What is your operating system? How many hard drives do you have? What is the size of each hard drive? Do you install Poser on the same hard drive as all your other programs and operating system? Do you install Poser on a different partition, but on the same hard drive? Any other information you can provide. I currently have a 30GB hard drive that houses programs and Windows ME. I have a 20GB hard drive that holds all my data (mostly my Poser art and working files for installations.) Is there anything wrong with that strategy? A related question would be: How do you backup your Poser files? Do you backup the entire runtime folder? Do you just keep copies of the original installation files for characters, props, etc? What program do you use for backup? (I'm using NTI Backup NOW) If you download Poser files, do you unzip the files, and get rid of the zipped files? When you install these Poser files, do you unzip them directly to your Poser folder? Or do you unzip them to a temporary folder, and then install from there? Good questions, huh?!

I have Win98 I use two HDD C:OS, related drivers 4 GB D:POSER4,Photoshop5 40GB Z:3d objects and off line poser figures 20GB(USB) All zip files go to a folder on a seperate system. Once that folder get to greater that 500mb it gets burned to a cd, then the contents of th folder is deleted, and the prosess redone.

On the machine I'm using now, I have Windows2000 Server. I have two RAIDed 60GB hard drives (120GB! muwahaha! :) I always install on the same as the OS, and in the default directory. Saves the hell of any installation of add-ons. I personally keep backups of all my poser stuff both on this machine and also on another computer i have. ALWAYS save the zips, whether you have to resort to CDs or not. When you deal with Poser stuff, redundancy is the best policy. :) Tip for reinstalling. If you have it installed in your default /Metacreations/Poser 4/ directory, why bother deleting all the items youve added in? Just do a Add/Remove Software, and it will wipe all of the program itself, not anything else. When you re-install, good as new. Of course, you will have a few conflicts if something you added overwrites the default poser file (like a geometry), but in the overall scheme, its very effective and time-saving.

Hmm... well.

• I have a drive that holds just Max & Poser. I know Poser needs lots of room to grow so there it is.
• I backup the entire poser directory to my fileserver every few days.
• All my work goes in a separate drive organized by client and project (I consider myself a client so I can track how much time I spend just messing around).
• All downloaded files are put in a separate directory, in either a "free" or "registered" folder in a subfolder marked "unchecked".
• Those files are unpacked and the licenses checked. They are divided into things that are "OK for commercial work" and "OK for personal work".
• ONLY things that are OK for commercial work go into my Poser structure. I don't want to make a mistake and I have no interest in trying to keep track.
• The stuff that is only for non commercial use is archived but never installed.

There ya go!

win98 1 20 gig hd not partitioned it's all 1 c: drive nothing is wrong with your set up as long as it works for you. I backup the .zip & .exe files onto a cd if there is room I'll throw whatever else onto it. If I buy something or get something really cool I have been know to burn it to a cd immediately weather or not I have anything else to go with it. (I have a cd with vicky2 on it and nothing else, 1 cd costs alot less than vicky 2 did) I also backup my backup's and store the second set in the garage, after having my house burn and melt all my cd's, I'm pretty anal about it. (melted cd's are not a pretty sight) I unzip to a temporary folder and then move them from there. figure out a system that works for you, if you don't have a CD burner, I recommend one. They are good for more than just poser. Prior too my house fire I had scanned in family photos (one of a kind ones) and gave copies out at a reunion, good thing I did huh. Most things can be replaced, pictures are what hurt the most (as long as no one is hurt that is)

Thanks for your great advice everyone. Yes, I got a CD burner a year or so ago. It doesn't always work with some of the backup software I bought.... But I make backups. I've been unzipping downloaded files, and deleting the zip files. Then I copy the stuff to Cd's I've been making "theme cd's" such as "super" (4 cd's and counting) clothes, etc. I am thinking of using Direct CD again so I can use some rewriteables I've had around the house. When one CDRW gets full, then it's time to make a CDR disk. I may go back to saving the zip files once the files are installed... and deleting the unzipped files. Have to think about that one

I do the same thing. I delete the zip file after extracting it than save them on the HDD till I get enough to burn to CD. I don't recommend using DirectCD with RW's. I have had(and know of 3 other people) CDRW's go corrupt, and lost all the data on it. Wouldn't have been too bad if not for the fact that it had 400 Meg worth of Max Scene I spent 4 weeks on. I back up every major change to a project, burned to CD...there cheep. After a while I compile several CD's into one and stuff the old ones in a box.

