DL location

[Manfred]

I just started using 3.0.84 and cant find where to set the download location for messages - a pointer to that option setting would be appreciated.

[Wilson Logan]

Hi Manfred,

The default location is C:\Program Files\PG Offline\

If you want a database in another location, just open a new one anywhere you like.

Use File--> New Database.

Cheers,

Wilson.

[Manfred]

Hi Wilson - I looked in that location and found no files with a 2010 creation or mod date.

The database ygroups.mdb is dated mod 03/16/2008 and create 03/16/2008 - I assume that is supposed to be my downloads as of today (which is 10/26/2010) Whats going on ? PGO not reading the system clock properly ?

Ok so what happens if I open 'New Database'... are my existing DLs moved to the new location, do I have to start over with the DL ?

Do I have to manually copy the existing (incorrectly dated) fie to the new location?

??

[Manfred]

Well this is not good - Ever since I looked in C:\Program Files\PG Offline\ per your instructions my 3 hour+ initial DL has disappeared.

[Manfred]

Getting worse..... I pointed PGO to an old file (ygroups.mdb) on my archived disk image from my prior PC. It loaded but several groups were grayed out and several others reported 'does not exist' when I tried to DL. They DO exist. Eventually PGO crashed.

Heres the big problem - It overwrote my archived file !!!! and created some new files on my backup archive drive.

Another problem.... I opened a 'new database' and DLed some messages, I called it test.mdb.  All seemed to go well so I renamed the file to indicate the group (ie macstuff) and tried to load it ... Well PGO chokes and freezes my PC.

Windows report 'program not responding' and I have to kill the process.

[Manfred]

OK - follow-up

My renamed (test -> macstuff) file has now disappeared from  the directory you pointed me to.

I restarted PGO and it immediately complained with error messages about not finding a file then popped up an error saying "Database is full, program has stop saving messages"

[Wilson Logan]

Hi Manfred,

Can you do a Windows search for ygroups.mdb and send me a screenprint of the result?

Thanks,

Wilson.

[Manfred]

Sent it to your email

[Wilson Logan]

Thanks!

[Wilson Logan]

Hi Manfred,

Looking at your screenshot, you've got 3 copies of ygroups.mdb which look interesting.

One in C:/Program Files/, one in C:/Users/ and one in F:/JLF-40G

The one in C:/Program Files/ is a stub (200k). You can ignore that. Its empty.

The one in F:/JLF-40G appears to be the biggie at 1.5Gb.  This must be your main database from your old PC?

The one in C:/Users/ is (I'm guessing) the default database that PGO uses right now.

If you want to merge the two databases you can either export & import groups from one to the other or start new databases (and it will need to be more than one) to re-organise your stuff into.

Very important, if you export a group and delete it from one database, remember to compact the database or the space occupied by the deleted messages will not be recovered (File--> Compact Database).

Cheers,

Wilson.

[Manfred]

yes the one on drive F: is my old one from several years ago - I opened it and PGO crashed and modified it :-(  It was intended to be literally an archive of previous work _ I had not expected that PGO would damage it just by opening it.

In any case I recovered it from a disk image so no foul.

The problem is that I cant find where my current DL file is stored - It is listed as being in program files/pgo offline/pgo when I click on the open menu. But its NOT there when looking for it with explorer.

Windows search finds it in users/  -- what is going on?
I want to be able to manuall manipulate file names and locations but it seems to screw up PGO since there is no way to do it from within the app.

[Manfred]

Could you please clarify for me what the behavior of PGO is with regard to file handling and storage?

I find the following PGO directories and databases:

C:\Program Files\PG Offline\PGO
- exptempl.mdb
- User.mdb
- User2.mdb
- ygroups.mdb
- ygrtempl.mdb

C:\Users\xyz\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\PG Offline\PGO
- mancatnj.mdb (created with 'New Database' in C:\Program Files\PG Offline\PGO)
- tools.mdb (created with 'New Database' in C:\Program Files\PG Offline\PGO)
- ygrtempl.mdb

C:\Users\xyz\AppData\Roaming\PGO
- (none)

C:\Users\xyz\Documents\PG Offline\PGO
- User.mdb
- User2.mdb
- ygroups.mdb

What are all these datatbases and why are new ones where they are instead of where the PGO dialog says they will be?

[Manfred]

Wilson ?

Any thoughts on this?

?????

Its becoming a pain - I rename a file and PGO crashes on the next start-up.
There is no way to rename files ?????

[Wilson Logan]

Hi Manfred,

Where PG Offline creates the database file at install time depends on which operating system you have.

Win2k & XP installed to:   C:\Program Files\PG Offline\PGO

Vista: C:\Users\xyz\Documents\PG Offline\PGO

Not sure about WIN7 but at a guess its: C:\Users\xyz\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\PG Offline\PGO


Regarding naming of database files...

You can create a new database from File--> New Database. I don't think you can just rename it using Windows because the database internally knows what its name is. If you re-name it using the Windows file system you'd need to also alter the name of the database internally using MS Access.

So, in short, you can't rename database files. When you create the database file, choose a name you can live with and stick with it.

If, for some reason, you absolutely must change the name of a database, create a new database with the name you want, export all the groups from the old database, import them into the new database, delete the old database.

HTH

Cheers,

Wilson.

[Manfred]

OK - I'm on Win7, it appears that the database files are located in...

C:\Users\xyz\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\PG Offline\PGO

However when using PGO  'Open' or 'New'  the working directory is shown as...

C:\Program Files\PG Offline\PGO

But when one browses there in explorer the files do not exist....
Which leads to much confusion and head scratching. (hey , where did my files go ?)

Is this some quirk of Win7 or the way PGO is implimented?

I'll try the export/import route and see what happens