Patching Tip, or Don't Be an Idiot Like Me

[Yamio]

I learned my lesson after having to reinstall WoW awhile back. I have 5 wow folders on my clone machine (that machine runs 4 wows). One folder is my "main" and it's the one on patch day that I start up and patch. After it's done I redo my symlinks to that one and I'm ready to go. Easy peasy.

[Taliesin]

Since moving to Vista 64, the Blizzard updater has problems finding my WoW folder, since it needs to exist in a public space. The quick answer was to just manually download the patch then update that way. Haven't had any problems since then, even with symlinked folders.

I just symlink Cache, Data, Interface, and Screenshots (not necessary for this one, but personal preference). After patching the main folder, I just copy and paste the files directly under the WoW folder (not subfolders) to all the slave directories. No hiccups so far.

[Slauterhause]

After another failure and more research, here's something to try if you get this error: Go to [WoW Directory]\Data\ and delete Patch.mpq (ok, don't delete it but rename it just in case). Then run the repair.exe utility in the wow root folder. It will tell WoW has a critical error and needs to be repaired. Let the repair run (it may take a little while).

Then try running the game again and let it patch.

That's what I'm trying now and will see how that goes.

This worked for me! WOOT!

If you get that error, give this solution a try before trying to reinstall.

Happy 3.1'ing everyone.

Hey thanks Talamarr, worked like a charm.

[sqeaky4100]

always patch just your main copy of wow through the loader. then copy the new loader.exe and wow.exe to your symlinked wow's and everything will go smoothly.

This worked, and I didn't have to run any Repair.exe, or any long term things. HEre's it re-written in more plain english.



1) Delete the symlinked folders in your SLAVES FOLDERS. They should delete instantly as they are only re-directories, and don't contain any material themselves.
2) Go into your main folder for WoW and run Launcher.exe... let it update.
3) Symlink everything back up. However you do it.
4) Go into your main folder for WoW and Right-Click and Copy both Launcher.exe and WoW.exe ( they should be like 16mb each or so )
5) Go into each Slaves folder and Right-Click and Paste. When prompted, "Copy + Replace" over the current launcher.exe and Wow.exe



Seems even though you symlinked the new data +interface back up with the updated one. The launcher.exe and wow.exe are new too or something, so they must also be replaced.

[Hachoo]

Since moving to Vista 64, the Blizzard updater has problems finding my WoW folder, since it needs to exist in a public space. The quick answer was to just manually download the patch then update that way. Haven't had any problems since then, even with symlinked folders.

I just symlink Cache, Data, Interface, and Screenshots (not necessary for this one, but personal preference). After patching the main folder, I just copy and paste the files directly under the WoW folder (not subfolders) to all the slave directories. No hiccups so far.

The solution to this is to run wow.exe as administrator for the copy you want to be "master". IE if you made a C:\wow1 folder, you'd go into the C:\Wow1 folder, then right click wow.exe and click "Run as Administrator" - this will now tell the windows registry where your WoW copy is. Now you can run the launcher or whatnot and it will find the update location automatically.

[Dotalot]

i have not had any prob's at all (vista 64bit) all patched up and killing time till EU servers come online in 2 hours :whistling:

[Taliesin]

Since moving to Vista 64, the Blizzard updater has problems finding my WoW folder, since it needs to exist in a public space. The quick answer was to just manually download the patch then update that way. Haven't had any problems since then, even with symlinked folders.

I just symlink Cache, Data, Interface, and Screenshots (not necessary for this one, but personal preference). After patching the main folder, I just copy and paste the files directly under the WoW folder (not subfolders) to all the slave directories. No hiccups so far.

The solution to this is to run wow.exe as administrator for the copy you want to be "master". IE if you made a C:\wow1 folder, you'd go into the C:\Wow1 folder, then right click wow.exe and click "Run as Administrator" - this will now tell the windows registry where your WoW copy is. Now you can run the launcher or whatnot and it will find the update location automatically.

It's been a while now, so I can't recall if I had tried that already. Next time I need to patch, I'll try to remember to do this again. Honestly, I still prefer patching manually because the Blizz downloader always seems to take me forever even though all the ports are open. 750 MB in just 20 mins from filefront? I don't think I've ever even remotely gotten close to those download speeds from Blizz even in between patch releases.

I also save all the patches in a separate folder for any time I find I need to re-install or want to update my laptop (shared directory) without downloading more than once.

[Dorffo]

always patch just your main copy of wow through the loader. then copy the new loader.exe and wow.exe to your symlinked wow's and everything will go smoothly.

double quoted for emphasis ... have hosed my installs mutliple patches in a row when I forget to do this.

[zanthor]

I would suggest never using a 3rd party application to launch WoW (save for maybe a batch file you wrote yourself).

Um... I'd go out on a limb and say almost all keyclone users do this... no problems in general - yea, don't try to patch that way.

I know all Innerspace users do this - still don't patch this way.

I think many HKN users do this... again, don't patch this way.

[Leon]

Just went to do the copy & paste thing with the Exe's and that went fine till i tried to open the second account now i get a error

"Unable to Open DBfilesClient\BnnedAddOns.dbc"
the when i go to try a repair it gets about half way and i get asked to please reinstall as there is not enough space to fix all the problems