How do I download Official Release to replace Beta Version

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
oakshadows
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How do I download Official Release to replace Beta Version

Postby oakshadows » 29 Mar 2009

Given the DRM failure tonight, I want to roll back to the last Official Release of Multicharts.

What is the process for downloading the Official Release when I have the Beta Version on my computer? (The download "wizard" does not enable me to overwrite the "newer" Beta Version on my computer with the "older" Official Release.)

Note for above:
Official Release = the one currently posted on the download page for MC.
Beta Version = the one currently posted on the download page for MC.

Thanks.

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 29 Mar 2009

remove the MC beta first -- go to your OS' Control Panel, select Add/Remove
Programs.
when you remove the MC program, make sure you do not remove the data.

oakshadows
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Postby oakshadows » 29 Mar 2009

Thanks.

I am most concerned about mistakenly removing Signals that I have created with Power Editor.

brodnicki steven
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Postby brodnicki steven » 29 Mar 2009

What I do, is to use the program that I have currently installed, to remove it.
When you try to re-install, your currently installed version, say v5 beta4, it will give you the option to "remove or repair", choose "remove". (but do NOT remove your data-that's an option as well- the default is not to remove user data)
Then install the other version that you want to use. V5 beta2 doesn't use DRM, so that's the one I have working now.
***Before running V5 beta2 for the first time, you "MUST" run the power editor and "compile all uncompiled", when that's complete, you can close the power editor and run Multicharts.

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Postby momentum » 29 Mar 2009

FIRST, export all your signals/studies. You should be doing this regularly anyway as a backup.
Thanks.

I am most concerned about mistakenly removing Signals that I have created with Power Editor.

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 29 Mar 2009

Thanks.
I am most concerned about mistakenly removing Signals that I have created with Power Editor.
you should always back up your studies and wsp before any action.

go to
c:\programdata\ts support\multicharts\studyserver\studies

i usually copy the whole "studies" directory.
you can also copy only the "graph_backup.xml"
that's the compiled version of all your studies.
Last edited by TJ on 29 Mar 2009, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby TJ » 29 Mar 2009

FIRST, export all your signals/studies. You should be doing this regularly anyway as a backup.

an easier way than export is to copy this file

c:\programdata\ts support\multicharts\studyserver\studies\graph_backup.xml

that's the compiled version of all your studies.


I wish MC would make a Backup Button to automatically copy this file to a designated location.

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Postby TJ » 29 Mar 2009

What I do, is to use the program that I have currently installed, to remove it.
When you try to re-install, your currently installed version, say v5 beta4, it will give you the option to "remove or repair", choose "remove". (but do NOT remove your data-that's an option as well- the default is not to remove user data)
Then install the other version that you want to use. V5 beta2 doesn't use DRM, so that's the one I have working now.
***Before running V5 beta2 for the first time, you "MUST" run the power editor and "compile all uncompiled", when that's complete, you can close the power editor and run Multicharts.
I don't mind to use this method to upgrade.

but for roll back, i prefer to delete the program with the OS Add/Remove Program.

this practice is from the bad experience I had one time when MC failed to roll back properly and had to abort the process. I lost a very important indicator as a result.

brodnicki steven
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Postby brodnicki steven » 29 Mar 2009

What I do, is to use the program that I have currently installed, to remove it.
When you try to re-install, your currently installed version, say v5 beta4, it will give you the option to "remove or repair", choose "remove". (but do NOT remove your data-that's an option as well- the default is not to remove user data)
Then install the other version that you want to use. V5 beta2 doesn't use DRM, so that's the one I have working now.
***Before running V5 beta2 for the first time, you "MUST" run the power editor and "compile all uncompiled", when that's complete, you can close the power editor and run Multicharts.
I don't mind to use this method to upgrade.

but for roll back, i prefer to delete the program with the OS Add/Remove Program.

this practice is from the bad experience I had one time when MC failed to roll back properly and had to abort the process. I lost a very important indicator as a result.
* I've had problems with the O/S NOT properly removing software, so I trust MC to remove all of the files that it installed, including the registry entries. Both methods SHOULD work fine. I've never had a problem doing it my way. I agree Personal studies-data should always be backed up before rolling back as a good safety measure.

