Where are Total data files stored and can I change them

[Fargo1]

No luck. It appears I can not make a symlink to a network drive in Windows.

 

[VegasWayne]

Right click on My Documents folder. Select properties. Click on target. Enter the new path. Click on move. This works in XP.

 

[Blueprint]

It is really simple to move My Documents anywhere you prefer in XP. This is a visual step by step how to:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-move-the-my-documents-folder-and-save-your-data-windows/

 

[Brian W Street]

If you really want to do this the only way it will work correctly is to use Audit Mode during a new OS install. You can assign different folders to be included in My Documents as others have noted but the symlinks are not correct like moving your Users folder, it will cause problems with some programs. The only way around this is to move the Users folder by using Audit Mode when you first install your OS. Google relocate windows user folders, link below is a good guide.
http://www.tumfatig.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Relocate-User-folders-during-Windows-7-installation.pdf

 

[Fargo1]

I found out that the 'Audit Mode' only works in Win7 so thats not an option.

I was also having trouble moving My Documents, but I found another tutorial. Apparently in my system I have to right click on My Documents in the start menu to get the 'Target' tab. For some reason it doesn't work in Explorer. So I might be able to move the entire My Documents folder that way.

I still need to figure out how to move the alamode file that resides in "Application Data" folder. Thats where Quicklist, Users, Backups and some other things appear to be stored. I might still be able to do this by using the Link Shell Extention program I found earlier. But it appears I can only move it to the top level folder in My Network Places. I can't drop it inside of other folders.

I'll have to look into each of these options more. I really wish alamode gave the option of choosing where all our data was stored. I spoke with a Tech today and he said they do not let you change folder paths in order to meet Microsoft Certification. Personally I couldn't care less about MS certification requirements. I'd rather have control of where my data resides.

I'll have to do more research but I really don't like any of my options. I fear moving My Documents and other folders outside of the virtual machine could cause issues. Especially if I need to reinstall the VM.

The best solution might be to use software that allows me to choose where I store my data. So I may have to give a very serious look again at ACI and Clickforms. They allow this option. I was very excited to try Total but it just might not be the right fit for me. I'm going to have to spend more time trying out these options. If all my options fail I may have to check into that money back gaurantee thing. But for now I'll keep trying different ideas. I just wish alamode made this easier to do. I wonder how many people base there software decisions based on being MS Certified?

 

[Brian W Street]

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4275-user-profiles-relocate-another-partition-disk.html

I don't recommend trying this unless you are doing a new install of the operating system but it does work in Windows 8 as well.

 

[dbiggers]

The best solution might be to use software that allows me to choose where I store my data. So I may have to give a very serious look again at ACI and Clickforms. They allow this option. I was very excited to try Total but it just might not be the right fit for me. I'm going to have to spend more time trying out these options. If all my options fail I may have to check into that money back gaurantee thing. But for now I'll keep trying different ideas. I just wish alamode made this easier to do. I wonder how many people base there software decisions based on being MS Certified?

The MS Certified aspect is one issue (and it's important) due to a variety of factors -- but even more importantly, under modern Windows versions, the My Documents folder is the only place that a program can be assured that it has rights to read and write data.

We had a version long ago that allowed changing the location, but because Windows locks many apps out of writing to other locations, it was a support nightmare. Many, many people changed the path, thought everything was fine, and then discovered that other apps couldn't get there (Vault, Mercury Desktop, etc.) or that even TOTAL itself was locked out. Then throw in the SQL files, and it becomes a mess.

We also have on average 1.7 appraisers per company in our user base, plus we have lots of one-man shops with someone doing the books and admin work (often a spouse or family member), and when they'd log in to either a shared PC or the occasional use of the others' PC, they couldn't access the files because their login rights were different.

Given all of the problems that My Documents solves on a daily basis from a security and workflow standpoint, why force the files to go elsewhere? It sounds almost like trying to solve a problem that you don't have.

You can always set up a mirror folder util that copies those files to another folder (or moves them on some event). You can also "attach" the other folder location inside the TOTAL File Cabinet so that you can access them as needed, but then you'll be losing the databasing features for that folder. (An attached folder in TOTAL basically downgrades it to work like the other software on the market -- just files and just OS-level file info, since there's no database.) Attached folders are handy for removable drives and for SD cards, etc. But I wouldn't use that for a permanent daily solution since many features (merging by proximity, billing, tracking, etc.) depend on database info.

