Where and How to Download & Store your Software - & Eliminate Errors
 

:cool:

I just thought id share some things that I had to learn the hard way .



I have learnt/figured out some things along the way to help eliminate errors and to streamline my storage (that I will share in the hope that others dont make my same mistake )


Firstly ; for now on ...............,


- Im only ever going to download programs directly to my desktop and unzip the file also directly to my desktop (and always keep the zipped file for storage reasons)

- I will only then click on install /setup only from the desktop (where it eventually gets installed on the operating drive where needed)

- On my 2nd Hard drive , I have already created a folder called "software" . In this folder thats called "Software" , I have every EXE file for every item of software I own ( so If ever I need to clean install etc , I do not need to re-download everything )

- In this software folder on my 2nd HDD ..., I have sub-folders within my Software folder - like EG; "AVID" , with more sub-folders within the AVID folder for "PT 10" and "PT 11"



..., But previously this had been my chosen download location whenever ive downloaded a newer version of protools or other software (ie ; instead of the desktop) , and has sometimes been the cause of some errors ..............,



Ive noticed that when I go to make copies of this software folder to a 3rd HDD for backup reasons ...,

- I'd often get messages telling me that a file cannot be copied due to the name being too long , and that the file name must be shortened if I still wish to continue copy

- This will never happen If you only copy the "UNZIPPED FILE" - you can always unzip that copied "unzipped" file in its new destination , but don't delete that unzipped file when you do ..., as you may again want to make further copies from it further down the track.

- One ive successfully completed installing my selected programs desktop from my, and also made various backups of those zipped program files that are on my desktop - Can I then delete them from my desktop to clean everything up .



Note;

- I tried to cut and paste ( to my 2nd HDD/software/avid/pt 11 "folder" ) the unzipped protools install folder from my desktop ..., and was met with , "the file name is too long to copy message" , because there are so many folders within folders , within folders in that protools install folder once its been unzipped ,,,,,,,,, but there's not at a problem at all to copy and paste the zipped file.

I cant believe ive been using computers for 15 years and all this has only really sunk in hard now