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COMSOL kills the Hard Drive

Muhammad Mohsin Rehman

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Dear all,

I am building my model of microwaves heating in COMSOL but cannot run my simulation for one day, the moment I set this time as the heating (simulation time) it gave me error after some processing that THERE IS NOT ENOUGH DISK SPACE. Before the simulation 8Gb was free in my PC's C drive but at the moment I checked the space again and it was showing only 126 Mb as free. I was wondering where the space is going?

It has happened with me several times.I restarted my PC to delete the temporary solution files but the space is still 140 Mb free.Where the space is going?

Can anybody suggest something?
Where does COMSOL saves the temporary files and how they can be deleted?

My PC has 3.5 Gb RAM and 3.4GHz processor.

Thanks for any help!

3 Replies Last Post 22 ott 2011, 15:21 GMT-4
Ivar KJELBERG COMSOL Multiphysics(r) fan, retired, former "Senior Expert" at CSEM SA (CH)

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Posted: 1 decade ago 22 ott 2011, 03:37 GMT-4
Hi

A simulation can easily "overflow" your RAM and hard disk, be aware. COMSOL also stores temp files, and potentially swap files, if it crashes this might fill yur disk, as it might not be erased. Check your usual TEMP domains, or use your Windows disk cleaner. But think twice before you scratch off "unknown files" that might belong to the system ;)

By the way, I had another surprise, a few weeks ago, wanting to store a simultion file on my second HD for exchange with the UNIX side of my work station, this was set up as a FAT32 disk, but this limits the file size to max 4Gb, my model had more than 5.8Gb, its quickly done ;)

Another thing, use the latest version, 4.0 was an early out, and not fully ironed, you will get less frustrated

--
Good luck
Ivar
Hi A simulation can easily "overflow" your RAM and hard disk, be aware. COMSOL also stores temp files, and potentially swap files, if it crashes this might fill yur disk, as it might not be erased. Check your usual TEMP domains, or use your Windows disk cleaner. But think twice before you scratch off "unknown files" that might belong to the system ;) By the way, I had another surprise, a few weeks ago, wanting to store a simultion file on my second HD for exchange with the UNIX side of my work station, this was set up as a FAT32 disk, but this limits the file size to max 4Gb, my model had more than 5.8Gb, its quickly done ;) Another thing, use the latest version, 4.0 was an early out, and not fully ironed, you will get less frustrated -- Good luck Ivar

Muhammad Mohsin Rehman

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Posted: 1 decade ago 22 ott 2011, 15:11 GMT-4
Thanks for your clarifications.

I found its path where it stores the temporary files and believe me for a2D microwave simulation with simple model and fine mesh and heating time of one day, it was occupying 11Gb from my C drive.
I am wondering how people can heat the model for months and years as I found one thesis mentioning the microwaves heating time as 3 years (How much space is required?)


Thanks for your clarifications. I found its path where it stores the temporary files and believe me for a2D microwave simulation with simple model and fine mesh and heating time of one day, it was occupying 11Gb from my C drive. I am wondering how people can heat the model for months and years as I found one thesis mentioning the microwaves heating time as 3 years (How much space is required?)

Ivar KJELBERG COMSOL Multiphysics(r) fan, retired, former "Senior Expert" at CSEM SA (CH)

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Posted: 1 decade ago 22 ott 2011, 15:21 GMT-4
Hi

This just tells us that we all need to be more clever, and simplify our models. We become lazy if we "just" plug in som number and let go.
Check if you need the fine mesh, if you cannot use symmetry or 2D or 2D axi ..., or replace some "thin volumes" by boundaries + some physics

--
Good luck
Ivar
Hi This just tells us that we all need to be more clever, and simplify our models. We become lazy if we "just" plug in som number and let go. Check if you need the fine mesh, if you cannot use symmetry or 2D or 2D axi ..., or replace some "thin volumes" by boundaries + some physics -- Good luck Ivar

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