Can't install DCS - Server Capacity Limited

[Slippa]

Evening,

My favourite spot to be in again. I can't fly, DCS won't install and I've completely wiped my drive for a fresh install of Windows10.

I've been away, I came back to find a massive update that I didn't have room for on my drive. I'm using a Mac with Bootcamp and couldn't work out how to sort things out without starting over from scratch. I expanded the size of a partition for Windows and DCS etc. I had to install Windows again and have bare bones installed with a lot to redo.

First and foremost, I need DCS flying. I haven't flown for weeks.

I have copies of my Saved Games folder, Inputs, Configs, Mods etc. on external ssds. I tried to move my Saved Games folder as it was on my D drive but I'm at a loss as to how to do it all now. Captain Calamity in full swing again. 

I've a log in case it has any clues. Should I reinstall Windows and if I did would I get another Saved Games folder?

Any pointers most welcome, cheers for looking. 

autoupdate_log.txt

nullSaved Games folder with the icon is currently on my 'Box' (F) Drive. I still need to move it (properly) to another drive with more space on it. I tried earlier but didn't have the Location box showing to let me do it the way I did before. Copy and Paste isn't working.null

[MAXsenna]

Hey buddy!
You have a clean Windows now? Install DCS andet it create a new DCS folder under Saved Games. Now, you can copy over all your settings, unless you want to start completely fresh. I assume you want the bindings for all your peripherals. Plug them in make ONE single change for each of them in any module of your choice. Then it will make a file for each of them with a new device ID in the file name, that will not match your old files. Easily solved by downloading a Microsoft tool from powertools/power toys called PowerRenamer. Now you can easily rename all your old files with this new ID. Copy them from your backup.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[rob10]

From your log I see a bunch of Curl errors.  Check this thread out.  It's also not completely clear from your post what your problem is: you can't install DCS or you're having issues with moving your saved games stuff and controls or both?

 

[Slippa]

Cheers for the replies,

I can't install DCS. That's my first problem. If and when I can get it back in I'll need to move my Saved Games folder too. As it is, my Saved Games folder is on a drive that's in the red. I've another drive for it to migrate to but I can't remember how to move it properly now. I know it has to be done properly so the folder icon will have a little symbol on it. Probably confusing matters for now.

I have my inputs all backed up so they should be no trouble. I haven't got any new hardware so inputs and peripherals should be good.

I'm gonna try installing another VPN thing. I remember I had to do the same last time I couldn't install DCS. More as it comes ...

[Rudel_chw]

51 minutes ago, Slippa said:

I tried to move my Saved Games folder as it was on my D drive but I'm at a loss as to how to do it all now.

here is a small how-to:

 

 

 

[Slippa]

Nice one Rudel, I remembered you told me how to do it last time , just couldn’t think how, cheers.

I just tried to install a free VPN thing but they must’ve changed it a bit so I’m trying a DCS repair though I’m not sure the VPN’s running? Looks like it’s going further than it did before so fingers crossed.  

… and it’s repaired . Just loaded and signed in but everything needs ‘moving in’.

For some reason DCS won’t install for me without a VPN. I’d rather not have anything extra installed so if I can I’ll try uninstalling the VPN. I’d assume DCS should still run now it’s got pst the installation stage?

At last, a breakthrough then.

cheers all. I’ll be setting up my DCS for a while then. 

 

[Slippa]

53 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

here is a small how-to:

Erm... I never make it easy for myself, it's a bit complicated but I'll try to explain.

Years back I moved my Saved Games folder to an external drive. Now, I need to move it from that drive on to an identical brand new drive. When I right click on the folder I don't get the location tab that I've had before. How would I go about moving it properly from the drive it's on to the new drive? Think I need a bit of a 'how to' again .

 

 

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, Slippa said:

Years back I moved my Saved Games folder to an external drive. Now, I need to move it from that drive on to an identical brand new drive. When I right click on the folder I don't get the location tab that I've had before.
 

 

Saved Games is tied to your windows account, if you move it onto an external drive and then take that drive to another pc with another windows, that tie gets broken and now the folder is just a normal folder.

 

1 hour ago, Slippa said:

How would I go about moving it properly from the drive it's on to the new drive?

On your new windows you have a new user, that user has a new Saved Games folder, what you do is keep that folder and move just the content of your old saved games, onto the new one. Afterwards you can use the new saved games location tab to move it wherever  you want.

