Updating GW via -image switch creates a larger then normal gw.dat file

If you do a new install of GuildWars and use the -image switch to update / download all the content. It creates a huge gw.dat file > 3gb.

How to replicate:
(New install of GuildWars)

• Grab the web installer from Gw web site
• Run the install, after it gets off the download screen with the Anet logo and it starts to download files for the gw.dat
• Stop the installation
• Delete the very incomplete gw.dat file
• Add the -image switch to the gw.exe
• Wait till it gets to 100% (could be hours)

The end result for some people are turning out to be a huge gw.dat. I did it this past weekend (2-11-07) and it downloaded 9K+ files for a gw.dat size of about 5.9gb.

Post with Gaile mention notifying the QA team - http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...light=gw .dat

(Work Around) Instruction on how to "shrink" the gw.dat to it's correct size but still have 100% of the files found here - http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...0096912&page=2
(ObiWan07 Post)

This qualifies as a Technical Problem and not as an actual Game Bug. I apologize for not having forum rules and documentation up sooner - things have been a little hectic this morning.

Moving thread to appropriate forum.

Cool, thanks for the update and letting me know.

Tried it and only got a 3.4gb file... so not sure whats gone wrong for you

Mine is 4.3 with the -image command done

Oh, mines 4gb now, hmm

I have done a fresh install and mine imaged is actually 2.9 gb on 2 machines I run on. So there seems to be more to this then meets the eye. Curious, wounder what causes the size gradients we have seen.

After applying the fix of taking the large gw.dat and altering the copy of the install cd copied to the hard drive. It restored the gw.dat file to what looks to be the correct size of:

2.87 GB (3,091,532,800 bytes)

Running image does not add any more files as well.

The GW.DAT will become larger than necessary if the decompression process after -image (or other updates) is interfered with/or flawed in some way.
================================================== ==
I don't know how old your Guild Wars install is but:

-You may want to defrag it..

-You may want to "refreshen it" <see below>

This will also "trim" down bloated DAT's

To get a clean Gw.dat do this:
(Make sure you have enough disk space)

1.) Run gw.exe -image to get all files. (If your installation of Guild wars is already up to date, skip this step)


2.) Then copy these folders and files (as indicated) from the GuildWars CD into a NEW folder ("GWINSTALL") on your hard drive:

Setup.exe
\Data
\Data\cdrom.ini
\Data\config.ini
\Data\Gw
\Data\Gw\GwSetup.exe

3.) After the files and folders are copied modify \Data\cdrom.ini to this:

[CDROM]
Program=Guild Wars
Chapter=
Disc=1

4.) Move your Gw.dat file to the "GWINSTALL" \Data\Gw folder

5.) Uninstall Guild Wars from Windows Control Panel

6.) Reinstall Guild Wars from the copied files on your hard drive by running setup.exe

Ever got the idea it's that big because it decompresses everything as well on the way?

It's based on download speed. There has to be some errors in the way the game saves the .dat file or something.