Touble patching multipull accounts

[Hetzer]

Let me see if I can explain this clearly. I run two machines with 3 accounts on one and two on the other. These accounts are in separate folders know as CK CK1 CK2 etc. both machines run vista.

When it is patch time, I can patch one folder with no problems but when I go to patch the other folders the launcher will download ok but will then pop a error message saying that the patch is already downloaded.

To get myself around this problem I simply copy the successful wow folder that has downloaded the patch and then remake all my CK1 CK2 folders. This is time consuming and a right pain in the arse.

Is there a way around this apart from symbolic linking the folders?

Did any of that make sense?

[PiE]

What i normally do is just copy and paste the patched base wow directory contents into my slave folder (ie the folder that contains the WoW.exe, but not the subfolders such as Interface, WTF, Data etc..)

I have the Data directory sym linked so i dont have to copy the data folders across, but since your not doing this you can just copy the Data directory over the top.

This way doesnt screw with any of your settings.

I.e. so if you patch CK, you copy CK's base dir contents and Data dir over the top of CK1's and CK2's

[Hetzer]

What i normally do is just copy and paste the patched base wow directory contents into my slave folder (ie the folder that contains the WoW.exe, but not the subfolders such as Interface, WTF, Data etc..)

I have the Data directory sym linked so i dont have to copy the data folders across, but since your not doing this you can just copy the Data directory over the top.

This way doesnt screw with any of your settings.

I.e. so if you patch CK, you copy CK's base dir contents and Data dir over the top of CK1's and CK2's

Thank you Pie, i knew there had to be a easy answer to this.

[Fizzler]

If you mlink the account you only need to update 1 account on each computer.

I had problems patching multiple folders myself I kept getting a DLL error oddly. After I mlinked I just ran the patch on the main folder and I was good to go.

[EnderWiggin47]

Would this approach work for updating to the expansion? I understand you still need to buy a copy for each account to update the accounts on blizzard's side. But would this save me the hassle of installing the game 5 times and downloading patches five times and then still having to redo macros/settings and stuff? Or would adding the expansion change the WTF folder too? How are people planning to update all their accounts when they get their copies of wotlk? Thanks for any input!

[Basilikos]

Would this approach work for updating to the expansion? I understand you still need to buy a copy for each account to update the accounts on blizzard's side. But would this save me the hassle of installing the game 5 times and downloading patches five times and then still having to redo macros/settings and stuff? Or would adding the expansion change the WTF folder too? How are people planning to update all their accounts when they get their copies of wotlk? Thanks for any input!

I can help with some of that. Installing the game fives times can be done simultaneously with as many machines as you are playing on. For me, that means effectively doing 'one' install. If you've downloaded the patches, you can move them to any number of computers or WoW directories and re-run them. If you're running a software box setup, you'll need to either install and patch once and copy the directories around where you want them, or look into the symbolic linking (NTFS Junction points in windows). That has it's own hassles, though, and you'll have to look around here for the tutorials with the details.

[Kissell13]

This is the simplest way I have found to patch multiple installs.

I run 2 wow installs. 1 for the main and 1 for the 4 alts.

My dirs are.

D:\wow1
D:\wow2

Step 1: Run your first intalled copy and update. (It will Dl the patch and install.)
Step 2: Rename first directory to something esle. IE: D:\wow1 changed to D:\wow1temp
Step 3: Rename second directory to mirror the original. IE D:\wow2 changed to D:\wow1
Step 4: Run the second copy of the game and itll auto patch just like the first
Step 5: Rename the directories to their original names.

Voila. Simple and effective.