wanting to migrate to DM6, but my data is under VirtualStore

Are you needing help with installing the Donor Manager program? Here's the place to post your questions! However, please don't use this forum to post bug reports.

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huttarl
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wanting to migrate to DM6, but my data is under VirtualStore

Post by huttarl »

Hello,
I was excited to hear that DM v6 has been released. I downloaded it, installed, and started the program.
The welcome dialog says, "please locate the folder where your older data is stored."

The field there is populated with c:\donor5\data by default, but c:\donor5 doesn't exist on my hard drive.

I do have a c:\Program Files (x86)\donor5 folder, and my DM v5 does seem to be installed there ("C:\Program Files (x86)\donor5\donor5\donor.EXE"). However there's no data folder there. And if I supply "C:\Program Files (x86)\donor5" or "C:\Program Files (x86)\donor5\donor5" as the location of my older data, DM 6 tells me "That does not seem to be a Donor Manager data directory".

I did a search of the whole C: drive, and the only other places that I have a donor5 folder are under VirtualStore:
"C:\Users\lars\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\donor5"
and
"C:\Users\lars\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\donor5\donor5"

Both of these donor5 folders have a data subfolder!

But I can't specify either one of them to the DM 6 welcome dialog, because when I try to use the "Select folder" browser, AppData doesn't appear under C:\Users\lars.

So ... I'm wondering what to do.
  • How can I find out which folder DM 5 is actually using when it loads and displays my data?
  • Should I move that data folder out of VirtualStore into the real "C:\Program Files (x86)\donor5", so that I can then select it for migration to DM 6?
Other than the above confusing items, DM 5 seems to be running fine, and I'm able to do full backups, if that's any help.

Thanks for any suggestions, and thanks for all your work on DM.
jmuehleisen
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Re: wanting to migrate to DM6, but my data is under VirtualS

Post by jmuehleisen »

Sorry I missed your message earlier.

Your analysis of the problem is exactly correct.

If the DM is installed in some folder in \Program Files (or \Program Files (x86) then Windows moves the data folder to a sub-folder under \users\lars\appdata\... etc.

The problem is that this folder is, by default, a hidden folder.

So, when you navigate in the DM 6 installer to try to find your DM 5 data, it simply cannot be found.

(This is one reason that I currently do not recommend installing the Donor Manager in c:\program files ... as nice as that would be.)

Fortunately, the solution is fairly simple.

You need to tell Windows to show you the "Hidden Folders."

Here is how.

First of all, start up your Windows Explorer / File Manager.

Navigate to your c:\users\lars\ folder (adjust "lars" as appropriate to be your user name).

Then, using the top menus in the File Manager, go to the "View" tab and then set "Show Hidden Items" to be checked.

Here's what it looks like in Windows 8:
ss-show-hidden-items-1.gif
ss-show-hidden-items-1.gif (19.02 KiB) Viewed 11740 times
Once that is set, you can then try the "Migrate DM 5 data to DM 6" and it should find the data.

On the DM 6 "home" screen, you can use this:
ss-migrate-dm5-data.gif
ss-migrate-dm5-data.gif (5.03 KiB) Viewed 11740 times
Be sure to update your DM 6 to the latest version. I've released a number of small updates in the past week.

Let me know how it goes, and if you run into problems. contact me: john@donormanager.com
John Muehleisen
Mentoring Emerging Christian Leadership in Africa for Excellence / Integrity / Innovation
huttarl
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 3:05 am
Type the middle number, please (202): 202

Re: wanting to migrate to DM6, but my data is under VirtualS

Post by huttarl »

John, thanks for getting back to me on this problem.
(This is one reason that I currently do not recommend installing the Donor Manager in c:\program files ... as nice as that would be.)
That makes sense. I guess I missed that recommendation when I installed DM5 on this computer. You can be sure, though, that I installed DM6 in the default location! :)
Then, using the top menus in the File Manager, go to the "View" tab and then set "Show Hidden Items" to be checked.
I already have "Show hidden files, folders and drives" selected, but I went further and unchecked "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" to see if that would help. (I'm running Windows 7, BTW.)
However AppData still doesn't appear in the DM6 Migration file chooser dialog, under c:\Users\lars.
Windows Explorer: Tools > Options
Windows Explorer: Tools > Options
folder-options.png (28.58 KiB) Viewed 11724 times
So I decided instead to copy C:\Users\lars\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\donor5\donor5\data to a folder that isn't hidden, under c:\temp, and then migrate from the copy. That seemed to work OK. I'm now running DM6 and seeing the data we need to see.

Thanks again for your time.
jmuehleisen
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Posts: 737
Joined: Sat May 29, 2004 1:28 pm
Type the middle number, please (202): 202
Location: Kampala, Uganda
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Re: wanting to migrate to DM6, but my data is under VirtualS

Post by jmuehleisen »

Sorry I missed this earlier.
However AppData still doesn't appear in the DM6 Migration file chooser dialog, under c:\Users\lars.
I didn't know that. Thanks for this information.
So I decided instead to copy C:\Users\lars\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\donor5\donor5\data to a folder that isn't hidden, under c:\temp, and then migrate from the copy. That seemed to work OK. I'm now running DM6 and seeing the data we need to see.
Right. That would be the only thing that would work here.

I'm glad you got this running.
John Muehleisen
Mentoring Emerging Christian Leadership in Africa for Excellence / Integrity / Innovation
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