Hi, everyone.

I was just making a backup for the BBC climate prediction model. I began wondering about the boinc/climateprediction program. There are 67 files and folders. Each backup consumes 1.87GB of hard drive space. That’s on top of the 1.87GB being used by the model that is actually running.

Ever since I have been wondering if anyone out there understands if it is necessary to make a new copy of all of these folders and files each time. Do all of them change as the model progresses, or only some.

I assume that the loose files are the calculating machinery of the model, while the folders store the results of the calculations. If only a few of them change with time then it might be possible to burn the non-changing ones onto a DVD and only make copies of the parts of the program that change over time.

When I compared the folders from 2 backups (6.5% complete and 8.5%) I found that the “projects” and “slots” folders increased in size while the other 4 folders stayed the same. The “Projects” folder at 1.17% is enormous. If it was possible to identify which files changed as the model runs and which remain the same then it would be possible to make serial copies of only the files that change The unchanging files could be stored on a DVD freeing up hard drive space. If a restore is ever needed, the changing files could be plugged in to the DVD copy of the unchanging files and reinstalled. This would be possible to save a lot of hard drive space.

Ok, this is probably a ridiculous idea, but, it seems like it could work. If anyone out there knows why it couldn’t work please tell me.

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Believe it or not, compared to earlier versions, TCM is easy on disk space. Data are now uploaded rather than stored on your machine and \"obsolete\" files are purged during the Run.

It is necessary to back-up the ENTIRE boinc (or CCE) folder. If you are tight on HD space, zip a copy to re-writable CD.

[Edited for typo.]

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"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo
Greetings from coastal Washington state, the scenic US Pacific Northwest.

Note that if any work units crashed, they won\'t have cleaned up after themselves, and therefore will be taking up space.

Compare the name of the running work unit with the folder names in the climate prediction folder. You can get rid of the ones which aren\'t running.

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