How big should gw.dat be now? - Guild Wars Guru archive powered by Guild Wars Legacy

Carth`

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

01 Nov 2006 at 02:42 - 1

OK, a while back my gw.dat hit 7GB, and I posted about it, and Gaile made this reply:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

I was asked about this earlier, and here's the official response from Mike O'Brien: The full Gw.dat file size is currently about 2.7 GB. Anyone whose Gw.dat file is larger than that is suffering from an old bug where space wasn't being reused efficiently. That bug was fixed in March. People with larger Gw.dat files should see them stay the same or slowly shrink over time.

Now, more info for you: If you want to, you are welcome to delete and pull a completely new .dat file. But keep in mind that if you do this, you will be downloading a lot of files, and that each time you join a mission you'll need to fetch a new map. So doing this is up to you. Reacquiring the GW.dat file will reduce the size of the file right away and by a considerable amount, if that is a goal that you feel is important. It will, however, take a bit of time and trouble on your part, and you may choose to stick with what you have, knowing it will adjust for size over time.

Oh, well thanks for the info. My gw.dat didn't slowly shrink over time, so yesterday I decided to "pull a completely new .dat file". I deleted the old one, and ran GW with -image. This morning it had a "disk full" message. Wtf? I knew I was a little low on space, but I thought deleting the old one and pulling a new one would need less space.

So I looked at my gw.dat file, and it is 11GB! Is this the correct size?

xerverkillah

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

foo.bar

Ladies Rhythm and Movement Club [MOVE]

R/

01 Nov 2006 at 04:39 - 2

i did a repair & -image like 2 days ago. mines 3.5gb atm

Carth`

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

01 Nov 2006 at 10:20 - 3

Great, so what should I do? I don't want an 11GB gw.dat, it gives me horrible lag and pauses for a few seconds at a time while my hard drive thrashes.

I tried waiting for it to fix itself, didn't work. I tried redownloading it, that made it even bigger.

Doing things like clicking on a Merchant causes Guild Wars to freeze for 5+ seconds while it searches through the massive file. In PvP I get the same pauses at the start of a new game when the enemy players come into view (I presume while it loads their details). I got slight pauses like this before, but after redownloading gw.dat, I get it a whole lot worse.

xerverkillah

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

foo.bar

Ladies Rhythm and Movement Club [MOVE]

R/

01 Nov 2006 at 11:28 - 4

mine used to be like 11gb too.

this is what i did when my dat file was huge. (im assuming you have nightfall).

1-put in ur guildwars cd and copy everything onto your pc eg. C:\GW_Install\

2-move & replace your big gw.dat file into C:\GW_Install\DATA\GW\

3-open the CDROM.ini file and remove the line that says Bytes=(some number)

4-Go start > run > regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ArenaNet\GuildWars\

you should have a key in there that says "CD" and value of D:\ or whatever ur cd drive letter is.

change it to C:\GW_Install\

5-now run GuildWars.exe with the -repair switch

it will reinstall ur GW.dat file and hopefully fix the problem. it did for me.

Veneficus

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

UK

01 Nov 2006 at 11:54 - 5

Did a fresh install last night via original CD's on 2 Seperate Computers, downloaded all updates via -image

Both .dats are sat at 5.61gb.

Im not bothered, i run dual 400gb's so space isnt an issue.. But why so much variety in the sizes?

xerverkillah

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

foo.bar

Ladies Rhythm and Movement Club [MOVE]

R/

01 Nov 2006 at 13:59 - 6

odd. I did a -image just now. mine still sitting at 3.5gb

Veneficus

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

UK

01 Nov 2006 at 14:19 - 7

Well i only seem to notice lag when opening my Inventory.

Maybe its because i installed from the cd's and -imaged the rest, il try doing a full download of the .dat sometime when i can allocate a 4gb download haha.

Moiax

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

Pink Animal Clan

E/

01 Nov 2006 at 14:45 - 8

My GW.dat was getting clode to 4gb and, having remembered what they had said about the intended size, I decided to re-install it. It's now 6.5 with the -image.

Omega X

Ninja Unveiler

Join Date: Jun 2005

Louisiana, USA

Boston Guild[BG]

W/Me

01 Nov 2006 at 22:41 - 9

Mine is currently 3.09GBs. Though there are more than one account played on this machine.

The official size increased since the Nightfall release/halloween event.

Stemnin

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2005

Mo/Me

01 Nov 2006 at 23:24 - 10

3.57 GB here, it's always been normal size, a year playing this.

Brood

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

Canada

W/

02 Nov 2006 at 00:31 - 11

i did -image after nighfall release and my .dat is 3.08 gb with all 3 games on my account

Farin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

Delta Formation [DF]

W/

02 Nov 2006 at 04:17 - 12

3.14gb

Xenrath

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2005

W/Me

02 Nov 2006 at 11:38 - 13

If you have the time and patience (and fast connection) - you can do this:

- Rename your GW.DAT to GW.OLD or something
- Change your GW shortcut (right click on it, Properties) and in the "target" bit at the end add " -image" without quotes.