I just found a neat backup program called Winrar. It is a shareware program ($35 registration, 40 day trial) available on download.com. You can specify what files to backup and tell it how large to make the backup file. I tell it to make the files 620MB so they fit nicely on a CDR. I NEVER use CD-RW; out of the ten disks I had, all of them have failed. I unzip all downloads to a seperate directory, then delete the zip unless it is a file that I paid money for (I always keep DAZ's *.exe files). If the file does not have a good discription, I make my own readme file and try to include pictures if possible. Once I have a nice collection, I burn them to CD. I have two hard drives, one with just Poser and Bryce (20GB) and another drive for Windows. Using Winrar, I back everything on the Poser/Bryce disk to CD at least once per month.

Personally, I never delete a zip file. Too paranoid that I'll have a disk crash or file corruption and then discover the download is no longer available. They all go into my downloads directory and when it gets big, I cut it to a CD, delete it and start a new downloads dir. As far as the other stuff, I've done it both ways. On my last computer I had two hard drives with Poser on C: and my working dirs on D:, on my new one I just have one hard drive and everything goes on C:. Both on Win 98. I don't think it makes much difference either way. jon

30GB drive C: drive - W ME only (good amount of swap space, too.) D: drive - my creations E: drive - downloads (running out of room!) F: drive - applications G: drive - games H: drive - swap space I'm considering getting a separate hard drive for back up for D and E drives. I burn everything to CD every few months then test the CDs. soulhuntre - you're organized to the point of scary!

Were your parents really messy? LOL

"soulhuntre - you're organized to the point of scary!" This I have been told :) I am just very careful about licensing issues - I cannot afford to misuse a file and suffer a credability loss to my clients.

I just finished backing up my entire runtime folder, and then decided to check out some quirkiness of my main hard drive. I ran a diagnostics on it and was given an error code. I need to call Maxtor and arrange for an exchange. Whoopie

This is my main machine. (I built this machine Total cost about $1200) Win NT (for dual processing) 1GB RAM Matrox G450 Video Card with Dual 17 inch Monitors. Dual 1GHz Celerons (overclocked 800s) HDD C: Strictly OS and Utilities (4GB Capacity) d: CDRW e: 20 GB 7200 RPM Premiere, Commotion Aftereffects, PShop, etc. All 2D apps. Render/Video Storage f: Storage 40GB 7200 RPM ATA 100 IDE RAID g: Storage 40GB 7200 RPM ATA 100 IDE RAID h: Storage 40GB 7200 RPM ATA 100 IDE RAID f: g: h: striped together as a single drive. Poser/Lightwave Storage and 3D APPs Poser, Lightwave i: Storage 60GB 7200 RPM ATA 100 IDE Poser Storage. (I have others that I use for network renders and one that I use as a Digital Video Editing workstation.) Win 98 SE also works very well for my non-dual processor machines. (even with Lightwave 6.5)

I'm impressed, but a bit confused. You go to great lengths to get some really great hardware, but then you are still using Intel Celerons. In my understanding, a Celeron is a Pentium without all the power and bang... You give up some performance or capabilities in return for a cheaper price. I'd replace the Celerons with either a real Pentium or AMD Athlon (spelling?)

The Celeron is a good chip for most things - and the price point is sooooo nice. That being said, I would go to a P4... being as AMD's happen to melt motherboards and fry themselves if your heat sink falls off. I have no desire for a ticking time bomb :) Obviously, this is a low probability event - but I worry about these things.

Here's another tip for archiving all those files you download. Save a copy of the thumbnail associated with the downloaded file, making sure to name it the same, and make a "catalog" of all the stuff. I recently started using thumbs plus to make contact sheets of all the thumbnails. Comes in real handy.

Thumbsplus is one of my most essential programs.

system p4-1.5/512ram/2-40gig hard/videocard32/burner/cd player/ 2 hard drives divided in 4 c:/main progs and win me d:/my art stuff, comics and so on e:/poser and max and my comercial stuff f:/downloads/back up back up all zips/ back up geometry and everything else compac with winrar(good compression) every 600 megs I back up just lost my comp. lost almost 6 months of work.... hopefully never again.