Edited October 2, 2024 by Rudel_chw

[Slippa]

I think I'll have to reinstall Windows again then?

I don't have a Saved Games folder in my user folder. The only one I have is the one I moved to the external drive. Maybe I could leave the Saved Games where they are but copy everything else that's filling the drive to the new empty drive? So long as a drive has the folder with room on the drive to spare.

[Rudel_chw]

Try this:

 

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/23504-restore-default-location-personal-folders-windows-10-a.html

 

[Slippa]

I used that magic file thingy to restore my Saved Games folder. The bat folder (Thank you Batman). It's busy copying all the content from one saved games folder to another at the minute.

Once it's packed out I'll re-locate the folder to the empty drive. I'm not counting any chickens yet but it's going in the right direction so cheers for that.

Bound to still be something else before it's right again, it always makes us earn our flying time. More tomorrow probably.

[Slippa]

I've got it installed. Sort of.

It's taken hours to do. I restored the Saved Games folder (cheers Rudel ), copied everything from my old saved games folder into that and then moved the location of it to an external SSD. All good up to that point. None of my inputs worked and options settings weren't right so I copied inputs, views and options folders singularly. Neither of them worked so I copied them into C/Program Files/Eagle Dynamics/DCSWorld/Config when everything else had failed.

I don't think I'm meant to mess with the program files in C but copying everything to respective folders in my saved games folder wouldn't work. I'm still trying to install my bindings for everything but I'm not getting anywhere. I'm not sure if the update messed with everyone elses bindings but I'd have thought I'd have read about it if it had. I've got most of the modules and I really don't want to have to go through everything yet again if I can help it.

I bound the Spit just quickly to test everything was running. Lovely to see but confusing as to what's going on with my bindings and views. I can't get them to work somehow. 

Good to have learnt about those bat files though. Saves all the trouble so at least I've learnt something helpful. 

Cheers.

[Rudel_chw]

14 minutes ago, Slippa said:

None of my inputs worked and options settings weren't right so I copied inputs, views and options folders singularly. Neither of them worked ...

 

Have you re-installed your windows recently?  I ask, because DCS places the USB-Identificator that Windows assigns to each Hotas device, as part of the device name on DCS config. Why DCS does that? I guess to allow you to have two or more identical devices, but each configured separately on DCS. Here you can read more about USB IDs:

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/standard-usb-identifiers

 

If you look onto the DCS control folders at Saved Games, you will see files like this:

 

 

On this example, you see that I have two devices: a Thrustmaster Hotas Cougar, plus a VPC Rudder pedals. Why there is more than one file for each?  because they have different USB ID .... why there is more than one ID for each device? because Windows assign new IDs everytime it is re-installed.

 

So, if you re-install Windows, the device will have a different USB ID and then DCS will not be able to find the file as it is looking for the prior ID. On the above figure, you can see that I re-installed windows on 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023, and each time the name of the file changed.

 

How then do I recover my old control assignments?  There are two ways: 

1) rename the old filename to match the current USB ID

2) or, copy the CONTENTS of the old control file, and paste it on the new file.

 

14 minutes ago, Slippa said:

so I copied them into C/Program Files/Eagle Dynamics/DCSWorld/Config when everything else had failed.

 

Check the above screenshot again, the DCS configuration files for control bindings, have the extension .DIFF.LUA  because they store just those bindings that are different from the default controls of each aircraft (so DIFF stand for DIFFERENCES)  ... if you take this small file and paste it on the DCS program folder it wont work, because there you need the full set of bindings, so it looks like this:

 

 

Here, default.lua contains ALL the default bindings for this aircraft (the Hornet on this case), the other DIFF.LUA files are the bindings that are pre-assigned for specific hardware. As you can see, there is no DIFF file for my Hotas or Rudder ... anyway, if you take your DIFF.LUA from saved Games and place it here, DCS will simply ignore it.

 

14 minutes ago, Slippa said:

I'm not sure if the update messed with everyone elses bindings but I'd have thought I'd have read about it if it had.

 

Correct, my bindings were not affected ... my belief is that somehow the USB IDs of your Hotas has changed, if you are sure that you have not re-installed windows then maybe a firmware upgrade of your Hotas may have happened.

 

 

Eduardo

[MAXsenna]

@Slippa Read @Rudel_chw's post above regarding the IDs. (I did mention this you know. )

And you can use this tool for mass renaming.

