Author Topic: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform  (Read 5670 times)

Bull Winkus

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Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« on: May 10, 2012, 07:46:14 AM »
When replacing the computer platform upon which WeatherCat performs its many tasks, what files/folders must be copied in order to provide uninterrupted service?

The ones I'm aware of:

The WeatherCat Program folder
WeatherCatData in the ~Library folder
4 folders in the Application Support folder
     WCWeb
     WeatherCatCustomWeb
     WeatherCatMedia
     WeatherCatTemp

Is it possible to just download a new zip file and move WeatherCatData, if WU and CWOP are the only Web interactions? Is there a preferences file to be moved as well?

Thanks,
Herb
Herb

Randall75

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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2012, 11:41:35 AM »
Hi Herb
 You need the preference file from your home Library-Preferences- com.trixology.WeatherCat.plist
Then move your WeatherCatData over to the new Preferences folder
Then Open the Zip folder and reinstall WeatherCat should now be set to go with out having to redo your preferences


Hope this helps
 [cheers1]

Steve

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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2012, 03:36:20 PM »
Randall is correct on how to install WC on a new computer with your current preferences. But you will lose historic data unless it is copied over as well. It looks like you got most of the folders identified above. Don't forget ~/Documents/WeatherCatReports/ folder.

Steve
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elagache

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Moving by "delete instructions." (Re: Relocating The WeatherCat)
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2012, 07:57:16 PM »
Hi Herb, Randall, Steve, and WeatherCat fans,

There is a sneaky way I use to remember how to do this.  Stu provides detailed instructions to delete WeatherCat on page 163 of the WeatherCat manual.  In particular Stu mentions:

Quote
To delete files created by WeatherCat, drag the following folders and files to the trash (some of these may not exist): ~/Library/WeatherCatData ~/Library/Application Support/WeatherCatCustomWeb
~/Library/Application Support/WeatherCatMedia ~/Library/Application Support/WeatherCatTemp ~/Library/Application Support/WeatherCatWeb ~/Library/Preferences/com.trixology.weathercat.plist
(where ~ is your home directory).
Note that on OS X 10.7 or later, the Library folder is hidden. You can make it visible again
via the following terminal command:
chflags nohidden ~/Library/

The task of moving is almost the same as deleting.  Instead of removing the file, move the file into the identical location on the new machine.  Moving each item this list should be "bullet-proof."

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

Bull Winkus

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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2012, 09:39:30 PM »
Thanks Randall, Steve and Edouard. That will help a lot. It's hard to have the mindset to do a task such as this without the confidence to know one is doing it correctly.

FTR, a long test from Apple's Hardware Test software revealed an alert after about an hour and ten minutes.

Alert! Apple Hardware Test has detected an error.
4HDD/11/40000000:sata (0,0)

I'm thinking I can replace the drive myself. I'm looking at the Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop Hard Drive or its cousin with 2 TB to partition into two bootable volumes. I figure on one volume for Lion and the other for Snow Leopard.

I've never done this with an iMac before. This is the first time I've had a drive fail in an iMac. I've seen many examples of how to make the exchange from both YouTube and How To. I feel pretty confident about the execution of it. I'm just not sure about my choice of drives. I know that the iMac I'm using uses Serial ATA, but it was manufactured in 2008. 4 years is a long time in computer years. Will the current SATA drives plug into and work with the older SATA interfaces?

The Computer Spec Sheet: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP485
The HDD on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Internal-Desktop/dp/B0036Q7MV0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336680273&sr=8-1

TIA,
Herb

EDIT: Note that the 24" screen computer was bought as a refurbish unit with a 500 GB drive in late 2009. It also has the 512 MB video card.
Herb

Bull Winkus

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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2012, 09:56:42 PM »
Thanks Randall, Steve and Edouard. That will help a lot. It's hard to have the mindset to do a task such as this without the confidence to know one is doing it correctly.

FTR, a long test from Apple's Hardware Test software revealed an alert after about an hour and ten minutes.

Quote
Alert! Apple Hardware Test has detected an error.
4HDD/11/40000000:SATA (0,0)

I'm thinking I can replace the drive myself. I'm looking at the Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop Hard Drive or its cousin with 2 TB to partition into two bootable volumes. I figure on one volume for Lion and the other for Snow Leopard.

I've never done this with an iMac before. This is the first time I've had a drive fail in an iMac. I've seen many examples of how to make the exchange from both YouTube and How To. I feel pretty confident about the execution of it. I'm just not sure about my choice of drives. I know that the iMac I'm using uses Serial ATA, but it was manufactured in 2008. 4 years is a long time in computer years. Will the current SATA drives plug into and work with the older SATA interfaces?

The Computer Spec Sheet: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP485
The HDD on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Internal-Desktop/dp/B0036Q7MV0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336680273&sr=8-1

TIA,
Herb

EDIT: Note that the 24" screen computer was bought as a refurbish unit with a 500 GB drive in late 2009. It also has the 512 MB video card.
Herb

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Need an iMac person's opinion (Re: New Platform)
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2012, 10:24:10 PM »
Hi Herb and WeatherCat forum iMac gurus,

I've never replaced a hard drive in any iMacs that I can remember.  I just went to my favorite website for such information and they specialize in MacBook stuff.  Unfortunately, they don't have any compatibility tables for iMacs.

Hopefully someone else who has some experience with this sort of iMac transplant will chime in with some more info.

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

Bull Winkus

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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2012, 02:57:19 AM »
Hello Edouard!

