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PAF on a Stick (USB) Drive

Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 2:21 pm
by TMcGuire-p40
Has anyone made use of PAF as a portable application, i.e. on a USB Drive (aka thumb drive, flash drive, stick drive)?

If so, please relate your experiences.

Regards,
T. McGuire

Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 11:02 pm
by steph.younger
There's two easy ways to set it up:
1) Run the install as you normally would, just put the installation folder on your USB drive instead of the "program files" directory on your hard drive.
2) Copy the existing FamilySearch folder from your "program files" directory onto your USB drive.

Remember that your multimedia filepaths are static in PAF, so if you plan to put your linked photos on the USB drive, they may not show up until you do a "Global Search and Replace" (in the Tools menu) to update all the paths.

I'd also suggest using a utility to keep your files syncronized between your USB drive and your PC. Microsoft's SyncToy has worked pretty well for me so far.

Of course, if you can afford to upgrade, both RootsMagic and Ancestral Quest work very well from a USB drive and both are a significant improvement over PAF.

There's already been some (but not a lot) discussion on this topic here: http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1913

- Stephen