Vista32 linked wow folders - patch problem

[Perrigrin]

I followed the instructions on a thread in here to set up linked folders in Vista32.

I have WoWMain and linked everything in there except the WTF folder (I think, dont quite remember) - I patched ok last week, but this week when I was supposed to patch the patcher insisted I had a size inconsistency and refused to patch - Eventually I ended up running repair which back me to 3.0.1, from where I'm now repatching.

Some questions:

- any idea why this would have happened?

- where is patch data stored on vista? I were not able to find it to trigger a "re-download" of the patch

- any thoughts on how to avoid patching problems when running linked on vista? as I said, last week was fine - now not, and not suré why...

thanks!

[Solon]

I had similar problems (Vista 64 Ultimate). My final solution was to not link the wow.exe files and just copy the patched one into each folder. I still have the data, cache, and interface folders symlinked. I hope that helps you too. I know I used to have a TBC patch but thats gone now, and I wonder if the patch isn't right in the exe now.

[Perrigrin]

thanks!

running repair and repatching fixed it - but it took 45 mins so I rather try and avoid it :P will try unlinking wow.exe as you said

[BobGnarly]

My guess is that you had at least one file that wasn't linked, it got updated in one directory, and not the other. WoW has a strange "feature" in which it remembers where you last ran it and when it goes to patch, even if you are patching in a different directory, it starts to patch in the last known directory. This will cause it to give you the consistency failure that you mention.

I don't like the .exe and stuff, and each patch I have to look in the first patch directory and copy all the files that were changed into my other directories. You might check that out next time you have to patch.

[Souca]

I had similar problems (Vista 64 Ultimate). My final solution was to not link the wow.exe files and just copy the patched one into each folder. I still have the data, cache, and interface folders symlinked. I hope that helps you too. I know I used to have a TBC patch but thats gone now, and I wonder if the patch isn't right in the exe now.

This is basically what I have resorted to doing. I have a main WoW folder I use to play all my solo characters. All my multiboxing copies link back to the solo folder. When there is a new patch, I make sure to download and patch it on the solo exe. After it is done and I've accepted the new TOS/EULA, I copy all the files in the top level directory over all the clone folders. You don't need to copy anything in folders below the top level since those will either get rebuilt, or they are liked to the updated master.

- Souca -