Thanks for trying. I did find out that the drive was mac compatible by carefully reading ALL of the description.  ;) Also, I noticed that it stated that SATA III was backward compatible with older SATA. That gave me some confidence too. So, I ordered it.

 [spin]
Herb
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Randall75

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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2012, 04:08:07 PM »
Hi Herb
 Go to MacWorld.com they usually  Have articles on how to swap out hard drives step by step they did for my DVD-CD rom
any way
Hopes this help[s
 [cheers1]

Bull Winkus

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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2012, 05:40:24 PM »
Thanks Randall.

It took me awhile, (I kept reading other articles) but I found it. Here's the link for anyone else who might need it.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1159956/imacharddriveupgrade.html

EDIT: Here are 2 other links for instructions on replacing the iMac's hard drive. The MacWorld article noted difficulty with temperature sensor issues in the 2011 version after replacing the internal drive with a non Apple one. In one of the other articles it was stated to use Western Digital to avoid this conflict. The Seagate Barracuda was also mentioned. I'm not sure if that applies to the 2011 version or not.

http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-replace-your-imacs-hard-drive/
http://www.amfiteatar.org/content/view/155/57/lang,en/
Herb

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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #10 on: May 11, 2012, 06:50:49 PM »
Check out FixIt and narrow it down to your model. They have videos, tools, parts, etc.

http://www.ifixit.com/Info/ID-your-Mac
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Bull Winkus

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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #11 on: May 12, 2012, 04:29:03 AM »
Thanks Steve.

Yet one more verification of how it's done and that I've bought the right drive. [Crosses fingers on both hands]

I'm thinking about upgrading the whole computer now. After I get the new HD installed, I'll consider it further. But checking Apple's Online Store, I saw the new 27" iMac with a 256 GB SSD as the boot drive and a 1 TB internal data drive. That got my mind going on the lack of moving parts and increased reliability, not to mention a huge boost in speed. I can see the computer running cooler, quieter, and faster while doing more.

I haven't yet moved the WeatherCat to my Main Computer yet. To forestall going through with the move, I took a few measures to decrease HD demand on the current WC iMac. I turned off web page production in Simple Web and took WU off Rapid Fire Mode, setting the uploads to every 5 minutes. In System Preferences, I turned off "Put HD to sleep when possible," because it'll never happen anyway and it's better to not even try. Then I set WC as a startup item and scheduled the computer to shut down at 3am and wake at 7am. That will give the HD a chance to cycle back to room temperature. Worked great last night and this morning.

I still haven't licked the FTP issue, though. But, I haven't been working on it for the last two days. I got burned out on it after 3 solid days with no success, a lightning storm [lightning] that knocked out my anemometer and continued stress from a pinched nerve that is finally getting better now. After removing the anemometer from the roof, I discovered that the wire had gotten pinched or crimped at the mast head. All'swell that ends swell. It went back in service the next day.

 [woohoo]
Herb
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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #12 on: May 12, 2012, 02:13:25 PM »
Herb,

I had my 2008 vintage 24" iMac fail last fall. THe HD croaked on it, as well. But those models have a history of graphics card problems, too, and I had a 2006 one fail. Do you have discoloration in the bottom left corner of your screen? Lots of "shadows" down there from open windows burned into the screen? Those are symptoms. If so, once you get your iMac up and running, install smcFanContol and speed up the fans to keep it cool. Also be sure to keep the air vents really clean. Having all that stuff running 24 hours a day years on end right behind the screen takes its toll!

I replaced mine with the 27" 2.7 GHz Intel i5 iMac, and bumped the RAM up to 16 GB from Crucial (also another excellent place for DIY parts, instructions, and video.) Mine has the 2T internal HDD, but I have three 2T external Firewire drives for backup. I haven't gone the SSD route yet, as they are very expensive and not horribly large. You can get four 32 GB thumb drives and stick them into a USB hub for a LOT less money. :)
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Bull Winkus

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Re: Relocating The WeatherCat Software to a New Platform
« Reply #13 on: May 12, 2012, 08:43:32 PM »
Hey Steve,

Yup! 2008 vintage is the one, oops, two I've got. Neither one is having any screen issues, but with WC running at full bore that could change. I have noticed a little screen burn in from the same charts being displayed all the time, but it was only visible when the screen was all white. Still, I changed my screensaver parameters to 15 minutes instead of 2 hours and gave it a 5 minute screensaver after that, where before I was sleeping the monitor. It is my understanding that LCDs wont have permanent burn in if you give it active time with alternate screen images.

I took your suggestion and downloaded smcFanControl. Nice program! Well thought out and highly useful in this environment. I put it on both computers and discovered that, with the current WC setup, both computers are running at around the same temperature and minimum fan speeds most of the time. Despite that, I did bump the HDD minimum for the WC computer from 1200 to 1500.

Apple's SSD is currently 256 GB for $600 more. They are due to refresh the iMac product line any day now. It's quite likely that will include the availability of the 512 GB SSD, but possibly at a higher price. I did a quick check of the WC iMac and found that I was still using less than 100 GB, even though there were lots of legacy programs and files that will disappear in a complete HD refresh.

Does WC allow the older data files to be moved to a data drive? If it does, then 256 GB for the boot volume is more than adequate.

I've got one 2 TB Firewire 800 drive that I got lucky and bought before the Taiwan floods. $140 with free shipping. I'm using it as my Time Machine on the main iMac. The WC iMac has a 500 GB standard Firewire drive for Time Machine. I need to upgrade that as well. It's getting a little long in the tooth.
Herb