Help - Download Files onto Jump Drive

[Randyinnd]

Please help me before I do something drastic!!!! I have a train collection and have a program called TrainTracker that I use to keep track of the pieces in my collection. I have the program on my home PC, which runs Widows XP, but when I bought my laptop about a year ago with Windows Vista Home Premium, I copied the program from my PC (Windws XP) onto a jump drive and pasted it onto my laptop (Vista). Everything was going according to plan. Now I take my laptop where my trains are and I add a bunch of pieces and I want to copy the file from my laptop (Windows Vista) onto a jump drive, so I can then paste it onto my PC (Windows XP) and have the updated TrainTracker, with all the additions I've made. Well, when I copy it from Vista onto a jumpdrive, all it will copy is the original program which I transferred from my PC onto my laptop. It won't copy the new items I've added onto the program. Can anyone help me out? Thanks.

Randy

 

[Ed Canuck]

Hi Randy,

Sorry, but you can't just copy programs from one system to another and expect to update data back and forth.

Most programs these days require you to install them on each system just to work, although there are some old ones that you can copy; presumably, TrainTracker is one of these. Even if it runs, though, any data you record doesn't get stored in the program file. It's in a separate file, probably either in the same folder that you stored the program on your laptop, or in C:\Users\YourID\AppData\Roaming\TrainTracker.

Even if you find it, you can't just copy it onto your jumpdrive and back on your Home PC as it'll only have the data that you saved on your laptop, and it'll replace all of your old data if you do.

Initially, you're going to have to manually reinput the data you've added to your laptop into your Home PC program. Then, you should locate the file on your Home PC where the data is stored, copy to your jumpdrive, then copy it to the folder on your laptop where the new data was stored. From then on, you should only input new data to your laptop, although you can copy that to your Home PC if you want to keep them synchronized.

Ed

 

[Randyinnd]

Thanks for the reply, Ed. I guess I don't understand what's going on here, but I'll take your word for it. I do have the TrainTracker program installed on both systems. I was able to copy the folder off of my home PC and paste it into the TrainTracker file on my laptop, and all the info that was in the TrainTracker on my PC was loaded onto my laptop. What I don't understand is why on my laptop, I can go to Program Files and open the TrainTracker and click on the exe. file, and it opens and has all the info (what was initially loaded, plus what I've added), but when I click on the same file to copy it to my jumpdrive, it only gives the data that was initially loaded, and nothing that I have added. Eveything I've added was done directly on the laptop. Sorry if you can't follow me, but I am not a computer guru, so you may have to walk me through this. Thanks again and I'll be awaiting any replies or comments.

 

[Randyinnd]

Well, I got something to work. I found the data file for the TrainTracker program in the Appdata file, like Ed said. I copied that file and pasted it into the TrainTracker file and it overwrote the data file in there and all the added info was then there. The only thing was when I went to the users folder and clicked on my name, the appdata file doesn't show up. I had to do a search for the file, so if Ed wouldn't have mentioned that file specifically, I would have never found the TrainTracker database. Thanks again, Ed. Is this how I will have to update it between the computers all the time?

 

[patio]

Yes.
Unless you install the app correctly on the laptop.

Keep in mind by moving the laptop data to the PC and overwriting the existing database you stand to lose alot of work if done improperly...

 

[Ed Canuck]

Well, I got something to work. I found the data file for the TrainTracker program in the Appdata file, like Ed said. I copied that file and pasted it into the TrainTracker file and it overwrote the data file in there and all the added info was then there. The only thing was when I went to the users folder and clicked on my name, the appdata file doesn't show up. I had to do a search for the file, so if Ed wouldn't have mentioned that file specifically, I would have never found the TrainTracker database. Thanks again, Ed. Is this how I will have to update it between the computers all the time?

Glad I could help.

The data file should have been in the C:\Users\YourID\AppData\Roaming\TrainTracker directory (assuming that TrainTracker is the internal name your program uses). Is this where you found it? If not, where?

As patio points out, you're going to have to be careful to make sure you don't lose data. I'd recommend that you always enter new data on your laptop, and copy the file to your Home PC, never the other way around, just to have a workable routine. This ensures that you'll always have a backup om your Home PC as well.

Ed

 

[Randyinnd]

It was in the c:\Users\Randy\Appdata\Local\Virtual Store\Program Files\TT3 (which stands for TrainTracker3, which is the program.

 

[Ed Canuck]

Well, that's where you should find it from now on (unless you do something silly ).

Ed