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Postby TJ » 30 Mar 2009

* I've had problems with the O/S NOT properly removing software, so I trust MC to remove all of the files that it installed, including the registry entries. Both methods SHOULD work fine. I've never had a problem doing it my way. I agree Personal studies-data should always be backed up before rolling back as a good safety measure.
actually the OS Add/Remove Program invokes the MC installer, so we are using the same uninstall routine.

The only difference is, I made it a 2 step process -- first removing the program, then install the roll back.

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Postby oakshadows » 30 Mar 2009

Thanks to you both for the good words of advice.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 30 Mar 2009

I did not know of some of the backup shortcuts above. Here is something to think about however.

What I do is export all studies every time I make a change to my EL code (no matter how small it is). The file format of the backup is below. This includes all the EL-collection studies (everything). It saves me having to select and think which speeds it up. Disk space is cheap.

MC_Studies_YYYYMMDD_HHMM_Comment.pla.

I keep lot of these and transfer them to these places (2 other computers including my notebook). I also copy them to a CD for the safety deposit box every few months along with all my other critical stuff.

Is this overkill? Not really! Here is an example of why. I had put in a big chunk of EL code, which got to the safety deposit box one day. I took it out thinking I did not want it then I realized I could make a small adjustment and use it again. It had been removed from my machines at home. I went back to the backup in the safety deposit box, brought in the old code (merging it in and saving me at least a week or two of work). I could not live without that code now in its new form.

During a reinstall of MC I have been simply recompiling the whole backup while off doing something else. You know you have everything including the EL collections, etc.


of course there is always the concern of fire too. Gee, that would be 1.8 years of work. Too risky for me. I have copies of all my software in that Safety Deposit box.

John.
Last edited by bowlesj3 on 30 Mar 2009, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby TJ » 30 Mar 2009

...What I do is export all studies every time I make a change to my EL code (no matter how small it is). The file format of the backup is below. This includes all the EL-collection studies (everything). It saves me having to select and think which speeds it up. Disk space is cheap.
MC_Studies_YYYYMMDD_HHMM_Comment.pla.
...
that's a good practice.
thanks for sharing.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 30 Mar 2009

You are welcome TJ. I should do a spell check before submitting shouldn't I. Wish this forum had one.

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Postby TJ » 30 Mar 2009

I am using Firefox. The spell check is built-in.

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Postby brodnicki steven » 30 Mar 2009

Bowlesj3 said : "of course there is always the concern of fire too. Gee, that would be 1.8 years of work. Too risky for me. I have copies of all my software in that Safety Deposit box."

* It's a good idea to have backups of your work in a safe, or location off site, in case of theft as well as fire, hard drive crashes etc.
Remember Murphy's law- "whatever can happen will happen".

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Postby bowlesj3 » 30 Mar 2009

"Hard drive crashes."

Yes. How could I forget after this experience. I had a power supply go once on my main machine many years back and it fried 6 other components on the machine including the two hard drives I had. They were completely unrecoverable unless you rebuilt the hard drives electronically or maybe removed the disks and put them in another one. So after this experience I always make sure that if I am using another machine at home for other uses I also make sure it has enough disk space to serve as a backup machine as well.

One could also have an external drive too I guess. I am not sure if one should keep it unplugged after use just in case this type of power supply failure/surge incident could get through the cable to that drive.

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Postby brodnicki steven » 30 Mar 2009

I do USB backups and remove the USB drive afterwards, I also duplicate important files on 2 other computers and I HAVE needed to recover files from crashed hard drives. so it's worth the effort. I also had a power supply failure once and a motherboard failure but it didn't hurt the drives, luckily. My computers run 24/7, so I expect failures every other year or so.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 30 Mar 2009

It is good to explain these experiences because many do not do any of this stuff until they experience a loss.

My experience with the power supply surge isn't a true drive crash as most would know I think. A true one is where the head hits the disk. This is rare these days I think.

I have also had a true head crash way back, another dirve problem (often funny noises occur first on these) and an actual fire inside a computer too which is unusual. Murphy isn't my friend.

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Postby TJ » 30 Mar 2009

there are many free backup programs on the web.

here's one that can do periodic sync backup for you:
http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/compare.html


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