[kevscontent]

Iam not sure if this is the right forum section to be askig ths auestion but will give it a go. I am getting myself an external USB SATA drive case (NL-HD07 Newlink Enclosure ) with a 350gb sata drive to go in it. The idea bing that i can store a ll my photos and music on there (with an internal sata drive i my pc to back it up to), now i plan on using Coral photo album for the photo organising with a small amount of fun factor such as the card making etc and 'Collectorz.com MP3 Collector Pro' for the music catalogue. NOW, big question, can i install that sotware onto the ext drive and each of the 3 pc's and laptop will see that software automaticly when i plug the usb ext driv case in and run or will i need to install the software onto each pc for it to run, then !, if i do have to intall the software onto each pc will the setup of individual folders and peferences etc be picked up ?. Sorry its a long question and i hope it makes sense !. thanks in advanc for any advice.

 

[speedster123]

You will most likely need to install the software on each system.

if i do have to intall the software onto each pc will the setup of individual folders and peferences etc be picked up ?.

I doubt it, your external is only acting as a storage bank for your data.

 

[Kalim]

Hi

OK. The software will have to be installed on a HDD for it to run. Thus you will have to boot up from a particular HDD that its installed on for it to run usually. Some small software can be run without installation and even after it will run even without any registry values. Most multimedia software will not.
If you connect a HDD to a computer, and try running it while its installed on that, while its a Secondary drive and not the bootup master drive, it won't run. It requires the registry entries usually, thats why.

The software installed on one HDD will be seen by another, but running is a grey issue to me - most likely it won't. I've never used this software though.

If you leave all your music and photo's on the external SATA, then bootup with the internal HDD that has your main OS on it, install any software you need onto it; you'll be able to see the files on the SATA drive and run them that way.

 

[kevscontent]

Ok chaps, i understand now then that the software needs to be on each seperate pc but as the software(both of them) are cataloging softaware and hence would be creating folders and sections under each of the music section and photo sections will the software on each of the pc's automatacly identify those folders and setups. I will be setting all those from the master pc so as i plug the external drive into the other pc's will that setup be recognised ?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[linderman]

each version of windows registry will need to have the programs entered into them. As such the only way to have such is a prgram install from each platform.

 

[kevscontent]

I realise that, so if i install each program on all the pc's and setup the catalogue from the master pc, when i plug in the hard drive to the other pc's and run the installed software on the pc will the software recognise the catalogues already setup ? , i think thats the easiest way to explain, sorry if i'm not being clear.

 

[linderman]

Here is what "I" would try no gurantee it will work; but hey! :4-dontkno


connect the usb drive, then install the program to the usb drive; that will put the program into computer #1's registry but the program guts will be on the external, the computers registry and the program itself will expect the guts to be there

then repeat this process with each computer with the USB drive connected to them as well >>>>>> you may get message like "these files already exist; do you want to overwrite them; click yes each time.

do the same to computer #3 too

each computer station will then know their registries are expecting the program and all its internal folders to be on the external drive
each one should agree with that!

no guarantee; but I think it will work If I remember correctly I did this once with an autocad program and it worked well

keep us posted

:wave:

 

[kevscontent]

That sounds a dam good idea !! . I will give it a go over next few days and i will post back and llet you know how it goes, thanks for that.
Greatly appreciated.