I recently got a new computer that runs on Windows Vista.  I loaded my copy of BD 3.0 on my new machine and placed my old database.mdb file into a Data subdirectory for Birders Diary.  I followed all of the advice I found on this forum, upgrading to 3.02 and activating the license, installing the program in a "Birders Diary" directory on the C drive, and set up a standard user account to run the program.  And I have tried doing these things several times to make sure that I got it right.  But so far I have not been able to view my sightings. 

What could be the problem?  Do I need to upgrade in order to run BD properly on my new machine?  Or is there something else I could do?

Thanks!

Hello Arne,

All that you should need to do is

• Install BD into C:\Birder's Diary\ (not under C:\Program Files\...)
• Activate the license using the procedure at the top of this page under "Customer Support Issues Everyone Should Know About..."
• Run BD from any account.
• Place the copy of your old database.mdb into C:\Birder's Diary\data\ overwriting the demo copy of the database put there by the installation.

A couple questions please:

1. When you start v3.0, does it indicate that it is licensed?
2. What do you see when you attempt to look at the data?

Let's start here.

Jeff

I figured out what was going wrong. When BD installs it didn’t put everything into the C:\Birders Diary directory, it also created three other directories; C:\books, C:\backup & restore, and C:\data. I missed C:\data and never deleted that database. Well this last time I deleted that database and replaced it with my own database and everything works just fine, I can now access my sightings. Now all I have to do is do the 3.02 upgrade which was no sweat when I did it before.

Should I put C:\books, C:\backup & restore, and C:\data into the C:\Birders Diary directory as subdirectories, or should I create another directory to put those four in together, which was how it was organized on my old computer in the “Thayer Birding Software” directory?

Thank you for helping me on this.

Arne

Hi Arne,

Based on what you are saying in your first paragraph above, you installed BD into "C:\" instead of into "C:\Birder's Diary" as you should have. It will run as you have it now, but rather a non-standard installation.

I would re-run the installation and specify "C:\Birder's Diary" as the installation directory. Then it will create the installation and all sub-directories under that. Then, the database directory and file will be "C:\Birder's Dary\data\database.mdb".

Let me know if this is confusing or if I can assist further.

Jeff

Hi Arne,

You don't need to create the directory before or after. The installation does it for you. The installation will NOT create those directories you mention in the root C: directory. They are probably just still there from before. You should see a /data directory under c:\birder's diary\ - right?

Jeff

Hi Arne,

Thanks for the details. I would agree that you should leave it as is as long as v3.0 is working. It has been so long since I have worked on v3.0 - I must be forgetting where the installation puts things.

As for the error with the 3.0.2 upgrade: When you start v3 now, exactly what program version and database version is it reporting? You can use Help => About to see this information.

Perhaps I should get onto your system and see if I can't get it to work.

Let me know please.

Jeff

Ok - I will wait to hear back from you Arne. I may take off this weekend for an overnight bird trip myself. fyi

Jeff

Hi Arne,

How about I get onto your system and see if I can't get this upgrade working for you?

Let me know if you are around this morning, else, Sunday evening or any day this coming week.

Thanks,

Jeff

Okay, I am mostly back for the evening, although I will need to make a quick run in a little while. Would you like me to download the desktop sharing tool?

Thanks for all of this.

Arne

Hello Arne,

Please let me know an evening and time (include your timezone) for when you will be available this week.

Thanks,

Jeff