Dewesoft X2 Slow Start - Setup file related?

I have a remote computer running Dewesoft X2 connected to a 8 ch Sirius USB.

It runs a fairly simple setup acquiring data on 7 out of 8 channels at 2 kHz sample rate and also has maths channels that calculate the rolling means over a few hundred ms. Pretty basic stuff.

It is configured to run Dewesoft X2 on boot, auto load the setup and immediately start acquiring data continuously until told to stop by manual intervention (or loss of power). It starts a new file every 5 mins and names the files in a sequential file chain.

It has been left on site unattended for a very long time. I recently went to visit the system to make sure it was still operational and everything was OK except that the setup file took a very long time to load (something like 5 minutes) and the PC seemed to freeze while it was loading. If I was patient, everything loaded eventually and the system started up as expected and operates fine but I wonder what is causing the long start up time and if I can do anything to speed it up?

I have two theories:

1) the chain of continuous files is very long and as part of loading the setup, the system checks the entire chain to work out what the first filename should be when it re-starts - possible solution: move the files to another directory and start a new chain.

2) because it has run for a very long time it has large log files filled with lots of warning messages and Dewesoft checks through each message in the the log files each time setup is loaded. - possible solution: save the log files elsewhere and start new (flush files).

Obviously I could have answered my own question by trying my solutions out at the time but it was very early in the morning and these potential causes only occurred to me the next day. Does anyone have experience of Dewesoft X2 taking a long time to open setup files and what the causes might be? Are my potential causes/solutions on the right track? I can always implement next time I'm there.

While I was there I did the usual PC management of removing temp files from the disks, cleaning registry and checking disks for fragmentation, but none of the general housekeeping made any difference.

Thanks in advance if you're feeling helpful.

Answering my own question in case it helps someone in the future. Slow startup was entirely caused by auto-loading a setup file that stored data to the end of a continuous file chain, with lots (around 600G) of files already in the directory. By emptying the directory where the files would be stored (and obviously moving the existing files and backing up) - effectively starting the chain again at zero - the setup file loads instantly.

There's a lesson to learn here because if you are going to leave something running unattended for an extended period of time you would probably use some kind of watchdog to make sure your system doesn't hang and that reboots and re-starts everything if it detects the system has frozen. I know there is a Dewesoft watchdog plugin but I just use my own Powershell script to do this.

The more files you generate in the same directory, the longer the startup is going to be, each time the system reboots. If you don't set your watchdog correct to cope with extended boot times, then it might think system is frozen, when its just taking a long time to boot, and end up in a circular re-boot.

Dear Andrew,

Thank you very much for the topic and nice explanation of your measurement. In that point, I can suggest to you the DataManager Module which can help you at files manipulation.

Best regards