I certainly sympathize with your loss. I am confused. If you back things up how did you lose this stuff? I frequently backup my data and work. I recently suffered a trojan that wiped out my Windows 2000 system and prompted me to buy Norton Internet Security and go back to Windows ME, temporarily. And now my newest hard drive is apparently dying. Luckily this just contains my programs and operating system. I'd just made a backup of my entire Poser runtime folder. I am now thinking of getting Windows XP (The commercial version) into our house. I am using NTI Backup now to backup all my data and get ready for the move.

Celerons are only crippled (over the PIII in one regard) L2 Cache When you dual process you get no gain for cache levels over 256K Toms Hardware and others have verified that Dual Processed Celerons are equivalent to Dual Processed PIII Celerons are supposedly not dual Processorable but they are if you get a Slot1 motherboard, buy socket 370 Celerons and use a slocket. The slocket has a jumper (that's it Intel cut just one line inside the Chip) that allows the Celeron to do this neat little trick. If you are confused it is because Intel purposely likes you in the Dark. At least in shadows. :)

The deal is, I didn't use to back up everything (all artwork) like every month, but only like two times a year or when I had enough to fill a cd.... And I got a virus, don't know yet how, however I do know that it was hidden insied a mp3 song, and it got all my files, it was fast, less than a day I lost it... than I had a failure on my mother board and had to change the screwed system.... tell you what, never by hp, compaq, this etiquet comps, I only had headches with them, I made this system that I have now for about 700, chiper, more stable and no headches so far.... and now I make a back up every month at least. For poser, which is a huge headches once you get zygote and inc models running I compact the diretories, like with my geometry folder, use to be 1.0 gig, with winrar it went to 273. megs, than burn it, if anything happens I just need to descompact.... so.... I've learned that shit happens, when one last expects it to... sooner or later, so I better be ready....

and I have 2 hards of 40 megs each, partitioned in 2 each, meaning I end up with 4.... that delays spreading viruses and hackers and it's easier for blowindows to manage and forgive my english... It's not my first language.... hehehehehehhehe....

Hmmm.. a virus inside an MP3 file? It was probably an .exe that used one of several tricks to look liek it was an .mp3 in email? I only mention this so you might avoid something similar in the future - a true .mp3 file contains no executable code and is incapable of bringing a 'payload' (virus or trojan) with it. Just FYI. Sorry for your lost data :(

well, it may be an exe file, but just this other day I got another one, and I was only downloading music with kazza when pc cilling cot it, it was vbs love something.... It hides it self within the mp3 and when one listen to it the virus comes active.... There's no other way I could have gotten the virus... but things are allright now, however I'm extra carefull with everything if you know what I mean and if you check on pc cilin site you find virus and trojan that hide within mp3 files... but enough of virus.... I don't want to get more paranoid than I have became allready.... let's have fun and learn from our mistakes so we don't need to go trough it again... thanks vinnie

Now that you mention it, I remember downloading some mp3 files, out of curiousity..... Then later I got hit with a Trojan that brought my system down to it's knees. I've been hit with nasties before...but this was so bad that I literally thought I'd never use my computer again. The only way I survived was to wipe both hard drives, and then use the MaxBlaster software (one of my hard drives is a Maxtor) to reclaim both hard drives. I couldn't even use Fdisk to do the job.

yeah, some of them are now hidding within mp3 files, what you said sounds preatty much like what happened to me.... anyways, pc cillin is working so far... and I'm hell paranoid..... but life goes on, learned my lesson and I'm back ready to kick ass with my comics v of vampire and raven the last rebellion... I'll show this virus makers and thiefs what an artist is made of

There is no way that a virus can hide inside an MP3 file and infect you when listened to. I am not sure how else to say that :)

The MP3 file does not contain any executable code by it's nature. No MP3 application monitors the MP3 stream for executable code. Your PC will not execute a file with a .mp3 extension under any circumstances.

One page of info ... F-Secure Hoax Information Pages MP3 Virus

Now, it IS possible for someone to convince you to execute a file you THOUGHT was an MP3 file. Maybe by sending you a email attachment with a .mp3 extension and a hidden .vbs extension or so on. Or by sending you an .exe and telling you that it would play a song.

But an MP3 file simple is not a possible carrier.

