Resuming work unit after installing new OS

[arkaxow]

Hello everyone,

Forgive me if this has been asked already, but I did search and don't think it has been answered before. Anyway. I had Windows 2000 crash and decided to install Windows XP in it's place since Windows 2000 has given me many crashes over the last 7 years and I'm hoping XP will be better. Anyway to get to my point. I backed up all my files and was wondering if it was possible to resume the same work unit I was using before ? Where would I look for the work unit ? For example, which directory and which file name ? How would I go about installing FAH and then putting in the unfinshed unit ?

Thanks !

[The_Celt]

arkaxow, you need to copy the three files "queue.dat", "unitinfo.txt" and "client.cfg" from the folder where your F@H client originally ran under. (It would also help to grab any other files that are in there, like the actual client, and core executables), plus the "work" folder. The last piece you may not be able to grab since you reinstalled the O/S. In the registry under HKLM\Software\PandeGroup\Folding@home there is a REG_BINARY ket named "UserID". This key must be copied to the new registry so the clients will continue to work on the current work units you have.
Good luck.

[codysluder]

It isn't necessary to copy the UserID key from the registry. Since the old one was probably destroyed, the Stanford Stats will report that you're running too many machines until the old ones fail to return any WUs for xx days, but otherwise there is no downside. (The sneakernet instructions are careful about this BECAUSE the old key was not destroyed. You can have a problem only if both keys reused.)

[The_Celt]

codysluder, thanks for the clarification, but from what I understand (from other posts) without the old user id, the current wu's would be discarded, and new ones downloaded. I just thought arkaxow would want to complete his old wu's. I have used the user id on a backup machine when the current machine was not able to properly process a particular wu. I only had one of those two machines running at a time.

[Tigerbiten]

Its preferable to copy the UserID but not vital.
Normally Stanford will cope with the change of UserID and you will get credited for the work.
Its when the servers have crashed when thing can get a little bit pear shaped.
It then you can send the work in and Stanford looses it, so you get no credit for it.

Luck ..........

[metal03326]

Welcome to the forum, arkaxow.
In my experience, new WU is downloaded if you haven't the same UsedID. There is something else you can do, though. The UserID is written in the log files, too. The only thing different from the UserID in the log file and in the registry is the order - the one in the registry is in reverse order. If you saved one of the log files, here is in details what to do:
1. Open the log file, and find UserID. Should be something like that:
[10:41:46] - User ID: 0123456789ABCDEF
2. Open Notepad and paste

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PandeGroup]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PandeGroup\Folding@home]
"UserID"=hex:EF,CD,AB,89,67,45,23,01

You must replace the UserID with yours, of course. As you can see, the UserID in the registry is written in reverse from the one in the log file.
3. Save the file as F@H.reg.
4. Run it.
That's it, you have your old UserID.

[bruce]

Welcome to the forum, arkaxow.
In my experience, new WU is downloaded if you haven't the same UsedID.

In my experience, the same WU will resume. Just yesterday I had to shut down a machine that was at 98%. I emailed the essential files to myself -- placed them in the proper place on another machine, and completed the last 2% for full credit.

Preserving the UserID is a good thing, but it's not essential except in the sneakernet cases described above.

Welcome to the foldingforum, arkaxow.