How to setup MT4 with large

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Hi there,

I've found that backtesting can require huge data sets and my C drive ran out of space.

I bought an external hard drive thinking I could install MT4 on it, as well as download the data sets to it, and that this would be the best way to strategy test with Birt's Tick Data Suite.

After installing MT4 on the hard drive with the portable key, I accessed MetaEditor.

The file structure in MetaEditor points to a location on the C drive, not on the D drive, where my hard drive is.

What should I do about this?

Can I point MetaEditor to the data folder on the D drive?

Whatever the solution, I need to be able to run Birt's tick data suite, which appears to require data be on the C drive.

Can anyone advise how I need to setup MT4 with Tick Data Suite with an external hard drive (because of the huge volume of data)?

Am finding it all very confusing. 

Thanks,

Brett. 

 
Read about Portable mode in the documentation.
 

Thanks drazen64.

 

It states "The root of each terminal data folder also contains origin.txt file where you can find the path to the installation folder of the terminal this data refers to. " 

 

I guess I should update the path of the origin.txt file to point to my data on the D drive? 

 

No, read the last part on that page under the title "Portable mode", especially this part:

 

In order to launch the terminal in Portable mode, use "/portable" key. For more convenience, you can create an additional terminal launch shortcut with the appropriate name on your desktop and add the key directly to the shortcut:

 

This is just below the "Portable mode" title:

Portable launch mode is provided for the terminal operation on portable devices and non-system directories, as well as for working in Windows XP. When launched in this mode, the terminal tries to save its data in the installation folder.

 

I've confirmed mt4 and metatrader open on the D drive. 

  All I did was select the D drive, which is an external hard drive, when I was prompted to provide an installation location. Then I created a shortcut and put "/portable" in the shortcut's target field.   

 When I open MetaTrader, it doesn't show data from the installation drive, but instead on the C drive. It shows EA's and indicators on the C drive at C:\Users\User_account_name\AppData\Roaming\MetaQuotes\Terminal\Instance_id, instead of the D drive.

 
brettles:

I've confirmed mt4 and metatrader open on the D drive. 

  All I did was select the D drive, which is an external hard drive, when I was prompted to provide an installation location. Then I created a shortcut and put "/portable" in the shortcut's target field.   

 When I open MetaTrader, it doesn't show data from the installation drive, but instead on the C drive. It shows EA's and indicators on the C drive at C:\Users\User_account_name\AppData\Roaming\MetaQuotes\Terminal\Instance_id, instead of the D drive.

How are you opening the MetaEditor (from within MT4 or from a shortcut)?

If from the shortcut, then obviously you also have to add "/portable" to it as well.

Here is an example for a setup on the "S:" drive.

Target: S:\Trading\MetaTrader\GBEBrokers\MT4Demo\metaeditor.exe /portable
Start in: S:\Trading\MetaTrader\GBEBrokers\MT4Demo

 

Hi FMIC,

In MT4, I click on the MetaEditor button.  I've confirmed that that MetaEditor is running from the ext hard drive.

I don't remember if I put /portable in for metaeditor.exe.  Hopefully not and that will sort this.

Thanks. 

 
brettles: In MT4, I click on the MetaEditor button.  I've confirmed that that MetaEditor is running from the ext hard drive. I don't remember if I put /portable in for metaeditor.exe.  Hopefully not and that will sort this.

If you use the MetaEditor Button, then its shortcut is not important (although you should change it as well). What is important (besides the "/portable" switch) is that you make sure to start the MT4 Terminal from the correct "Start in" directory:

Here is an example for a setup on the "S:" drive.

Target: S:\Trading\MetaTrader\GBEBrokers\MT4Demo\terminal.exe /portable
Start in: S:\Trading\MetaTrader\GBEBrokers\MT4Demo

 
brettles: I've found that backtesting can require huge data sets and my C drive ran out of space.
  1. Most likely everything your trying is useless.
  2. Previously the largest FXT file that backtesting can use was 2GB. Don't remember if it can now be 3GB.
  3. In any case check it's size and change the start/end dates to reduce it.
 
WHRoeder:
brettles: I've found that backtesting can require huge data sets and my C drive ran out of space.
  1. Most likely everything your trying is useless.
  2. Previously the largest FXT file that backtesting can use was 2GB. Don't remember if it can now be 3GB.
  3. In any case check it's size and change the start/end dates to reduce it.

@WHRoeder - Actually, if using Tick Data files, brettles is correct, because for each Symbol and each Time-frame you have to have very large files, and yes they can be larger than 2GB (that was the old limit).

So, even if using only 2GB per file, that is 2GB x 7 time frames = 14GB per symbol (and that is basically just for 3-5 Years of data with duplicate ticks removed). Now if you happen to want to have 10 different currency pairs on hand for various tests, you are now looking at 140GB (just for two years of data). If however, your strategy is heavily reliant on Volume, then you can no longer remove duplicate ticks and your data can easily reach almost double the size.

Besides the FXT you also have to consider the space used by HST files as well as the actual source of tick data that has been collected in order to produce the FXT/HST files. Considering all the data files, this can lead to a serious chunk of your disk space.

Also, you might think that one can just generate the files only when you need them; however, due to the fact that it takes quite long to produce them, it is best to have them generated all together at one sitting, maybe on the week-end or once a month and have them available when you need them. Add to that, the fact, that the file generation can produce highly fragmented files, which in order to improve performance, have to be de-fragmented over-night after being generated, so it is not very practical to have them generated only when needed.

Personally, I currently use an SSD drive for this (which is much faster and does not require being de-fragmented), but before that, I used standard mechanical SATA drives, so I really can sympathise with the difficulties that brettles is having.

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