool path but that only redirects the chunks of partial files.