Installing to removable drive

luha · Post by **luha** » Mon Apr 29, 2013 3:35 pm

Hello!
Thak you for the new version! I have installed it to my computer, but I would like to install it to my removable drive, too. I click «Tools | Install to removable drive…» and «Next» – and then I am told to connect a removable drive to my computer. But there is a removable drive connected to my computer! What can I do to help the program find it?

Post by **admin** » Mon Apr 29, 2013 5:59 pm

What is your removable drive? Is it a USB memory stick?

luha · Post by **luha** » Wed May 01, 2013 3:18 am

It is indeed! It is a Super Talent (silly name!) Pico C 32 GB with PortableApps and a lot of portable apps. Atlantis fits snugly between the other applications, but I cannot update the program from the installation on my PC.

Post by **Robert** » Wed May 01, 2013 9:09 am

When your USB stick is physically plugged into your PC, does it appear as a logical drive in Windows Explorer (or any other file manager you may be using)?

luha · Post by **luha** » Thu May 02, 2013 1:53 pm

It does! It is listed under «Flyttbare lagringsmedier» (Removable media).

[Aha: Maybe I have found out: I have told it to keep using drive letter «A:». Do you think that is why it does not show up?]

Post by **Robert** » Thu May 02, 2013 2:01 pm

How did you install Atlantis to this USB stick in the first place? Was it installed

- through the “PortableApps” own interface and commands,
- or through the Atlantis setup (“atlantis16en.exe”),
- or through the Atlantis “Tools | Install to removable drive…” menu command?

luha · Post by **luha** » Thu May 02, 2013 2:05 pm

I can't remember exactly. I may have used any or all of the three, or just copied the folders from my computer.

Post by **Robert** » Thu May 02, 2013 2:12 pm

Maybe you should use the same method you used in the first place.

If I use the Atlantis “Tools | Install to removable drive…” menu command from my PC, I can install Atlantis to any USB stick or external hard drive plugged into it. In both cases, the Atlantis dialog suggests installing to the removable drive that is currently plugged into the PC.

Note that this portable version of Atlantis does not install as part of the official “PortableApps” menu. It has to be run independently from its own executable (“Atlantis.exe”) on the USB stick, in whichever folder you chose to install Atlantis.

Post by **Robert** » Thu May 02, 2013 2:29 pm

To install Atlantis to a USB stick, I suggest uninstalling the version you have on that USB stick, then reinstalling using the full setup file available from the Atlantis Downloads page.

luha · Post by **luha** » Thu May 02, 2013 2:37 pm

Do you think the drive letter (A: ) may be the problem?

Post by **Robert** » Thu May 02, 2013 2:44 pm

It sure is a problem!

On a standard Windows system, the “A:” drive letter is normally reserved to the floppy disk. I hope you’re not trying to install Atlantis to a floppy disk!

Any USB stick you plug into your PC should have a letter beyond the “C:” letter, which is normally reserved to the boot drive.

I suggest you look into this.

Post by **Robert** » Thu May 02, 2013 3:01 pm

Here is what you could do.

Go to the USBDeview page on the “nirsoft” site. Download and install USBDeview (simply extract and copy the files to a dedicated home folder). The “nirsoft” utilities are all extremely useful and perfectly safe.

When you run USBDeview on your system, it will list all the USB devices that were ever connected to your PC. You will also be able to change the letter assigned to your USB stick:

HTH.
Cheers,
Robert

Post by **Robert** » Thu May 02, 2013 3:16 pm

You will also find another way to change the letter assigned to your USB stick if you follow the procedure described at How to Assign a Static Drive Letter to a USB Drive in Windows 7

luha · Post by **luha** » Sat May 04, 2013 1:43 pm

I know how to change the drive letter on my USB stick! That is what I do! Is is practical to assign a fixed letter to it, to keep my shortcuts working.

I have never had a computer with a B:-drive, and it is very long since my last computer with an A: floppy disk. I would never think of installing Atlantis to a floppy disk, even if I had had one.

I find it practical to give my USB drives the letters A: or B:; they are easy to find and do not interfere with any other drives. But now I have found the first problem:

I bought a new USB drive some days ago. It appeared as E:. Atlantis' installation program found it. I changed the drive letter to B:, and the program could not find it.

Is it difficult to make the program recognise all removable drives, even if they have drive letters A: or B: ?

luha · Post by **luha** » Sat May 04, 2013 1:47 pm

I can see that Atlantis does not install as part of the official «PortableApps» menu. But if I install it into the correct folder, the menu wild find it and list it, and I can start it from the menu.

luha · Post by **luha** » Thu May 09, 2013 2:33 am

Is it possible/difficult to make the program recognise all removable drives, even if they have drive letters A: or B: ?

Post by **Robert** » Thu May 09, 2013 9:34 am

I have searched the Web extensively for instances of the letter A: ever having been assigned to any USB drive. I could not find any at all!

It is a most unusual and most unorthodox move.

If you let Windows assign drive letters in its native original way, it will automatically assign the letters A: and B: to any floppy drive you might still have. This is a standard “legacy” feature.

Windows will also assign the letter C: to the boot drive where the system itself is installed. And the next letter(s) to the CD-ROM or DVD drive(s).

Any USB removable device is normally assigned the next available letter.

Now you could reassign the letters X, Y, Z to any USB thumb drives you have. Atlantis would recognize them and their letters would “stick” in Windows.

HTH.
Cheers,
Robert

Post by **admin** » Fri May 10, 2013 9:15 am

luha wrote:Is it possible/difficult to make the program recognise all removable drives, even if they have drive letters A: or B: ?

From a purely technical point, this would not be difficult at all. It is like replacing one numeric constant with another one within the source code. But I am not sure that this change would do more good than bad. Only a few users might need to assign a different (hard-coded) letter to a removable drive. But I cannot say if things would work smoothly for everyone else if Atlantis tried to access/examine drives A: and B: on any system.

luha · Post by **luha** » Sat May 11, 2013 7:07 am

Wow! I make unorhodox moves! That is a good sign.

I agree about the C:. I do not want to change that.

Robert wrote:Any USB removable device is normally assigned the next available letter.

Exactly! That means that if I have different numbers of drives connected at different times, my removable drive (with Atlantis on it) may appear with different letters. The desktop shortcut may have to point to F: when it is used to point to E:. This is why I like to assign a fixed letter.

It is a long time since my last B: floppy drive (but I think I still have some diskettes in the attic). I can remember computers with B: drives, but that is very long ago (and they did not have C: drives). For this reason I consider A: and B: available letters; practical for my removable drive – and no windows system would kidnap them before I can connect my drive.

I understand that not many others may want to use these drive letters, and that it may lead to problems if the program finds diskette drives. So for now I will keep Atlantis on my H: removable drive.