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/powerrename

[Slippa]

Aha, now I think it makes sense and yeah Max, you did try to warn me.  

I have re-installed windows Rudel. I’ve been away for a while and when I came home and settled in for some flying I saw the update and had to make room for it. My C drive was getting pretty fat and wouldn’t take the update. The only thing I could think to do was to allocate more of the partition windows is running on and re-install everything.

Well, I did hope it wouldn’t be a complete rebuild but it’s almost turned out to be. I’ve left as little as I dare on the partition I have for Mac use. I’ve got two new external SSDs as well to use but me being me, somehow I’ve still managed to make a hash job of it. 

I resized the partition and re-installed windows 10. Then I started installing DCS. While it was installing I went around trying to set windows up, installed and logged in to a few bits and when DCS was installed I started trying to sort out my saved games folder to move it to one of the externals.

Looking at it now I’m probably better off stripping everything DCS out and starting again with installing it. Somehow, I’ve managed to have more than one DCS folder. Somehow . Since I’ve moved my saved games folder to my E drive I expected to have everything there. When I look there’s a DCS folder, some unrelated bits and my saved games folder. The DCS folder is 94gb and has Backup, Config, FXO, imagesShop, kneeboards etc.

If I open my saved games folder it gets interesting. I have a DCS folder and a DCS openbeta folder. There’s a DCS_F4E folder and one like it for the OH58D as well. I don’t think I need the open beta folder at (202gb) in there but I think a lot of things about computers, far too much of it involving hammers or steam-rollers so not a likely candidate for the IT crowd.

Seems I could rename my inputs and get away with it but I’ll have to have a better look in a bit.

I baffle myself half the time and create all kinds of tangles along the way. Grateful for the help in any case. More as it comes… 

[MAXsenna]

@Slippa Hehe! You'll get there eventually. What happened to your plans about a dedicated DCS machine?
Anyway. It's correct to have a Phantom folder in Saved Games. The Viggen has one too. Don't remember about the Kiowa.
I assume it's for saving your personal pilot and stuff. Can't do that in the core folders.
Cheers

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[Slippa]

15 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

How then do I recover my old control assignments?  There are two ways: 

1) rename the old filename to match the current USB ID

2) or, copy the CONTENTS of the old control file, and paste it on the new file.

I'm having a bit of trouble understanding my own stupidity . 

I deleted the Open Beta (202gb) I had in my saved games folder and ran DCS ok.  

After reading your explanation Rudel I thought I'd be making sense of it today but I just checked my input files and I'm none the wiser. The old ones look identical to the new, I think?

On the plus side, This time around my freshly re-installed Windows10 is allowing me to use the screenshot normally. Hasn't worked for years. - Had I looked it up then like I just did I might've seen the toggle switch and set it to 'on'. Much more responsive with it set to 'on'.  Don't chuckle, much.

Box - is where the old musty but juicy inputs are. Snappas01 - is where the new installation is.

 

Those are all I have as I pasted them everywhere I could think of trying to make them work. How about copying the contents, how would I go about that? Or should I begin the long pilgrimage through the great temple of input control settings? I'll never remember them all, or will I, maybe this is my quest? A game within a game/sim? Nah, must be an easier way (keep Mista Slippa away from the installation folders). 

Cheers for lookin.

[MAXsenna]

23 minutes ago, Slippa said:

I deleted the Open Beta (202gb) I had in my saved games folder and ran DCS ok.  

You had it installed in Saved Games? I assume you have fixed that, or was it a backup? Because DCS is portable. That's really cool, so "next time", just make a copy, and you can copy back. But don't install or copy it into Saved Games.  

25 minutes ago, Slippa said:

After reading your explanation Rudel I thought I'd be making sense of it today but I just checked my input files and I'm none the wiser. The old ones look identical to the new, I think?

You have a new windows installation. Like I wrote. In one module, make one single change on every controller. And they will have a new file, with a new ID. Then use the PowerRenamer tool I posted a link for, and then rename ALL your files with that new ID.

[Slippa]

I had more than one in the saved games folder . DCS as well as OB. Even I don't know what's gone on.

After installing DCS into C. I looked in there, C/Program Files/Eagle Dynamics/DCS is there and it's a fat 749gb.

I moved my saved games folder to E. If I look in that saved games folder, E/Saved Games, I have another DCS folder. That one must've been dieting as it's 274Gb. The F4 and the Kiowa are in the same saved games folder.

