Vista Explorer Crash gw.dat

deadmonkey4u

deadmonkey4u

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So I want to move the GW.dat file. The game works fine and all; however, for some strange reason on vista every time I click on the gw.dat file windows explorer crashes. It also crashes if i try to right click the guild wars folder.

Any idea why? If need be I guess I can just re-dl it to the location I want it to be in.

Snograt

Snograt

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Join Date: Jan 2006

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32-bit or 64-bit Vista?

Maybe your gw.dat has exceeded the 32-bit maximum filesize...

deadmonkey4u

deadmonkey4u

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it's a 32-bit what exactly is the max filesize? I tried to google it and it kept coming up with stuff about ram.

im running 32-bit vista and NTFS file system

Snograt

Snograt

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It's ~4GB (2^32 -1 bytes). The average gw.dat is around 3.6GB, so if it gets "bloated" (a fairly common occurrence) it can exceed 4GB.

Feel free to step in, fellow techs, if this old man is getting confused between filesize limitation and addressable memory limitations ...again ><

deadmonkey4u

deadmonkey4u

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Snograt View Post
It's ~4GB (2^32 -1 bytes). The average gw.dat is around 3.6GB, so if it gets "bloated" (a fairly common occurrence) it can exceed 4GB.

Feel free to step in, fellow techs, if this old man is getting confused between filesize limitation and addressable memory limitations ...again ><
My gw.dat is 3.6gigs. I'm pretty sure file size (4gb limitation) is concerning the use of FAT32 file system. NTFS shouldn't have that limitation.

The 32-bit 64-bit are for ram usage. The 32-bit can handle 4gb - I/O (less then 4gb ram)

Elder III

Elder III

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I do believe that as deadmonkey says the 4GB limitation is for Fat32, not NTFS... I also seem to recall that there was a general file size limit when XP first came out, but SP1 took care of that (or one of the earlier updates) - not 100% sure on that, and I've sworn of the bloated craptastic OS known as Vista at least until SP2 comes out for it.... or there is no more XP compatible software available....

Snograt

Snograt

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I know NTFS can handle large files - I've always had this confusion over whether the OS can handle a file of that size if its only 32 bit.

I think I know what I mean :s

Anyway, sounds like it's best to ignore me on this one - the question remains: Why does Explorer crash on accessing gw.dat or its containing folder?

Tarun

Tarun

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Join Date: Jan 2006

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Since the OS runs NTFS as the file system the only limit it will have is the size of the hard drive.

FAT32 is limited to 4GB minus 2 bytes.

deadmonkey, do you have SP1 installed?

deadmonkey4u

deadmonkey4u

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yea I have SP1.

Also, This doesn't happen with any other files on my computer. I can move my 2.7gb movie fine. For some reason its only the gw.dat (the game runs fine).

Can't seem to figure this one out =/

Elder III

Elder III

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odd, i would think perhaps a corrupted .dat file would cause it to crash, but I don't think the game would run if it were that severly corrupted.... have you tried running a virus scan on that particular file???

Tarun

Tarun

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Join Date: Jan 2006

The TARDIS

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Download and run Unlocker on gw.dat to see if any process is attached to it. Delete it and reinstall GW with your GWEN/Nightfall/etc cd and then do a -image.

deadmonkey4u

deadmonkey4u

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Virus scan didn't come up with anything. I just got rid of it and am gunna reinstall it. Possibly something is wrong with the file since I transferred it from my old xp computer to this vista one. Although, I would think it wouldn't run perfectly if that was the case >_>

Snograt

Snograt

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Hmm, we'll probably never know. Maybe it was permissions-related.

fusa

fusa

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2007

Download these two utilities: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html and http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shell_menu_view.html Disable shell extensions, and menu items like "virus scan this file', "unrar here", etc. Vista is really unstable using these and will crash right clicking on some files. I had one that would crash explorer every time when trying to delete video files.