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iamken

Moving data to "D" Drive

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TMG Ver 7.04, Windows 7

I installed a solid state drive for my "C" drive and am using a HD for my data.

 

I moved my data from the "C" drive to the "D" drive, everything is working fine with the exception when I open TMG it always makes a new directory under my "User" directory, then I have to show it where it is. As long as I do not erase the TMG directory and it's sub's that it created everything works fine.

The minute I erase the Directories on the "C" drive, well here we go again, when I open TMG it creates them again.

Can't TMG take the hint, I own this computer, lock stock and barrel, I would think I could have it my way, why does TMG have to have it its way.

No big deal but I like to keep my house very clean and organized.

Don't get me wrong, I love TMG and have been using it for 10 years, great program.

Kenny

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Please read the "Data File Storage" topic in the TMG Help. Basically, when TMG was installed to the default settings, it recorded those settings in the Windows Registry as the path(s) for it to use to get and create files. You need to tell it that you have moved those locations! TMG reads the values in the registry to control those file actions. Most probably you will need to read and understand the "Advanced" section and then use the "data_paths.txt" mechanism to relocate where TMG looks for and creates files.

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TMG Ver 7.04, Windows 7

I moved my data from the "C" drive to the "D" drive, everything is working fine with the exception when I open TMG it always makes a new directory under my "User" directory, then I have to show it where it is. As long as I do not erase the TMG directory and it's sub's that it created everything works fine.

 

Yes, that's correct.

 

You can do what Robin suggests or simply leave the original tree intact and empty the folders. The tree structure will take very little disk space.

 

A better solution is to relocate the system Documents folder to the D: drive.

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Thanks Robin and Jim

Everything is just the way I want it, I now have control back

Kenny

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..

A better solution is to relocate the system Documents folder to the D: drive.

Jim,

Some path issues I've had have made it to the top of my "tackle now" list.

As for Kenny, my TMG data is now on d:\

under D:\Lorna\My Documents\ etc, masquarading as the much longer path that normally is.

The actual projects being under D:\Lorna\My Documents\Genealogy\TMG\Projects....

 

Before I tackle that one, does this mean simply copy

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\TMG7 to D:\Lorna

What as?

D:\Lorna\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\TMG7

and does that mean I don't need to get my head around data_paths.txt?

(I'm in overload mode at the moment reviewing a heap of things about how I do stuff and make assorted machines talk to each other and my first attempts at getting data_paths.txt to work failed - it was rather late at night)

 

This is only on my non-live data, and I suspect that this alone wont fix my main problem from restoring data onto this machine, which is that although the relative directories are identical between production, where everything is on the laptop c:\ and desktop, where data is on d:\, every restore I have to overwrite file paths in the restore and I lose all my exhibit paths,which seem to be stored as fixed paths, not relative ones.

It's mainly the latter that's a right pain as there are a heap of folders to add to the find missing exhibits to fix the slow way, hence the desire to find a quicker way (short of repartitioning the laptop and creating a D:\, which I'm not at all confident about being able to do, should this be the most desirable solution!).

 

Ideally, I don't actually want to restore at all to be able to work on my production copy on separate machines, but any time I've tried simply opening the laptop project over the network performance was a right pain so I stopped.

Oh for a fast front-end that could automatically keep things in synch across machines like the email solutions I've just installed without having to restore.

It can be wonderful having a tree on ancestry eg and be able to access it from anywhere, however much that is no replacement for TMG.

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Lorna,

 

You can relocate the system Documents folder location. That requires no adjustments to TMG whatsoever. The user data folder will be located in the relocated system Documents folder.

 

If you want to rename any of the data folders or relocate the user data folder to outside of the Documents folder or relocate the shared program data folder and/or the user program data folder, that requires using a Data_paths.txt file.

 

You need to be very clear what you want to do.

 

Jim

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You need to be very clear what you want to do.

 

Jim

The most important problem I want to solve is that when I restore from my laptop (which is set up as c:\My documents...... and with all sources/exhibits etc in folders also referencing c:\My documents......)

the desktop cannot find the exhibits because on the desktop everything is in D:\Lorna\My documents ....