I've already pasted in about 90gb of Liveries and a few mods. The renamer tool looks like a good thing to sort my inputs out but I've never used one before and I'm not really sure what I'm doing, what to copy to where. I'll have another look in a bit.

cheers for looking.

[Slippa]

Tried what I thought I should be doing with the renamer thing. Evidently, I shouldn't have been doing what I was doing. 

It's a bleedin nightmare. Inputs, inputs, inputs

Edited October 4, 2024 by Slippa
more inputs

[MAXsenna]

Tried what I thought I should be doing with the renamer thing. Evidently, I shouldn't have been doing what I was doing. 
It's a bleedin nightmare. Inputs, inputs, inputs

Right! I'm home.
You have installed a fresh copy of Windows and a fresh copy of DCS, and you have a brand new Saved Games perhaps?
Now, did you find the input folder? Did you make single change in the Control Settings for one of your peripherals?
Screenshots?

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[Art-J]

To each his own, but from my own experience I still believe using "load profile" button in control options screen to import old bindings from backup files is faster and easier way of getting the controls sorted on new PC / Windows than faffing around with creating new diff.luas and renaming them (or copying their contents).

The bloody button is there for a reason, why not using it then. True, it only allows importing backup diff.lua files one by one (per each aircraft and each controller), which will require some extra mouse clicks, but it's still faster and more foolproof method in my opinion. No extra apps or batch files necessary either.

 

[Slippa]

I did have a fresh Saved Games folder yeah. I moved it to my E drive. Would've been the D drive but that still has everything I had before on it.

The input folder I found in C/Program Files/ED/DCS/Config. I also had a copy of my old one in E/Saved Games/DCS/Config. I'm sure I'm not organising it all properly already but I've always added inputs or options, views and the like to my saved games folder bits.

Yesterday I loaded my Spit and fiddled with an input. I saved the joystick profile and saw by the date that it had saved it, along with it's gobble-de-gook ID. I did the same with throttle, joystick and rudder pedals too. I couldn't make sense of the renamer tool really, I'm blinded by the different IDs, which ones go where or which don't belong but I had a go. 

This morning I checked the inputs in DCS. I tried the Pony and didn't recognise most of the inputs. - Didn't remember the Pony having WEP at all when I saw it there today. I'm losing my mind I think?  (Lost years ago).

With all the silliness and different attempts I've made at reinstalling my inputs I decided to delete the lot and start again. I deleted both Input folders, even the one in C/Program Files and put DCS in for a long soak and repair.

Just now I loaded the Spit, deleted the toe-brakes messing with pitch and roll and saved the profile. DCS created a fresh Input Folder in my Saved Games Folder and there only seems to be the Spit inputs in there so far.

I still have all my old inputs to install but I'm gonna have to work this renaming thing out before I'm sorted by the look of it?

This is what I have. Box (F) has all my old stuff, Snappas1 (E) is brand new. I take it the '503D44...' is the newer ID from Windows? If so, I've gotta suss this namey thing out haven't I. 

 

No doubt everything's arse about face from the beginning, story of my life at the minute. - Just as I finished typing that I got an update for the first time in years from Bootcamp. This could get really spicy 

cheers.

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, Art-J said:

"load profile" button

Why didn't I think of that either? 

cheers Art. 

[Art-J]

14 minutes ago, Slippa said:

Why didn't I think of that either? 

cheers Art. 

Just remember that in order to use it, you have to first highlight the relevant device column in options screen (e.g. left click on column with Spitfire joystick commands, then hit the load profile button, then navigate to and select the old Spit joystick diff.lua file from backup location. Rinse and repeat for throttle column, keyboard, pedals, tracking device etc., ect.)

[Slippa]

Yep. That's what I've been up to.

I plotted a Spit at Detling on the ME, loaded each one at a time and so far as I can tell it's saved the lot in my saved games folder. 

Bleedin laborious but I went through changing the Spit to the Pony, the Jug and so on. Should have them all now I hope.

I can't get my snap views back in so far. Had a few for the fuel cocks on the Mossie and a few in me choppers but I can redo those when I'm bored I s'pose.

So far as the thread goes, I still don't know why I can't install DCS straight off Windows? The only way I can install it is by first installing a VPN. I've uninstalled it now but I'm baffled as to why I can't just install from the exe. file.

I'm airborne again so glad of that. 

Cheers all for the help and tips, most grateful .