› Forums › Geocaching in Wisconsin › Help › Getting old GSAK database off my old PC.
- This topic has 12 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 19 years, 4 months ago by
Jeremy.
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08/28/2006 at 9:45 pm #1723673
😕 Now, who can help an old, non-techno person like myself? I bought a new computer and would like to pull my GSAK database off the old one with a USB2.0 flashdrive, but I don’t know how. Can anyone give me simple step by step instructions on how to do this.
08/28/2006 at 10:41 pm #1764988@Sean Connery wrote:
😕 Now, who can help an old, non-techno person like myself? I bought a new computer and would like to pull my GSAK database off the old one with a USB2.0 flashdrive, but I don’t know how. Can anyone give me simple step by step instructions on how to do this.
Since I kind of sorta mentioned this was possible to you at the picnic but didn’t give you the specifics, I figure I might as well finish the job. It is actually pretty easy:
– Insert USB flash drive into old PC
– Open GSAK on the old PC
– Go to File menu, then Backup
– In the screen that appears, hit the “Select all Databases” button. You probably also want to check the box that says Save GSAK Settings.
– Save backup file somewhere on the USB flash drive
– Insert USB flash drive into new PC
– Open GSAK on the new PC
– Go to File menu, then Restore
– Find the .zip backup file you saved on the USB flash drive
– Hit the “Select all Databases” button, and probably check the Restore all GSAK Settings box
– Hit the Restore button and you should be done!Note that I’d recommend putting the same version of GSAK on the new machine if you are moving the settings in addition to the databases. I’m not sure how well things work when moving settings from a really old version of GSAK to a newer version. But I’ve never had a problem with moving just the database content between different versions using this mechanism.
08/29/2006 at 6:32 pm #1764989If you only want some of the databases, you can just copy the folders between computers. the path is Program Files/GSAK/data/ Just move the entire folder (the folders have the same name as the database) onto a flashdrive. Then on your new computer, move them into the program files/gsak/data directory. Two drag and drops is all it takes.
08/29/2006 at 9:37 pm #1764990🙁 Well, Thanks anyway but I’ve tried for the last hour and can’t get it to work. Team Deajay, I have no idea what paths or programs are. Understand I know very very little about computers and even less about GSAK. Even though GSAK has told me it has backed up onto my flash drive, it apparently hasn’t as I cant find it on the drive and the amount of free memory on the flashdrive is the same.
So, to both you and Jeremy I say thanks but I just don’t get it.
08/29/2006 at 10:03 pm #1764991I’m sure there is a better way than I have used in the past, I just copy the entire C:Program FilesGSAK folder to the new pc, after I have installed gsak on that pc. I get all of my settings and caches the same as on the old pc.
08/29/2006 at 10:42 pm #1764992@Sean Connery wrote:
🙁 Well, Thanks anyway but I’ve tried for the last hour and can’t get it to work. Team Deajay, I have no idea what paths or programs are. Understand I know very very little about computers and even less about GSAK. Even though GSAK has told me it has backed up onto my flash drive, it apparently hasn’t as I cant find it on the drive and the amount of free memory on the flashdrive is the same.
Maybe try creating the backup file on the Windows desktop (so you know where it is), then moving it to the flash drive manually? Once you have it (the backup file, or the GSAK databases or the entire GSAK program directory if using the other approaches) on the flash drive you should be home free…
– Open the backup dialog in GSAK
– Hit the little folder icon
– “Look in” set to Desktop, type backup.zip into File name box
– Hit Open button, hit Backup button
– Go to Windows desktop, open My Computer
– Drag backup.zip file onto the flash drive to copy itIt looks like you live close enough for a house call if necessary… but I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually. PM me with any more questions.
08/30/2006 at 2:50 pm #1764993Give me a call at home tonight, after 7, and I can walk you through it. It is really very easy once you understand how it works. Phone is 262-534-9087.