Fire it up then wait for it to download the whole game, could take a while if there's heavy server load too (variable download speeds)
After it has done all that don't forget to remove the -image from your GW shortcut.

My one is currently 3.30Gb, though I ran the Nightfall DVD (no -image)

EatMoreCarbs

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

NJ, USA

Dragons Will Eat Your [Face]

R/Mo

02 Nov 2006 at 11:46 - 14

3.01GB. Havent ran an -image in a while though. Ill run an -image while im at school today and see what it is after.

jjdefan

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2006

Virginia Beach

XoO

R/

02 Nov 2006 at 11:54 - 15

I use -image anytime there is an update. My dat file is currently 3.06

Shady Rome

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Oct 2006

02 Nov 2006 at 18:27 - 16

3.81gb total

still got 150gb left

Carth`

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

02 Nov 2006 at 22:41 - 17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenrath

If you have the time and patience (and fast connection) - you can do this:

- Rename your GW.DAT to GW.OLD or something
- Change your GW shortcut (right click on it, Properties) and in the "target" bit at the end add " -image" without quotes.

Fire it up then wait for it to download the whole game, could take a while if there's heavy server load too (variable download speeds)

That is what I did, except I didn't rename the old one, I deleted it. It made my gw.dat get bigger. I don't want to do it again because I have already downloaded more in the first day of this month than I would normally download in 14 days.

Wrath O war

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2006

Canada

BRAT

R/

02 Nov 2006 at 23:07 - 18

mine with all 3 campaigns currently sits at 2.72 gb..none have which were d/l'd from disc..all done from site

Ghozer

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2005

Sheffield, England, UK

Super Cute And Fluffy [scF]

E/

03 Nov 2006 at 14:05 - 19

I recently deleted mine, and did a -image and its now sat at 3.78 gb

Fender

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

Ohio

XoO

03 Nov 2006 at 14:28 - 20

3.24 GB here. That's an install from CD for all 3 campaings and running -image every major update.

King Kong

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2006

W/R

03 Nov 2006 at 15:05 - 21

Installed mine the -image way since last format, and mines 2.71gb

Thats with all 3 games...

Lethorn Maeran

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2006

Australia

Myth and Legends [Myth]

R/

03 Nov 2006 at 15:17 - 22

This si to do with the .dat file but not the size. For some reason, my computer thinks my gw.dat file is a Nero Media file. Is this normal?

Honor

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

Exit 9 NJ Trnpk

The Roaming Gnomes[roam]

N/Me

03 Nov 2006 at 15:26 - 23

did a fresh install on a new comp yesterday for all three campaigns and still adn had 3.12g. there is a defrag instructions for the dat file in the Tech section somewhere as well. That may help. I tried it and it took me from 4.5 to 3.2 on my old comp. Some people have had more remarkable results in cleaning up their dat files with it though.

Cottage Pie

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2005

Birmingham, England

Taking Aegis

Mo/Me

03 Nov 2006 at 16:18 - 24

8.4 gigs here, wdf.

ibex333

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jun 2005

Brooklyn, NY

[EYE]

Rt/A

03 Nov 2006 at 20:01 - 25

2.88 Gb here... Been playing GW since Prophecies came out. Never formated anything, never changed anything.

Tachyon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Stoke, England

The Godless [GOD]

W/

03 Nov 2006 at 21:25 - 26

2.83GB here, all 3 Campaigns linked.

Mace Gridlock

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2006

Empire Of Corrupted Souls

03 Nov 2006 at 22:57 - 27

2.76 gb here 2 accounts with all three chapters. Only ever installed from the original cd once over a year ago.

Omega X

Ninja Unveiler

Join Date: Jun 2005

Louisiana, USA

Boston Guild[BG]

W/Me

03 Nov 2006 at 23:07 - 28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lethorn Maeran

This si to do with the .dat file but not the size. For some reason, my computer thinks my gw.dat file is a Nero Media file. Is this normal?

Yeah. Its normal.

That means NERO took over the file association .dat.

jimmy_logic

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2005

R/

03 Nov 2006 at 23:10 - 29

2.98gb Formatted but made a copy of the dat before I did. So this one is from when I first bought the game in 2005. Has all 3 Campaigns. The defrag tool is called contig.

Lethorn Maeran

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2006

Australia

Myth and Legends [Myth]

R/

04 Nov 2006 at 23:36 - 30

phew.....Thanks Omega X..