VISTA problem,

[cuub]

Welcome,
I'm a student and make my first steps with FDS. I bought a nem laptot
to make FDS work faster. Now I have Windows Vista installed on my
laptop and have a problem with running FDS. Everything look to work OK
but FDS doesn't save output files in the FDS derectory. I would be
gratefull for any help.
My next question is if FDS is able to work with duo core processors?
Thanks for any help,
Jacob (dey...@wp.pl)

[Kevin]

FDS saves output in the directory from which you launched the
application. For example, if you cd (change directory) to C:\Program
Files\NIST\FDS\Examples and then at the command prompt enter:

C:\Progr...\Examples> fds5 couch.fds

and you should see output files like couch.end, couch,smv, and so on
appear in this same directory. Please let us know if this works, as we
have not installed Vista on our machines at NIST yet.

[cuub]

I always change directory to c:/program files/nist/fds and than write
the formula "fds5 door_crack.fds" I was doing it that way on my old
laptop and it was ok, now the programs seems to work ok, but doesn't
write output files.

[cuub]

Vista is not my favourite OS, I found some fds files in directory: C:
\Users\TOSHIBA\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\NIST\FDS\
but it is not possible to find it in my C: partition. To open it, I
must retape it. I give up, I'm goin go instal Windows XP as a second
OS, but I'm not sure if when usinf FDS with Windows XP I am able to
reach maximum performance (I have core 2 duo processor). I'm a Student
of The Main School of Fire Service Warsaw, Poland. I bought a new
laptop to make fds work faster as I use FDS to perform my thesis but
now I have only a lot of problems with VIST.
Thanks for your help Kevin,

[sungkim]

I am running the FDS on a Laptop with Windows VISTA OS.
The system has a CPU of "Core 2 Duo" and 1 GB RAM (TOSHIBA A205).
In my case, it dose not have any problem to run and save output file.
As Kevin said, the output files are saved in the launching directory
of FDS.
Why don't you run the FDS in simple named directory?, such as c:temp
Make a folder name of "temp" in the root, and copy a case file to the
folder.
And run again the FDS.

[Kevin]

I suggest you not load XP. There is probably a more simple
explanation. As suggested
by sungkim, create a new directory. Copy the fds input file into this
directory. cd into this directory. At the command prompt, just type

fds5

and make sure that FDS has installed properly and your computer
recogizes it. You should see the version number, date, and a short
message about reading the User's Guide, and then hit escape. This just
confirms that FDS is working.

Do a dir to make sure your input file is in that directory.

Now type

fds5 door_crack.fds

and make sure that you see FDS output scroll on the screen, and check
via your browser that output files are being created. If one of these
things is not working, tell me exactly what it is.

[charlie....@gmail.com]

A new feature of Vista is that it prevents user-level file write
access to the c:\Program Files tree. You can learn more under "data
redirection" at:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2006/05/FirstLook/

Summary: Windows doesn't want you casually writing files to folders in
the program files tree, but rather that show an error, it quietly
writes them to a folder in your user directory.

I think this works a bit smoother for graphical applications, but for
console work it is confusing.

[cuub]

As thornton said, vista save my FDS output files in weird directory:

C:\Users\TOSHIBA\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\NIST\FDS\

and it has "hidden" status that's why I had problems with finding it.
Thank You for Your help Guys,
Greetings,
Jacob

On Oct 8, 5:05 pm, "thorn...@thunderheadeng.com"

> > > Thanks for your help Kevin,- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Kevin]

So how will it be possible to install FDS in the first place, and then
how will the user be able to install patches, copy older binaries, and
so forth, within the Program Files folder? Should we recommend that
the Examples be put elsewhere?

On Oct 8, 10:05 am, "thorn...@thunderheadeng.com"

[charlie.thornton]

(I'm not a vista user/expert, but if I had to guess...)

In vista I think they've set it up so that users with admin privileges
tend to run as a non-admin most of the time, but when the need arises
you can promote yourself to an admin and adjust your computer's
sensitive places - assuming you have the privileges to do so. I assume
that the average vista user can flip the switch and become mighty long
enough to install patches, copy binaries, etc.

This weird data redirection stuff seems like a hack that microsoft
stuck in there to let people run their programs with non-admin
privileges, but still pretend to write to protected directories. The
ideal use case is for log files and preferences files that the
software generates under the hood. I also think that if a program
tries to open a file in the Program Files directory and fails, it then
tries to open the same file in the VirtualStore directory Jacob
mentioned.

I suppose in a perfect world, us users would copy examples we were
interested in to a different directory before executing them. If
nothing else, then there is no fear of corrupting the original if you
alter the example. In my own personal world, I'd probably just try to
hack vista to make me ultra-admin all the time so I never had to worry
about this stuff - and every week or so, format my hard drive to get
rid of the viruses.

[Kevin]

OK, thanks for the info. I guess we'll play it by ear and see how many
people run up against this problem. I do most of my development work
on a Linux box, so I'm used to the idea of root. We partition our
Windows disk into C and D, and we never really work within C. But I do
not think this is common practice. Sigh, there's always something new.

On Oct 8, 2:17 pm, "charlie.thornton" <charlie.thorn...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Lenny]

I am currently running VISTA 64 bit OS.

I have no problems running FDS> I always run a c:\NIST\FDS5\PROJECT
DIRECTORY set-up. This is how I track current projects etc, and it
works for me no problems at all.