08/30/2006 at 9:31 pm #1764994Just a side note here that I just wanted to bring up so others are aware and maybe there something I missed.
I have two PQs that I get from GC.com. One sends 490 while the other sends 499. This is for a total of 989 caches that I receive info on. I noticed while doing an update on my database it had 1078 caches. A difference of 89 caches.
I’m not sure how such a difference was created since been using the same PQ for a period of time. What this meant to me was that 89 caches were not being updated. I totally deleted the database and reloaded new information. And GSAK now displays correct amount of caches.
If anyone knows why there ended up being such a large difference please let me know. I thought might be from caches that were archived but that seems like a lot since I only started using GSAK about 5-6 months ago.
08/30/2006 at 10:41 pm #17649958) Okay Jeremy, we got closer this time. I did grab the database off the desktop and downloaded unto my new pc. However, my new GSAK still has me as unregistered even though I paid Clyde for it over a year ago. Also it is doing “wildcard matches” which doesn’t give me all my old database info.
Any further tips or suggestions? Thank you for your help so far. It is much appreciated.
08/31/2006 at 8:52 am #1764996@Sean Connery wrote:
Any further tips or suggestions? Thank you for your help so far. It is much appreciated.
Getting it registered is easy. In GSAK go to Help (menu)->Register, then click Register Now. Enter the name and serial number from the email you got when you registered. You did save this important email, right? 🙂 If not, Clyde had you covered with a way to retrieve your missing serial number:
I’m not sure what you mean by “wildcard matches”. Do you have some sort of filter set so that it is only showing certain caches? If so, going to Search->Cancel Filter should get rid of it. If this doesn’t work, describe the symptoms in greater detail. (It sounds like maybe some settings got messed up when they were moved from the old PC to the new one.)
08/31/2006 at 10:24 pm #17649978) Okay, I got my new GSAK registered but it is still goofed up because I originally transferred the waypoints and caches off the old PC by downloading them to my gpsr and then uploading them unto the new PC. This has given me a different looking database even though the essential info is all there. Instead of green cache boxes it shows yellow question marks on the far left. It also doesn’t tell me who placed the caches or who owns them. And when I add a cache, it goes on as a wildcard match which is more like a loc file instead of a gpx file. If you put a loc file into yours, you’ll see what I am talking about.
So again, any help you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thank you again. I guess I’ll owe you a geocoin when this is all over.
09/01/2006 at 3:28 am #1764998@Sean Connery wrote:
So again, any help you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thank you again. I guess I’ll owe you a geocoin when this is all over.
Moving the cache information over using your GPS (doing an upload) was a creative workaround to the problem you were having with the USB flash drive… but since your GPS does store all the information that GSAK has for a cache, this is why you no longer have the cache owner, cache type, etc. in GSAK. Bottom line is that you have to move the backup file (or the database files) from the old machine to the new machine somehow to get all the information… if the USB flash drive just won’t work, the backup file may even be small enough to email to yourself or you could upload it some website.
Or you could take Team Deejay or myself up on our offers to help. Send me a private message to set up a time to call or an in-house visit. Don’t be ashamed to ask for help… even several WGA Board members (I won’t name names :)) have needed some technical assistance on occasion ;).
09/01/2006 at 3:39 am #1764999@PCFrog wrote:
If anyone knows why there ended up being such a large difference please let me know. I thought might be from caches that were archived but that seems like a lot since I only started using GSAK about 5-6 months ago.
Paul, I’d say you are probably right when you suggested the difference was due to caches that got archived. It could also be from caches that “dropped off the radar”… if you are getting say the 500 nearest to some zip code or cache, as newer caches are placed the circle in which the 500 exist shrinks, and you end up with a slightly different set of caches each time the PQ runs.
I’ve accidentally put “stale” cache information for archived caches into my Palm and GPS and then hunted these caches. 😳 This is why I like to just delete out all the waypoints from a database from time to time. There is an option in GSAK when you import a PQ called “Clear database before loading” that makes this pretty simple.
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