I could take an infected .exe, rename it as .mp3 and your virus scanner would pick it up as infected, but it isn't an actual MP3 file and not only wouldn't it play but it couldn't infect you unless you named it back.

I don't mean to sound all techie on this .. but this is how rumors get started.

I think you're being nit-picky. If a file has an mp3 extension, it is perceived as being an mp3 file. The very essence of the word Trojan stems from mythology. Are you familiar with the story of the Trojan Horse? If you are not, then you have some homework to do.

Yes, I am very aware of the story especially as it relates to computer security work. The issue about trojan's is they must be able to DELIVER their payload. A file ... no matter what it contains, that is being treated by the system as an MP3 file is simply not going to be able to deliver that payload. This is not being nit-picky. It is crucial that people understand what types of things are dangerous so they can spot it when someone is trying to convince them to do those things. I can have the most dangerous program around on my drive - if it is only ever played by "winamp" it simply cannot execute any code. it is harmless. But, if someone sends you a file called "hotsex.mp3" in email you had better make sure that really IS the filename before you execute it... because if it is "hotsex.mp3.vbs" you might be in trouble. Someone who feels they got a virtus from an MP3 file is missing the real cause of the infection .. and that means they are still vulnerable. I'm not trying to be a nerd here - but it is necessary in the same way a doctor has to correct the idea that you can get pregnant from kissing.

Tee hee, I am reminded of a story I heard in high school. We had a nurse come to talk about sex education or something like that. She told of a story about a young high school girl who truly believed she would not get pregnant if she didn't kiss. Of course she did make love, and did get pregnant. As for the other concerns: After my disaster I bought Norton Internet Security which also has Norton Antivirus 2002 (ready for Windows XP which I have since bought as well.) I take great pains not to travel in the circles where I picked up the virus to begin with, in addition to having greater protection.

How is Norton for XP? I haven't sprung for it yet.

Norton Internet Security & Norton Antivirus 2002 run just fine. It may seem obvious, but you really need to update the Norton products when you update your operating system. I've sworn by Norton since I bought Windows 95. I used to hate them in the DOS/Windows 3.1 days... I loved Central Point's PC Tools. But Symantec bought them out, killed the product. They surprised me by coming out with some great products.

Thanks :)

You're quite welcome.

let me redo some of my words... just to clarify this debate.... I'm not sure where was the virus. I'm not sure how did I get the virus. I had 2 hards lost one the other one had image files and mp3. I bought a new comp. I got the virus again, spreading on the hard with mp3, the one that I had not formated since I also had bought a hard with the new comp. The virus only had spread among mp3 songs I lost all of it. reformated the entire dammed thing since then I now have pc-cillin they were great at offering support. I have not seen it since then. neither notest anything unusual. there.... hope I have made things clear. I'm not saying it was this or that, only what happened. I'm no nerd nor programer, I know a little arts and being working with comps since win3.1... pc-500. so in no way I disagree with you guys, I thank you for giving me more knowledge. But I know what happened to me, all that I'm trying to say is becarefull with what you download, have an ativirus, update it often, have some back up which was the initial topic of this conversation. therefore, I learnead a hard lesson... It took me one week to get back and running.... so....... don't want that to happen to my wors't enemy... well... maybe to him...but anyways I hope you guys get the message and once again thanks for the info....

two processors is an excellent base strategy for speed. One processor to take the background load so at least one can take on the application thread. Great that you can do it with Celerons. Most OS stuff isn't heavy math.

Sorry to intrude on this discussion, but it seems like you all use Windows 200o with Poser. Are any of you folks finding that Poser Pro Pack runs slower in Windows 2000 than it did in windows 98? Poser has become virtually useless since i changed Operating systems - and this machine has 3 times the processor power, 4 times the memory and over half of my 60 GB hard Drive still available. I have a large library of poser geometries, characters, and poses(3 GB), and it moves between libraries at a snail's pace. Have any of you tried using Poser file compression? The techs at CL said this would help, but I don't want to take chances until I spoke with other people who have been brave enough to try this. Just curious if I am the only one with this problem. Thanks. Aharon

I'm running win xp and doing just fine.....

The only Poser file compression I'd heard of is with the Poser Pro pack. It is a special compression for pz3 files.... That's it.

Thanks. Ronknights, that's the compression I'm talking about. Anyone use it? Aharon