The actual file structures under My documents are identical and the exhibits are all synched using dropbox so all should be on both machines.

 

But TMG (laptop is production) has all the exhibits marked as being stored in c:\My Documents .....

I do wonder why it can't just use relative addresses from whatever directory some other setting is pointing too, which would make this problem go away.

If I can already do so, where do I influence this?

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The simple solution is to have a common path for the system documents folder on all systems. On all my computers using multiple operating systems, I have the system documents folder set to D:\User_data\Documents. Since all TMG user data is located using the same paths on all systems, moving data between computers is a seemless process.

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The simple solution is to have a common path for the system documents folder on all systems. On all my computers using multiple operating systems, I have the system documents folder set to D:\User_data\Documents. Since all TMG user data is located using the same paths on all systems, moving data between computers is a seamless process.

Jim,

Yes I am aware that that is the ideal solution.

I am also aware that I am ideally trying to have C:\ for program and system stuff and D:\ for data stuff, but I'm not there yet given existing constraints and lack of understanding on HOW to get there.

Any wonderful web sites to point me to to solve this aspect? It is after all not really a TMG problem, other than there must be other poor bods like me around who don't quite know what they're doing in this regard and do backup/restore between older laptops and newer desktops.

 

My problem then becomes that I don't know how best to get the laptop to have a D:\ drive for the data!

I'm not into hardware stuff at all. The partitioning of the desktop was done by a friend, who is now very busy!

On the laptop

D:\ is already allocated to a dvd writer, and XP doesn't appear to have a rename facility

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You use a partitioning tool to shrink drive C: and use the gained space for a new partition which will be drive D. Win7 has this built in within the Disk Management snap-in. Earlier operating system versions require a 3rd party partitioning tool.

 

You need to be more specific about what you need to do. Can't help you if this is the partition under Parallels or Fusion. I have a MacBook pro but set it up differently and have Win7 with drives C: and D:.

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Lorna,

 

Yes, you can change the drive letters in XP. If you need help finding that feature (it's pretty well hidden in one of the apps in the System Tools menu as I recall) I'll light up one of my XP machines and find it.

 

Terry

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You use a partitioning tool to shrink drive C: and use the gained space for a new partition which will be drive D. Win7 has this built in within the Disk Management snap-in. Earlier operating system versions require a 3rd party partitioning tool.

 

You need to be more specific about what you need to do. Can't help you if this is the partition under Parallels or Fusion. I have a MacBook pro but set it up differently and have Win7 with drives C: and D:.

Ta Jim.

The options are expanding!

My MacBook Pro has just arrived - an hour ago.

(I already have Fusion downloaded ready to do something or other with it) and Win 7 pro arrived yesterday, sitting as an unopened package on top of the MacBook box.

I'm a little incredulous with myself for leaving it in its box unopened, but I've been a bit busy so far today, and will be for the next couple of hours.

 

It may well be that the easiest option at this point is to go Win 7 on the laptop (XP) as well - EXCEPT that that involves a heap of research by me on how to do it, as it's not the upgrade from XP it's the Win 7 pro instal - and not something I was going to tackle in the near future for the laptop.

 

However, if I can get the MacBook Pro as my production machine with a D:\User_data\Documents in the windows side of the fence I'd actually be a happy camper as this problem, in essence, should then go away.

(I do assume that the "User_data" part of that is simply your naming convention and D:\Lorna\My Documents is perfectly acceptable? I think of things as programs or data, and that's where the data is on the XP desktop)

 

Thank you so much for your patience.

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Lorna,

 

You can name the path any way that works for you. You do not need the term "User Data." You also do not need the user name, unless you intend to have multiple users on the computer - that's part of MicroSoft's attempt to let multiple users share a system, and just adds needless complexity for single-user systems.

 

The important thing is to have the same path on every system if you will be moving copies of the project around. You can't do that if you use the default paths because different versions of Windows name those paths differently. By establishing a separate D: drive you have the ability to set up the same paths one each regardless of the Windows version you have on your various computers.

