Loading time build.142

[jelvers]

Admittedly I have a pretty big database (ca. 3.7 Gb), managing a little over 100.000 pics. Once IM5 is up and running everything just works fine and smoothly  . However, when I start IM 5 the first time it takes ca. 4 minutes until it is ready for use, which is much longer than using IM 3. The funny thing is, though  that when I then close the datbase and re-start it again immediatley, it takes less than 20 secs. Upon repeat I get the same result.

Any settings I should change for a faster initiation in the first place?

Regards, Juergen

[Mario]

The funny thing is, though  that when I then close the datbase and re-start it again immediatley, it takes less than 20 secs. Upon repeat I get the same result.

This indicates that the disk is the performance bottleneck. You did not include a log file so I cannot see the hard numbers. But when IMatch starts up, it loads a lot of data into memory, has to re-calculate collections and data-driven categories (over a period of time) etc. This means that a lot of data has to be read from the disk. If the disk is not fast, or fragmented, this can take some time for a 100,000 files database.

The time difference between the first ("cold") load and the "hot" loads afterwards is explained by the Windows file system cache. When you load the database again, Windows has all the data IMatch needs in memory and does not need to access the hard disk anymore.

Tips:

- Use your fastest hard disk for the IMatch database.
- Optimize your IMatch database via Database > Tools > Compact & Optimize
- If you have a fairly old computer with slow disks you may get a massive performance improvement with a SSD or (cheaper) a USB 3.0 card and a high-speed USB stick.

[jelvers]

Tips:
- Optimize your IMatch database via Database > Tools > Compact & Optimize

Thanks Mario for the tips. The optzimisation was the breakthrough. Starts faster than IM3 now.

Juergen

[Mario]

Very good. Optimize and Compact keeps the database slick and quick.
It's usually only required when you add or remove large batches of files - and IMatch shows a reminder in this case.

If you use Pack & Go to do database backups (you can do that, even if you just want to help testing that feature) you can set P&G to diagnose and optimize the database automatically.