 

[Fargo1]

Thanks Dave. I didn't realize users were having access rights issues. I'm a one man shop and everything is done from one computer. So I've never had those issues. I always liked to keep all my data on a separate hard drive from the OS. This allows for easier backups as all I have to do is back up that one complete drive. In the past, when I was a Windows user, it also made it easier to reinstall Windows since I knew my data was safe on a separate drive. Now that I use Linux, my headaches are gone that I had with Windows. But it would still be nice to be able to choose where My Reports and other files were saved so they could be saved outside of the Virtual Machine.

Maybe someday you will have a cross platform version and all my documents can simply be saved to my /Home drive. I know everyone is looking at cloud services, but for what its worth I think a cross platform installable software would be preferred by most appraisers.

Anyway, for now I am going to move "My Documents" to a networked folder that resides on my host OS. I think that should at least give me the access I need to My Reports and the database. Other things like quicklist and users will have to be backed up manually. I do have some concerns about moving a major Windows folder out of the system, but its the best solution I see to maintain access to the folder and keep my VM from growing too big. Thanks for your reply and thoughts.

 

[dbiggers]

Thanks Dave. I didn't realize users were having access rights issues. I'm a one man shop and everything is done from one computer. So I've never had those issues. I always liked to keep all my data on a separate hard drive from the OS. This allows for easier backups as all I have to do is back up that one complete drive. In the past, when I was a Windows user, it also made it easier to reinstall Windows since I knew my data was safe on a separate drive. Now that I use Linux, my headaches are gone that I had with Windows. But it would still be nice to be able to choose where My Reports and other files were saved so they could be saved outside of the Virtual Machine.

Maybe someday you will have a cross platform version and all my documents can simply be saved to my /Home drive. I know everyone is looking at cloud services, but for what its worth I think a cross platform installable software would be preferred by most appraisers.

Anyway, for now I am going to move "My Documents" to a networked folder that resides on my host OS. I think that should at least give me the access I need to My Reports and the database. Other things like quicklist and users will have to be backed up manually. I do have some concerns about moving a major Windows folder out of the system, but its the best solution I see to maintain access to the folder and keep my VM from growing too big. Thanks for your reply and thoughts.

Makes sense. We've toyed with an "expert mode" where we let you change it, but with a caveat emptor sort of warning. I hate what we have to do, personally, but we have to deal with the support issues. When you've got many tens of thousands of users, that gets to be a very significant concern.

A while back I set up my mom's and dad's PCs so that their DropBox folders were their My Documents folders, and so everything was backed up and synced at the same time. Even as a one-man shop, there are advantages to that. And to your point, I've never found a problem with redesigning the My Documents folder.

 

[dbiggers]

Oh, and to your point about cloud and multi-platform support, our route forward is cloud, not native apps. That doesn't mean there won't be "helper apps" in the local OS, but we'll be sticking with HTML5/etc. on the web side for a much more portable environment. Since our billing, management reporting, contact and client management, backup, flood, etc. is all already web-based, we're simply going to be moving the remaining components over, and make them tie together better, update the interfaces, and so on. We've already ported prototypes of complicated things like TOTAL Sketch to HTML5 canvases (I really wasn't sure that would work), and moving the forms engine over isn't as far off as it seems. Comps DB and associated comps dashboard stuff is clearly cloud-centric in our next generation, because it's already stretching the limits of desktop databases when you do a lot of properties with it. And to enable appraisers to share comps and subjects in UAD format with each other (think Facebook/social media as a model, where "posts" are comps, and your friends are the only ones who can see them), you basically have to go web-centric, not to mention doing MLS and data source integration for basic importing and for regression and analytics. Throw in syncing and so on from mobile, and cloud based is absolutely the ticket.

So, doing all that on a local OS would be wasted extra effort. This will work equally well on Macs, Linux, Windows, etc. when we get all the kinks worked out. Don't forget too that we're already the only company supporting multiple platforms on the mobile side (which will remain native iOS and Android code, and maybe Win8/9, for obvious reasons), so we're far from a "Windows only" company psychologically.

You'll see helper apps on the desktop in several flavors (Win, Mac, Linux) for doing the desktop-cloud sync and for tasks that still need desktop notifications (i.e., AppraisalPort conversion, communications, alerts and notices, etc.).

This is all crazy expensive development and rollout stuff, but we won't be raising prices (and our $349 is guaranteed for 10 years anyway). We see this as the same as our DOS-to-Windows phase back in the 90's, when we rolled out WinTOTAL and all our DOS users got it for free. (That's one of the reasons we were so shocked that Bradford charged for UAD separately from their update contracts -- that lost them a lot of goodwill, as it should have.)

You'll hear more from us in great detail in January, when we're taking advantage of the "quiet time" to get the message out about our technology path going forward.