Gaussian - Resuming a calculation

[CrimpJiggler]

I heard that if Gaussian crashes, you can just resume the calculation by loading the incomplete log file. How do I do that, I tried opening the incomplete .log file with GaussView and Gaussian and neither work (get error messages). Do I need to create a checkpoint file or something? This time I did specify it to create a checkpoint file, can I use this .chk file to resume the incomplete job? I tried opening it in Gaussian and here's what happened:

I haven't figured out what the purpose of these checkpoint files are yet, I've been just opening my previous calculations .log files with GaussView and run additional calculations from there, am I doing something wrong there? Also I've been saving my .gjf and .log files in my own separate directory, do I need to store them in the default Gaussian folder in order for everything to work correctly?

 

[jbsteele]

Unfortunately, it is not possible to resume a crashed calculation using the log file alone. In order to be able to resume a calculation, you must have a checkpoint file (.chk). The checkpoint file contains information about the current state of the calculation, and the log file contains only the output of the calculation at the time it was stopped.In order to create a checkpoint file, you must specify it in the command line with the '%Chk=' option. If you have already specified this option, then when the job crashes, the checkpoint file should be created. You can then use this checkpoint file to restart the calculation.It is recommended that you store your .gjf and .log files in the default Gaussian folder in order for everything to work correctly. However, you can also store them in a different directory, as long as the path to the files is defined correctly in the command line.