Author Topic: I added some external drives and now I'm confused  (Read 5333 times)

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Connie

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I've added several external USB drives recently and I just started up TP10. I got a message box saying:

   Drive I:\ has the same label as drive G:\ (Elements).  ThumbsPlus
   uses labels to associate thumbnails with files.  Please enter a new
   label for drive I:\
      DRIVE_L

I've never gotten this message before, so I'm not sure what happened and why TP needs a new label.  I thought I always had my TP database on my C drive or possibly my D drive, but I don't remember ever using "I:".  But...I've been using TP for LOTS of years and now I'm old, so who knows?  :)

I'd rather not lose my associations and have to recreate my entire TP database.  That'd make me sad.  I looked through the .INI file but couldn't see any reference to "Drive I" (maybe I missed it).

Is there an easy solution?   I've already got these drive letters:  C D E F G H I L N T.  I've also defined J: and K: which are attached to another computer.

Is it simply a matter of going with (what I assume is) the suggested "DRIVE_L"? 

Any suggestion would sure be helpful.

Connie
« Last Edit: 2020-04-27 15:52:32 by Connie »

Daan van Rooijen

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Re: I added some external drives and now I'm confused
« Reply #1 on: 2020-04-27 16:55:00 »
ThumbsPlus requires that each drive have a unique name (volume label) to identify it.

Two of your drives still have the factory-supplied label 'Elements'. At least one should be re-labeled, or else TP cannot tell them apart. Assuming that I: is the new drive, it would make sense to give that a new name. If the error message is gone, you can right-click on the drive in the tree panel and use 'Label Disk' to do this. You will not lose any associations if you do this from within TP.

Note: this has nothing to do with the location of your database. It is and remains where you've always had it.

Note2: the volume label of a drive is not the same thing as its drive letter. With removable drives, the drive letter may vary from session to session but the label won't change unless the user makes a conscious effort to change it. That's why TP uses volume labels to identify drives.
« Last Edit: 2020-04-27 16:59:19 by Daan van Rooijen »
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Connie

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Re: I added some external drives and now I'm confused
« Reply #2 on: 2020-04-27 21:27:02 »
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, DAAN!  I was so worried that if I chose the suggested drive label, I'd mess it up.  Phew!  And, thank you for the extra explanation -- I sure appreciate it.

Regards, Connie

Daan van Rooijen

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Re: I added some external drives and now I'm confused
« Reply #3 on: 2020-04-27 22:35:58 »
My pleasure -- but one more thing that I should have said: I don't think that the suggested 'Drive_L' is a very good volume label. It refers to a drive letter but again, that might change at some point. It may be L: now, but it might be K: or O: later on, or it might be T: when you use this drive on a different computer. I think it would be confusing to have, for instance, a drive K: or O: that is named DRIVE_L ! 

For my own use, I prefer 'functional' drive labels like SYSTEM, DATA2, MEDIA3.
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Connie

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Re: I added some external drives and now I'm confused
« Reply #4 on: 2020-05-05 16:41:28 »
Oh!  I like that:  DATA2, MEDIA3, etc.  Good idea.  Hmm.  Maybe I ought to name them after states... WY, FL, AZ, ND...  or dogs... MAXIE, HONEY, TRIXIE...  that'd be fun.  :)

As I was researching drive Letters vs Volume names, I got the impression that changing the Volume Name was a bigger deal than just "rename".  People seemed to go through a bunch of hoops just to do that. 

My question:  How does TP let you rename the Volume label so simply by just doing "File", "Volumes", "Label Disk"?  Does it go through those hoops behind the scene?  If so, that's pretty tricky.

Daan van Rooijen

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Re: I added some external drives and now I'm confused
« Reply #5 on: 2020-05-05 17:22:03 »
As I was researching drive Letters vs Volume names, I got the impression that changing the Volume Name was a bigger deal than just "rename".  People seemed to go through a bunch of hoops just to do that.

I wouldn't know why they'd do that. It's a pretty straightforward operation. Under DOS we'd simply enter a command like "LABEL D: DATA" and in Windows' Explorer you can simply right-click on a drive and change its name.

Anyway, DO remember that if you're going to change any drive volume labels, you must do it using ThumbsPlus. Otherwise the connection between your files and their records in the database would be severed.
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