 

I use the D: drive for all data of any sort. I divide it then into folders:

-Application Data - for all applications that create files I don't consider as "documents," including TMG, Second Site, Deed Mapper, Quicken, etc.

 

- Docs - for traditional word processing and spreadsheet documents and the like.

 

- Genealogy - for any files sent or received related to genealogy - correspondence, files received, source images, reports created, photos, etc.

 

- Pictures - all photos other than genealogy

 

- Mail - for my email program's files (not sure why it isn't in Application Data)

 

- Website - for my local copy of my website

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Lorna,

 

You can name the path any way that works for you. ...

Ta Terry,

I'm slowly getting there.

MacBook Pro now has Fusion and Win7 installed, the DVD drive renamed to E but I hit problems last night trying to shrink the Windows side of things C drive to the size I wanted and the instructions from there looked too complicated for that hour of the morning so I went to bed.

Yes (on both desktop and laptop, I have my folders within My Documents all set up as I want them, and the same on both machines - but somehow I've always been too timid to rename the My Documents part of it to MyDocs or just Docs, or even LornaDocs or whatever (I hate the way m$ names heaps of things My ... , it ruins quick keying by initial letters) it seemed so intrinsic to M$, let alone tamper with any higher order bits in the path.

Hopefully today I'll get to the point where I can get the MacBook set up with the D drive and start loading stuff onto it and get going again and see if I've won (certainly have as far as the machine itself goes - love it, even if I'll take a while to get used to different keyboard shortcuts)

 

Thanks everyone for your help and support to give me the courage to try stuff I wouldn't normally be near with a barge pole. Suppose if I just think of it all as yet another software package with settings to fiddle, albeit with a bit more care, I'll get over that mental hurdle.

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if I can get the MacBook Pro as my production machine with a D:\User_data\Documents in the windows side of the fence I'd actually be a happy camper
I hit problems last night trying to shrink the Windows side of things C drive to the size I wanted

:no: You don't do it that way with a Virtual Machine :wallbash:

Use Fusion configuration settings to resize "C"

See the VMWare Fusion KB Article: 1004113

http://bit.ly/a4T5BS

 

I use Parallels and the process is very similar...

 

The KB Article is for WinXP, I'm running Win 7 Pro, and at step 10 we diverge from the instructions.

10. Right-click on Unallocated space and choose New Simple Volume... (the only choice available)

- New Simple Volume Wizard opens -

11. Click Next

12. Specify Volume Size (I created an 8Gb Drive in step 5 so I just used that as the volume size)

13. Assign Drive Letter or Path - E was suggested, activated the drop down list and noted that D was not available, :yucky: B and E through Z were. I accepted E

14. Format Partition File System: NTSF, Allocation unit size: Default, Volume Label: Text box type your desired designation maybe TMG Data or something to that effect. Preform a quick format.

15. Finish - Partition is formatted. The second virtual disk is usable when the status is Healthy.

 

Create a data_paths.txt file in the TMG Program folder. I used a very simple one... two lines

[username]

UserData=E:\The Master Genealogist v7

 

Start TMG - it asked for my unlock code, (which I skipped for this exercise) TMG then created the necessary folders on the E drive.

 

BTW it is necessary to run Notepad as an administrator to edit and/or save the data_paths.txt file in the Program Files folder... locate Notepad in the start menu, right click and choose Run as administrator.

 

I did this exercise in my Win7 Admin account, now that I've returned my data_paths.txt file to the path where my projects are located I've got to reenter the unlock code... :wacko:

When I rebooted Win 7 I had to confirm I had a genuine copy... :tongue2:

I lost all my preferences and layouts :sadwalk:

 

I don't normally run Win7 in the admin account, so restarted :sweat: in my user account and all was OK :whistling:

I'll have to restore my preferences and layouts for my admin account :upsidedown:

 

Finally I deleted virtual drive E, very simple, in Parallels hardware config just selected it, clicked the - (minus) button confirmed I wanted it sent to the Mac trash bin and poof it was gone. The final step is to empty my Mac trash bin :ph34r:

Edited by ggilbert1

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