Family Historian User Group

Before anyone reprimands me for asking this, I refer you to the license agreement in the FH3 booklet, which states you can use your copy on up to two computers, if one is a laptop and the other a desktop.

I just bought a crappy laptop from eBay, for the sole purpose of doing my family tree on it. It doesn't have a CD drive (if I'd known I wouldn't have got it), but I need to install FH3 and the upgrade. I copied the installation files on a pen drive and the programme installed. Now it won't take my registration key, so I tried using an upgrade file, but it came up with a message saying 'Cannot upgrade. The upgrade program only upgrades version 3 installations if earlier than 3.1.2.'

This is exactly what I did on my PC and it was fine. Any thoughts? Other than 'get a CD drive'.

Cheers!

ID:3346

There is no problem with installing on two computers as you say, I wonder if the problem might be some pre-existing software on the Laptop.

Do you do a clean OS install and which OS are you using?

What error does it give you when you enter the registration key?

When I enter the registration key it just says it's incorrect. I tried it numerous times, with and without the dashes, upper case and lower case, I even used different abbreviations of my name.

The laptop runs Windows XP and it was returned to factory settings when I got it.

It could be that the FH CD you have copied to the pen drive has a 'name' I haven't got my FH CD handy o check this out.

Look at it on your main computer in 'My Computer' and if it had a name - try renaming you pen drive with the same identity as the orginal disc.

With some programs when you enter the serial number it also checks to disc identity as well.

ostler said:
When I enter the registration key it just says it's incorrect. I tried it numerous times, with and without the dashes, upper case and lower case

You might be best e-mailing support@family-historian.co.uk, perhaps with a copy of the key, they may be able to shed some light on the problem.

As long as you have a CD install key I think what you are doing should be fine.

Thanks for the replies, folks. I've got a couple of other solutions to look into and I shall let you know how I get on.

I managed to get it sorted, thanks anyway.

Just for future reference, how did you get it sorted?

Uhh it was a bit convoluted. I had to set up wifi in my bedroom and use the CD drive from my PC remotely. I used the CD and it was fine.

Having been used to the V3 way of doing things, I've been a bit stymied by the 'import gedcom' part of V4.

I imported a gedcom file as a new project on my laptop (it was quite a large file which I'd been working on for years on my desktop), and added data to it.  I then saved that gedcom with the same name on a flash drive, and now want to update my desktop to the same level.

However, when I click 'import gedcom', I'm faced with a File Merge and Compare dialog that I don't fully understand. The only difference between the two files is the work done on them in the meantime, so is there a quicker way of updating my desktop data? I did gingerly press a 'yes' key at one point, but there came up a screed about linking of multimedia, which made me feel I ought to ask further before proceeding.

It seems to me as I write this that it might be easier to import the gedcom on the flash drive into a new project, and to increment the name of that project each time.

What's the best way?

Gareth

Oh, no, I seem to have goofed.

When I tried to import my gedcom into a 'new' project, I (probably foolishly) accepted the same name for the project as before). Now all the data seems to be there as regards names and notes, etc. but all my multimedia has disappeared - no links anywhere, and big crosses where the images ought to be.

How do I get them back?

Hi Gareth,
You need to use 'external file links' from the Tools menu. Best to read up on the help first to get the idea of how to achieve the change of drive. . .

Hope this helps
Bilko[smile]

(Later) It seems all my multimedia links have disappeared in some export or other, despite my *not* checking the 'Exclude multimedia' box. Now that I have overriden the original project name in an import, I've probably lost the links irretrievably, which is a pain. At least the basic data (names, relationships etc.) seem to be untouched.

Just seen your post, Bilko - thanks - I'll investigate. Gareth

Bilko said:
Hi Gareth,
You need to use 'external file links' from the Tools menu. Best to read up on the help first to get the idea of how to achieve the change of drive. . .

Hope this helps
Bilko

Ah, I'm starting to get it now! It's a bit complicated though, considering how easy much of the program is compared to V3 - and what mistake did I make in exporting/importing gedcom for all my links to be changed in this way? How can I use the 2-computer method for working either on laptop or desktop according to circumstances, and keep the multimedia links stored in the desktop?

Unless you have done a lot of work on your file since moving to 4 I would recommend

Create a new project from your V3 file import all the media using the default options (see the How To for understanding projects)

When you want to move data on to your laptop you can simply copy the whole project folder to the laptop.

What I am now doing is using mydropbox to keep my family history and some other files automatically synchronised between my machines, it's free if your data is less then 2Gb.

If you want to do it with out an external company take a look at the lite version of Syncback.

If you know you have only changed the gedcom file just copy it to your key (once you have the project moved) and drop it into the .fhdata folder.

Thanks, Jane.

In the end I managed it by starting a new project on the desktop, using the most recently-edited gedcom (from the laptop via the flash drive). The multimedia links were screwed up for some reason, but I used Bilko's suggestion to remap them. Your suggestions regarding synchronisation look interesting, and I'm going to investigate further. Thanks.

P.S. I've just noticed that I'm posting this in the 'V3 Issues' thread, which is very dense of me. I am in fact using V4 exclusively, and should have checked the thread title. Apologies for any confusion.