Archives of zip files
chriswongbiz
Posts: 206
I looked at my Zip Archives in my Imac, I found and traced that there are actually a lot of zip files in Users/Shared/DAZ 3D/InstallManager/Downloads.
Can I actually delete these .dsx and .zip files, as they are taking up a lot of space in my computer. Yet, it is under the file of InstallManager, it makes me hesitate, as i was thinking if Install Manager is their boss, they are related.
please tell me if I need these zip files, or are they just achieves that I can delete withot affecting the proper function of the Install Manager. that you.
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Comments
The downloaded files are stored there...after they are installed, they are no longer needed, but are good to have around incase you need to reinstall something and can't online to do so. Or there is a problem and you need to revert to a previous version, as long as you move the files out of that folder (good idea to at least archive the main program, associated plugins and content outside of that folder)...updates will overwrite the files in that folder.
Aren't the .dsx files the manifests that tell DIM what it's already downloaded and when? If so, don't delete them — they're all fairly small files, so it won't matter if you keep them around. But if you delete them, DIM will forget what you have installed and try to download the whole lot all over again.
Does your budget stretch to an external USB drive? That's what a lot of people use, it keeps their main drives from getting cluttered.
These dsx files are the customer manifests - and once the product is installed they really aren't needed and can go with the zips. When DIM installs a product the customer manifest is combined with the file manifest (the dsx file in the zip), updated to include the install location and date and then written to C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\ManifestFiles - these are used to determine what has been installed.
No, the .dsx files in the downloads folder can be deleted. The .dsx files in the ManifestFiles folder are the records of what's been installed.
Ah, OK, I got confused a bit. So many manifests... so many different places they're stuffed into...
That's why I started hanging (unofficial) names on them - the customer manifest (comes down with the zip), the file manifest (comes down in the zip), and the installation manifest (made from the first two by DIM and stuffed into Public Documents). It was the only way I could keep them staright.
Can I vote for those names to be adopted...as the official ones?
I think I'll 'borrow' them, if you don't mind...until they do.
Let me see if I understand this using a recent example. A file in my Downloads directory is IM00010407-01_ACuriousTeaDS.dsx (437b) and is unofficially called the "customer manifest".
The file IM00010407-01_ACuriousTeaDS.dsx (17.6kb) in "C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\ManifestFiles" is unofficially called the "installation manifest".
The file Manifest.dsx (17,4kb) from inside the IM00010407-01_ACuriousTeaDS.zip archive is unofficially called the "file manifest".
Question: I am migrating my DAZ Studio content (but not the program) to a new (larger) hard drive. I want to do a clean installation using Install Manager (with new settings).
I have all of the *.zip archives, but do not have some of the smaller *.dsx "customer manifests".
I would move the "installation manifests" to another directory, so that Install Manager does not see the content as being installed (for the new hard drive).
Would it be possible to download only the *.dsx "customer manifest" files (for the clean install). This would prevent Install Manager from downloading the archives again, but it would install the content on the new hard drive.
If not, I can manually unzip those archives and copy the "installation manifests" back into the original directory. ("C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\ManifestFiles")
As far as I know the .dsx file that goes alongside the zip is not absolutely required. You might, owever, want to "uninstall" the content (after moving it so no files were removed) so that the system had a chance to clear out the database - though I'm not certain this will work, I have the habit of installing content to a working directory first to check it, then uninstall and reinstall to the main directory, and sometimes the old database reference is left and has to be cleared out with the remove orphans command.
I noticed when I manually download .zip installers into my DIM downloads directory, the "customer manifest" .dsx files are automatically generated if DIM is running and the tabs are refreshed or the next time DIM is launched.