Varian Star 4.5 disk full problem

[mralitsch]

Hi everyone!

We have a couple of old Varian GC/ECDs running on Varian Star 4.5 software under Windows 98. Both systems acquire data to a network drive mapped onto a local drive letter [R:]. The network drive has plenty of free space. The local hard drives on the computers also have more than 2 GB of free disk space. Every so often, Star comes up with a message stating "Disk is nearly full; Please remove files now!". The message does not indicate the disk to which the message refers . The current injection finishes running but the data file is not saved. The sample list or sequence being acquired hangs and it is necessary to reboot the system in order to continue. This becomes a royal pain in various body parts when injections are being performed overnight or over a weekend. Our Varian tech can't come up with an explanation or a fix. If anyone else has experienced this problem, we would like to know what causes it and how it can be fixed.

Thank you in advance...

Milan.

[MG]

I am not familiar with this data system, so this is just a stab in the dark. Perhaps you could try acquiring the files to the local hard drive. Then move them onto the network manually later when you need to free up space. My thinking is this: all it would take would be for your network to blink-out or slow down at the wrong time, and perhaps the data system being temporarily unable to write to the network drive would produce an unexpected error.

[mralitsch]

Thank you for your reply, MG.

You have a good point. However, we have 11 instruments, all of them acquiring data to the network. Only these two seem to have this problem. There are two other instruments running exactly the same versions of Star and Windows that do not behave in this manner. We have considered acquiring to the local drive, but that would require making some changes to our backup routines and to our SOPs. Since we are a GLP lab, it takes some doing. I was hoping that someone would have come across a solution for this. If not, we will certainly try your suggestion.

[Ron]

The fact that other systems running the same software don't have this problem makes me wonder if this is a network problem. Maybe it is a bad hub, router, or cable that is causing the communications issues.

[DR]

Are all of the disk drives involved the same? If they're FAT16 or FAT32 except for the one that's 'full' - I would suspect that a lot (too many) file names in 1 NTFS folder could be the problem. If that is the problem, just create some sub folders in existing folders (call them "archive-date range") and dump old files into them (move, not copy). If memory serves, NTFS works a little like UNIX in that name and space allocations are different things and if you use lots of long file names (or more short ones), you can 'fill' a volume that has many free sectors on it.

[A.Nonymous]

Have you checked the cables of the network?

1. It can be a bad connection, that sometimes fails...
2. You have some different types of network cables (Cat 5 and 3 if I remember clearly). I think it's cat 5 that is the one which can handle some more data/s rather than cat 3.

Maybe you problem can be reduced to the network cable?

Good luck

[mralitsch]

Thank you all for your input.

I have investigated all of your suggestions but the problem does not go away. It is not a problem related to the NTFS namespace as the same volume and folder are accessible without problems from other systems configured almost identically and also from the same system using Windows Explorer (files can be added to the folder using Explorer without errors). I have also tried different cables and network outlets, including using a cable and outlet from another system that does not show the problem. This system is connected to the file server through the same hub as the one that shows the problem, so it's not a problem with the hub. All of our network cables are CAT 5. I have also tried a different network card. The problem seems to be related to the Star software itself, not to the computer or network.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

[bert]

This system is connected to the file server through the same hub as the one that shows the problem, so it's not a problem with the hub.

Can you try another channel on the HUB?

[mralitsch]

I did try another channel on the hub, one that I know works because it's used by a different instrument with the same configuration and software. I also tried connecting directly to the main switch and it didn't make a difference.

Milan.

[bert]

Nasty problem! Did you ever consider to re-install the software on the two machines?

Bert

[mralitsch]

Yes, the software has been re-installed a time or two. The problem does not occurr all the time, but it's frequent enough that it has become a nuisance. Following Murphy's Law, many times it happens when the analyses are due the day after the samples are being analyzed...

[bert]

Sorry, I'm out of ideas. Will ask some computer guys over here, next week. Despite your problems, enjoy your weekend!

Bert

[mralitsch]

Thank you. Appreciate all the suggestions...

Yes, we'll enjoy the weekend. The weather will be just right for some spring BBQing here in Ottawa (Ontario, Canada, not Kansas). Time to take down the Xmas ornaments and clean up the backyard too... Hope you enjoy yours as well.

Milan

[bert]

Nice city, Ottawa. Have been there once... But just another thought: did you check the version of the drivers (TCP/IP?) on the two machines and compare them to the other machines?


Now, I'll go home.

enjoy your BBQ

regards Bert

[DR]

OK - back everything up.

Then try to see if you can narrow it down to software/hardware. Pull & rename some of the instruments (client PCs - swap each bad one's name w/ that of a good one), & return them to the network. If the problem crops up as a function of a particular piece of hardware, that's it. If the problem follows the names (of the PCs), then it's time to investigate the configurations because 'almost identical' is likely the source of the problem.

Also - make sure that your server is setup with the correct number of licenses, client names - - all that obvious stuff that's easy to overlook and nobody ever admits to changing.