Memory/ Chief Data/ hard drive issue

[BigKahuna]

I have a 120 GB SSD as my main C drive and it has filled up with programs and so forth. I have cleared it of all my personbal files and stuff I know I can move to the larger Hard drive.

 

My question regards the Chief Programs.  I have Chief X6, 7 & 8...  I don't understand all the technical aspects of whats needed to be kept.

 

Since I am using Chief 8. Is there any reason to keep 6 & 7 on the computer to open older files that seem to lose some stuff if I open in X8? At the very least can I delete or simply move the Chief Data files of the old programs for X6 & X7 ? Or does that make them not work by moving files it needs to access? The data files alone are about 16GB for X6/ X7

 

I don't think I can just move the old programs or even all 3 chiefs to the larger hard drive without deleting and reloading / installing ?

 

Thanks for any input

 

 

[jbaehmer]

Personally, I feel the only reason to keep older versions of CA on a computer is if you have to switch plans between other users and they only have the older versions as newer CA files are not backwards compatible.  I just keep the latest version and delete the older ones.  a few others may have different theories as to why they keep it so hear them out and decide for yourself.

 

If anything I would get a separate SSD and keep all your chief plan and layout files there and not on your C drive.  Leave the C drive for programs only as much as possible.  My 2 cents.

[lbuttery]

you don't need X6 or X7 if you only need to work with the latest versions of plans

 

X8 can open older plans and then save them as X8 plans

 

once they are brought forward they cannot go back

 

unfortunately, Chief is not drive friendly so I have "learned" to let everything go

where Chief wants it to go for installation

 

my project files (.plan, .layout) and anything related to a project

can be stored on any drive

 

Lew

[DavidJPotter]

I keep my plan files on a separate hard drive. mainly what I have on my C is all my programs, including Chief and Home Designer. Part of my business is helping others who use older versions of Chief and Home Designer (that makes for a lot of applications!), otherwise, if all I did was strictly for myself only, I would only have the latest Chief Premier version and nothing else.

 

DJP

[DRAWZILLA]

I always keep the "data" files for each version when deleting an older version ,b/c your lib. just might be using an older version for some of your user lib. items. I noticed this when I recently got a new computer.

Also some people here teach Chief and need to keep older versions for that.

[BigKahuna]

Ok  Back to same issue  I have removed old versions X6,X7  and their data files etc I have removed everything I can think of off of the C drive.  I'm only using  X8. I saved data files etc to the D drive, Emptied trash, reduced / managed archive files to only 1 or 2.. the one labeled auto back up and one other. Eliminating all that had freed up 10-12GB or more and  all I have done is downloaded some additional library content and done about 1-2 models. I haven't been using this laptop for anything else. It seems in no time flat I'm out of memory. Am I missing something?  I have the plans on the much larger D drive. What is taking so much memory for the C drive ? Is their something I'm not aware of? 

 

I am thinking it best to download a version of X8 onto the larger drive and run it from there . I assume there is no issue with putting a version on the D drive get it running and then deleting the version on the C drive ???  I'm feeling kinda dumb on this.  Any suggestions appreciated

[BrownTiger]

I would replace 120G ssd with at least 500Gb. Some of these could be found @ 100$.

(or even choose 1T)

 

Also with SSD drives are not measured in increments of 1024 but 1000. 500Gb = 465Gb formatted.

[BigKahuna]

Thanks, I was researching that last night. When I bought the laptop I never thought it would be an issue not realizing how much space programs take up.  I found Temporary files had about 16GB in it that I could clean up but even after that it seems to eat up space quickly when running ray trace. Doing some research  I found I can clone the hard drive on a new larger SSD as you noted and hopefully not have to reload all the programs and settings etc. 

[DRAWZILLA]

Try a free program and file cleaner called "Ccleaner" to clean up files not needed. search the internet , you'll see it.

 

 

[lbuttery]

Nelson:

 

as for running Chief from another drive besides C: I would check with tech support

as in the past they would blame any/all issues on this

 

I started with ver 9.5 and with ver X1 I learned it's not nice to argue with "Mother CA"

 

since then I have always installed Chief to C: and all its other default locations

 

Lew

[BigKahuna]

Thanks Lew,  I did look on the tech support page / forum and they noted that even if you ran it off the other hard drive the Chief data folder will still need to run on the C drive. This is where most of the data is and takes the memory anyway.  So I have ordered a new Samsung 500GB SSD and will clone the drive.  Hope that should hold me over for a while and hopefully speed things up as well.

 

Thanks for all the replies and advice guys.