Archive Solution Help

[JamesStrong]

Hey Group

Wondering if someone can help me understand the data storage structure for the Spectralis

According to HE support (HES), my Data drive and Archive drives should contain 'about' the same amount of data.  However my Archive is "Full" (6MB free) while my Data has 12GB free. They are the same size

I see only the 2 folders on Archive, as described by HES, DBBackup and HDX000x, so there doesn't appear to be any fluff or dupes i can delete to open space.

My data drive does appear to have some old 'copy' files from when we migrated from the last external drives which i could delete, but this won't help my Archve situtation.

How is it that my Data is has space while my Archive is full?  

The only thing that quickly comes to mind is that Data has room because our DB doesn't grow that fast because our rate or repeat scanning is MUCH higher than our new pt. rate.  So less new "data" in the DB but many additional images to archive on existing pts.

Is this reasonable or am i totally wrong?

I want to understand the problem so i can create the best interim solution until we go server-based.

Thanks

j-

[Sandor Ferenczy]

Jim, what are the size comparisons if you right-click --> properties on the folders? you can then at least see whether the 12 GB is hidden in the database or patients folder, or possibly in invisible files on the archive drive.

in theory, if the drives are not formatted the same (especially file block size) there could be an overall difference that big... block size basically denotes the minimum size a file can consist of - so with 64 KB blocks, even a text file with 1 KB of actual data will consume 64 KB. the advantages of a larger block size is that it can typically write large files with less fragmentation..

for a data point, our "dbackup" folder in the archive location is 4x larger than the "data" folder on the machine.

most likely there are orphaned files somewhere? but i would have expected them in the main patient data folder, not the archived one...

somewhat to the same topic, how do people handle their main database drive filling up? what is the go-to way to clear patient data (assuming it has already been archived)?

-sandor

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[JamesStrong]

There's about a 10GB size difference between the Data and Archive (916 v.926GB) but HES is baffled how the Archive can be larger. "They should be about the same size or the Archive slightly larger."

Since our IT dept moves like molasses on a day like today (in PA) getting an server Archive isn't the immediate fix since it appears we fill about 2GB a day of the Data drive.  I'm also told that once the data drive is full the instrument stops working, so there must be a solution for that also...right?

j-

[Bartsch, Dirk]

Hi, 

here are my two cents on that. One of the common storage problems is sector size. Each hard drive has a maximum number of logical storage units (sectors) that it can address. If the drive is very large, the logical sectors are also very large. This depends on the formatting method being used. Let’s say that you format your drive in a specific way and each logical sector is 100 kB. If you save a small file of 50 kB it will be stored in one logical sector of 100 kB even though it does not use all of the data storage capacity, but the disk drive mechanism has no way of using the remainder of a partially used sector. Since the Heidelberg storage system uses large and small files to store different types of information, this might explain what is going on. The external ARCHIVE drive is probably a larger capacity drive than the internal DATA drive. 

Now, if both drives are the same capacity, then my explanation is not valid. Then you have to go into the file system and find a folder where there is a discrepancy in size between both drives and do some detective work. 

About the data drive being full. There is an option in the Heyex option menu telling the Heyex software to make space on the data drive. However, you need to keep in mind that the data is being deleted from the data drive and the archive drive is a copy of the data, but not a backup. You should have a backup solution to back up your data. Archival is not backup. Archival is storing the data on a different hard drive. 

Best wishes, 

Dirk-Uwe

[JamesStrong]

So, since both our Archive and Data drives are at and nearing capacity (respectively) we have to take some action.  Any 'speedy' move to a network/server solution isn't going to happen.

My current plan is to upgrade the internal Raid drives to 2TB SATAs and migrate the data.  There are 2 open slots so this should be minimally invasive.  I'll just purchase a larger External Archive to keep that process limping along also.

Then we'll keep the fingers crossed for budget approval for some long-term Image mgmt solution that would include networked storage etc.

The most salient take away from this adventure that Spectralis users should be aware of is:  if your Data (Q:) drive fills to capacity, your Spectralis becomes a doorstop (with wheels).

j-

[Sandor Ferenczy]

So where is the option in HEYEX to make space? I found one, but it is disabled when the archive drive is a hard drive.

(it is in menus,  Setup --> Options -> Disk Space)

Jim, depending on how much money you have to play with, think about these for archiving: http://www.amazon.com/Book-dual-drive-high-speed-premium-storage/dp/B00KU686D2/

The $$ sweet spot seems to be the 8 TB (though you would probably want to set it up as 4 TB, mirrored RAID) I have used these WesternDigital drives as direct attached backups for a number of year now, and have always seemed to offer a good balance of $$/performance/longevity

also, have anyone done the Heidelberg Windows 7 upgrade? I'm looking to do it to make the Spectralis play better with all the SMB3 systems we have on the network...

-sandor

On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 4:46 PM, Bartsch, Dirk <dbar...@ucsd.edu> wrote: