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portable apps flash drive

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February 19, 2012 - 9:18am
#1
Tuggers
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portable apps flash drive

I am struggling to understand how I get help with portable apps. I am not familiar with chat rooms and get "can't use that command" when I enter anything.

I have bought your new flash drive and have been using it successfully for a few weeks however the portable apps platform appears to have become corrupted and I get error messages about missing files when I attempt to start up. If I bypass the platform and go to the thunderbird portable application it will start however programs like back up and restore seem to struggle to complete.

I did get windows error messages at one point saying there were errors on the drive and unrecoverable files.

Can anyone give advice on how to recover the platform without endangering any of my data.
Regards
Tuggers

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February 19, 2012 - 10:14am
John T. Haller
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Forums

Most of the support for our software is done via the forums here you just posted in. The errors you are experiencing could indicate a number of things. It could be logical corruption of the drive which happens from unsafe ejects (pulling the drive without using the Eject feature in the platform or safely ejecting in Windows). It could be a virus you picked up from a PC you didn't scan. Or it could be a hardware issue with the drive itself.

First off, I'd suggest scanning your drive for errors. You can do this in Windows Explorer by right-clicking on the drive and selecting Properties. Select the Tools tab in the window that comes up and click Check Now within the Error-checking section. If it finds errors and corrects them, that could fix your issue.

Second, re-install the platform. You can download the installer by clicking Download from the main menu of this website and then clicking the first Download button. Download the installer to your Desktop or somewhere else you can find it. When done, run the installer. It should automatically detect your drive and offer to install from there. If not, just select the root directory of your flash drive (X:\ or similar) and install to there. After that, the platform should start up and you should be able to use your apps again.

Some poorly-written antivirus programs will silently remove things they think are viruses. One such program was falsely detecting the PortableApps.com Platform as a virus recently (though they have fixed their error now, I believe). That is another way you could have lost some of the files that make the platform work.

If none of this works and it is an actual hardware issue on your drive, you can contact CustomUSB using the support email address on the warranty card that came with your drive (back of the foam pad in the tin).

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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February 19, 2012 - 3:49pm
(Reply to #2)
Tuggers
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Portable apps platform

Thanks for the advice, scanned the drive and no errors reported however when I tried to re-install the platform I got an error message as soon as I accepted the licence terms - "Error opening file for writing E:\Documents\Desktop.ini". E:\ being the flash drive.

The options offered are retry, ignore or abort. Retry doesn't do anything, what should I do next?
Tuggers

Tuggers

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February 19, 2012 - 4:25pm
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Reformat?

Did you reformat the drive at any point? Perhaps as NTFS when running on a Windows XP machine?

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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February 19, 2012 - 6:07pm
(Reply to #4)
Tuggers
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portable apps flash drive

No, I have never reformatted the drive. I am running on a windows XP netbook at the moment, I usually use a desktop running Vista. Windows did run a check on the drive at start up when this problem first occured and reported unrecoverable parts of files.

I have been having difficulty ejecting the disk, which I read many others are also experiencing, so I have been shutting down and booting the computer with the disk still inserted. This did not cause any problems for a couple of weeks but what is worse, removing the disk when it says it cannot shut down or letting windows close down everything?

I have just installed the portable apps platform onto a SDHC card and restored my last backup to that drive. It seems to work although quite a bit slower than the flash drive.

Should I reformat the flash drive and if so how?

Tuggers

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February 19, 2012 - 6:13pm
(Reply to #5)
Ken Herbert
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As long as you close all apps

As long as you close all apps running from the drive (including the platform), shutting down Windows with the drive inserted shouldn't be an issue.

If you are not closing the platform or the apps running from the drive before shutting down, that is when you will run into problems.

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February 19, 2012 - 6:57pm
(Reply to #6)
Tuggers
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portable apps flash drive

Thanks for that advice, I have to confess that although I had shut down all apps I might have left the platform open.

However I still need advice on what to do from here!!

Tuggers

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February 20, 2012 - 2:43pm
(Reply to #7)
Tuggers
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portable apps flash drive

So have I been abandoned now, I'd really like some help on what to do with a corrupted flash drive!!

Tuggers

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February 20, 2012 - 3:00pm
(Reply to #8)
John T. Haller
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Huh?

How is someone taking a few hours to get back to you 'abandoned'? If you check the information in the drive, it's actually CustomUSB that handles support for drive issues. I just thought I'd try to help you out (and possibly save you some time) and ensure that it was definitely a hardware issue before you having to contact them.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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February 20, 2012 - 4:40pm
(Reply to #9)
Tuggers
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Portable apps flash drive

My we are prickly, the problem here is "Portable", I am 3000 miles from the tin and it's bit of foam and don't see any info in the drive, but maybe that is because it is corrupted. I really do appreciate the help but when you are struggling to use some sofware that you have come to rely on and have lost data and struggling to get or send messages a gap of about 20 hours or so does seem longer than perhaps it is. This problem may be of my own making but I am where I am and I bought the drive from Portable Apps so I do think Portable Apps are the right people to be helping.

Your next post says "copy the data and apps", is that literally a copy command to the hard drive? If the data is corrupted will I not be copying corrupted data and if so how does that help?

Tuggers

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February 20, 2012 - 5:15pm
(Reply to #10)
John T. Haller
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CustomUSB

The drive you purchased is actually from CustomUSB. You bought it from their store on their website. They billed your credit card (via PayPal) and then they sent it to you. We get a share of the revenue and provide the software on it. But we don't support the hardware directly ourselves. Nor could we (we're an open source software shop). I also figured you may not still have the warranty info which is why I linked to it right in my last post (right below this one).

Copying literally means dragging all the files from the drive to the local PC somewhere, then formatting the drive, then dragging all the files back. It's one last thing you can try and it may help. But, as I mentioned, it does sound like a hardware issue, which you will need to contact CustomUSB for. Like I said, I was merely trying to help you out and offer up every possible way that you could get your drive working without needing to do an exchange.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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February 20, 2012 - 5:32pm
(Reply to #11)
Tuggers
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portable apps flash drive

OK, thanks I will try it. One last question, for the time being at least, would there be any advantage in backing up the data with the back up utility, formatting the disk, installing a fresh copy of PA platform and then restoring the files, or is that just the same as copying them?

Tuggers

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February 20, 2012 - 5:35pm
(Reply to #12)
John T. Haller
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Same

That would be about the same. I'd recommend copying over backup since the drive may be having issues. By the way, be sure you uncheck Quick Format when you do format the drive. That's just the same as deleting all the files and doesn't reset the logical structure.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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February 20, 2012 - 2:58pm
(Reply to #13)
John T. Haller
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Format

The last step you can try is formatting the drive. You should get all your data off first. You can even copy apps off and then back. Format it. Then copy your data and apps back on. If this fails, then it is likely a hardware issue with the drive itself. It isn't that common, but it does happen. You can contact CustomUSB via the information that came with the drive. There is a lifetime warranty on the drive and details are on the back of the foam insert that came with inside the tin. You can also find the info from the Lifetime Warranty link on the http://worldsbestflashdrive.com/ website.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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February 24, 2012 - 7:51pm
(Reply to #14)
Tuggers
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Porrtable Apps flashdrive

To bring this issue to a close, the copy method ran into difficulties because some files had names or directory structures that were too long, don't know if this is an XP limitation. Anyway a combination of deleting some files, copying, backing up, formating and restoring I have ended up back where I started, with a fully functioning Portable Apps platform on the flash drive. Hopefully it will function trouble free and I have learnt a lot and know what not to do!
Thanks
Tuggers

Tuggers

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January 8, 2017 - 6:10am
Remixsuperb
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Apps not appearing

When I go to add an app, it displays a list of apps which I can download but it doesn't display all of my apps and only about 20 and I don't know why. I am the administrator and the only account on my pc yet I don't know why all the apps aren't being displayed. Thanks a lot

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