Home Forums Import Folder getting big

My import folder is getting big. I am wondering if anyone has done this: for the patients that are inactive or left the practice,move the subfolder(account number) to another location? This will make the import folder smaller and since these patients are not being accessed AC would not attempt to look for these sub-folders. Would there be any problems with AC's functioning?

Yes you can do that. THEN . . .
You may want to run Administrative Options
Select Tools menu, then "Imported Items, repair missing files & links"
This will take links OUT of the database to avoid unnecessary or inadvertent searches by AC

How big is the folder?

Right now it is > 120 Gig and growing.

Raj, I don't think there would be any problem with your proposal, except that when you try to open the II in one of the charts where they have been moved, it takes some time to get out of that chart.

One thing I would question is why your II is so big. How many patients? Are you importing lots of images (e.g. x-ray images)? Are you scanning with a high resolution so each item is large?

And are you actually experiencing slowing when you open charts, or is this just because you are concerned about that problem in the future?

Are you planning on doing this one patient at a time? It seems to me that you are planning a great deal of effort for only a modest gain, unless your practice is quite unusual and has only a few patients, each with a very large number of imported items. The cost effectiveness of this seems otherwise questionable.

Probably high resolution scanning and trying to keep a lot of things on file(copy of drivers license, school excuse, do a lot of tympanometry).

Raj,

This is one way that should be successful and the purest way to do it. I set up my AC on the server this way every time. You may want to call AC support and let them do it for you or tell you what they think. I would think it would take a long time as you have such a big II folder.

When you start your SQL databases along with your II folder reside in the AC folder. What you want to do is move the databases along with the II to a new partition or drive. To do this, you use Amazing Utilities, which I have open here.



Notice the Imported Items folder. The databases are below. The detach and move databases is highlighted.

While the window is open users may wish to notice the ability to clean out your backups, which I believe leaves the last month, and the ability to encrypt.

When you click on the highlighted selection, your databases are detached from the SQL Server Engine. You would never try to move them without their being detached.

This will bring up a dialog box which will allow you to browse to the new location. Here I have called the folder SQL and II.



Note at the top of the window where it says "Select where you want to move your Amazing Charts databases:" meaning AC endorses your moving your databases. I like my databases on my data drive with my program on my system drive. Just makes sense to have data on a data drive. Also note here the new folder that is depicted with the blue line. This is a demonstration. In your case you would want the databases on a different partition, one where the size of the II doesn't matter.

Because Imported Items works with AmazingCharts.mdf, AC wants it in the same folder. So, the database brings Imported Items along for the ride.



So, you will see three things. The imported items have moved to the new location, the databases have moved as well, and the XML file allowing AC to locate the new location is there as well. Once moved, AC will automatically find the new location. Amazing Charts will have all of its files that it needs to run, it will just access the databases and II as well as its BACKUP folder (too bad it didn't stay home) and the _Data001 folder.

I believe this would work for you. Given the intricacy of the maneuver, you could wait until your next version when everything is backed up. Again, this is my usual setup, but if you like the idea, I would talk to tech support.

Just an idea.

Bert,
If I understand Raj correctly, I do not think that your set-up addresses his issue.
His hope is to reduce the effective size of his II so that charts will open faster.
With your configuration, AC still has to "find" the appropriate II from within the entire II database, which in his case is 120gb.
Is that right?

Going back you are probably right. But, that brings up several points. First moving out one patient at a time with a 120GB folder is like a tsp emptying the ocean. I am not a database expert, but I don't think it quite works that way. The query for patient 1006 and its imported items will run through that table rather fast. When you click on II, it opens and the folders are there. At least for me. It is opening the files that takes the time.

I have over 2,000 patients, and it finds them pretty fast. Now, once you open a patient, SQL stores that query in cache in the 1GB of memory, and now the patient no longer needs to be pulled from the hard drive but only from the pages in SQL. Now if he had SQL 2012 Standard and 64GB of RAM, then he wouldn't have much to worry about.

So, if I were he I would just leave it alone.

Gotta admit, though. My post is pretty good.

Raj,

Because of how AC handles imported items (external files), the fastest way to improve the performance is to add a SSD RAID1 ( or RAID5 or RAID10 if you are so inclined), and move your AC and the II folder to the SSD RAID. Much faster.