When I initially began using Data Crow, all of my books were on internal Hard Drives P: & T: Eventually I consolidated my books and moved everything to an external USB drive which registers as drive H: on my primary workstation. I then continued to add books. I soon discovered that the filename field was populated with absolute paths to each file’s original drive and directory. Note in the below examples that the not only have the drive letters changed, but also did the names of root folders, etc.
Next, on my primary workstation I took the follow steps:
1. Set up a Folder-As Directory entry named all-ebooks, which maps the path: all-ebooksH:\all-ebooks
2. In the Drive Scanner Tab, I checkmarked only the all-ebooks drive.
3. Ran drive scanner
4. Ran File Synchronizer with the Hash option (terminated before all files were checked, planned to finish later)
That worked. I no longer saw the obsolete paths under the File Structure tab and all filename records had the prefix H:\all-ebooks
Next, I backed up Data Crow to the H: drive, which contains all books. So, now I had Data Crow installed on my primary workstation and populated with the books stored on external USB drive H:
Finally,
1. I installed Data Crow on my Notebook
2. plugged in the external USB drive containing all books into my notebook. The device (H: on workstation) registered on the notebook as drive G:
3. Mapped G: to H:
4. Restored the backup.
5. Ran File synch to finish the process began on my primary workstation.
When I check the filename values, I discovered that the paths were changed to G:\all-ebooks\some-file-name
One last shot, Just in case I had it backwards. I stopped the synch and added an additional mapping: H: to G.
I restarted the synch and that did not solve the problem.
So, here’s my question: What must I do so that I can access the files on my external USB regardless if I plug it into my primary workstation, my notebook, or my business workstation? I don’t mind having to restore a backup each time I use the drive on a different computer?
Many thanks. I love Data Crow.
Richard
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Since I made the original post I solved part of my problem by creating a drive mount-point linked to a folder.
1) On each of my 3 computers, I created an empty folder and named it "Passport USB (black)".
2) Using the Disk-Manager utility, (diskmgmt.msc), I remove the drive letter’s association to the USB drive.
3) As an alternative, I associated the drive to the empty folder "c:\passport USB (black)” {Note: this is not a convoluted hack. It’s a mainstream supported alternative to the common method of using a drive letter.}
4) In Data Crow, under (Settings, Directories As Drives, Add: I navigated the folder tree and selected “passport USB (black)\ebooks”
5) In Data Crow, under (Drive Manager, Drive Scanner) I check marked the box for “ebooks” and started a Drive Scan. {Note: the “ebooks” folder appears as a selectable option only because I added it to “Directories As Drives” in step 4}
6) I then ran File Synchronizer with the option set to Match on Hash and Filesize, Upon completion, all filenames were prefixed with the correct drive ID (in this case “c:\passport usb (black)\ebooks”
Now when I plug my Passport USB drive (black in color) into any of the 3 systems it is not assigned the first available drive letter. Rather, it is assigned the name of the folder (common to all 3 computers) on which it is “mounted”. That folder’s name is of course: “passport usb (black)” and it is located in the root of drive c:
I haven’t yet determined how to keep the 3 separate Data Crow databases in sync. My current workaround is to always make a backup on the “black” drive before disconnecting. When I plug the drive into a different computer I delete the records in the local database and restore the backup file that is on the “black” drive.
Now My Questions:
What is an alternative to constantly erasing and restoring the local database when I move the portable drive between the 3 computers?
Thanks
Richard
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Anonymous
-
2010-01-25
I'm not sure, but this might be a solution for you and it might be a bit simplistic, but what I did: I installed Data Crow on my USB flash drive. On the computer I use the most of the time I made a hyper-link. So basically, you only have one DC installation, always on the same drive as your e-books and therefore only one database. Under the condition that your USB drive is quick enough, off course.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
When I initially began using Data Crow, all of my books were on internal Hard Drives P: & T: Eventually I consolidated my books and moved everything to an external USB drive which registers as drive H: on my primary workstation. I then continued to add books. I soon discovered that the filename field was populated with absolute paths to each file’s original drive and directory. Note in the below examples that the not only have the drive letters changed, but also did the names of root folders, etc.
P:\book\ebooks\history\ancient\FileA.pdf
T:\ebooks\misc\FileB.pdf
H:\all-ebooks\FileC.pdf
Next, on my primary workstation I took the follow steps:
1. Set up a Folder-As Directory entry named all-ebooks, which maps the path: all-ebooksH:\all-ebooks
2. In the Drive Scanner Tab, I checkmarked only the all-ebooks drive.
3. Ran drive scanner
4. Ran File Synchronizer with the Hash option (terminated before all files were checked, planned to finish later)
That worked. I no longer saw the obsolete paths under the File Structure tab and all filename records had the prefix H:\all-ebooks
Next, I backed up Data Crow to the H: drive, which contains all books. So, now I had Data Crow installed on my primary workstation and populated with the books stored on external USB drive H:
Finally,
1. I installed Data Crow on my Notebook
2. plugged in the external USB drive containing all books into my notebook. The device (H: on workstation) registered on the notebook as drive G:
3. Mapped G: to H:
4. Restored the backup.
5. Ran File synch to finish the process began on my primary workstation.
When I check the filename values, I discovered that the paths were changed to G:\all-ebooks\some-file-name
One last shot, Just in case I had it backwards. I stopped the synch and added an additional mapping: H: to G.
I restarted the synch and that did not solve the problem.
So, here’s my question: What must I do so that I can access the files on my external USB regardless if I plug it into my primary workstation, my notebook, or my business workstation? I don’t mind having to restore a backup each time I use the drive on a different computer?
Many thanks. I love Data Crow.
Richard
Window/xp environment
Since I made the original post I solved part of my problem by creating a drive mount-point linked to a folder.
1) On each of my 3 computers, I created an empty folder and named it "Passport USB (black)".
2) Using the Disk-Manager utility, (diskmgmt.msc), I remove the drive letter’s association to the USB drive.
3) As an alternative, I associated the drive to the empty folder "c:\passport USB (black)” {Note: this is not a convoluted hack. It’s a mainstream supported alternative to the common method of using a drive letter.}
4) In Data Crow, under (Settings, Directories As Drives, Add: I navigated the folder tree and selected “passport USB (black)\ebooks”
5) In Data Crow, under (Drive Manager, Drive Scanner) I check marked the box for “ebooks” and started a Drive Scan. {Note: the “ebooks” folder appears as a selectable option only because I added it to “Directories As Drives” in step 4}
6) I then ran File Synchronizer with the option set to Match on Hash and Filesize, Upon completion, all filenames were prefixed with the correct drive ID (in this case “c:\passport usb (black)\ebooks”
Now when I plug my Passport USB drive (black in color) into any of the 3 systems it is not assigned the first available drive letter. Rather, it is assigned the name of the folder (common to all 3 computers) on which it is “mounted”. That folder’s name is of course: “passport usb (black)” and it is located in the root of drive c:
I haven’t yet determined how to keep the 3 separate Data Crow databases in sync. My current workaround is to always make a backup on the “black” drive before disconnecting. When I plug the drive into a different computer I delete the records in the local database and restore the backup file that is on the “black” drive.
Now My Questions:
What is an alternative to constantly erasing and restoring the local database when I move the portable drive between the 3 computers?
Thanks
Richard
I'm not sure, but this might be a solution for you and it might be a bit simplistic, but what I did: I installed Data Crow on my USB flash drive. On the computer I use the most of the time I made a hyper-link. So basically, you only have one DC installation, always on the same drive as your e-books and therefore only one database. Under the condition that your USB drive is quick enough, off course.