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Sudden Platform Problem

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November 10, 2016 - 5:29am
#1
bobyorke
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Sudden Platform Problem

Hi all,

I've been using PortableApps on a portable hard drive (USB connected) for years and never had a problem before. Today, I restarted my PC and clicked my PortableApps 'start' shortcut to find that my usual PortableApps menu had turned flat green with lots of 'lblAppButton02, lblAppButton02, and so on instead of my app entries.

I tried to (re)install the latest version but the install fails with:

Error opening file for writing:
G:\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\PortableAppsPlatform.exe
Click abort to stop ..... etc.

Having read various past forum threads, I checked my drive with chkdsk and Crystal Disk Info (all good apparently), unmounted and remounted the drive, etc., tried to reinstall as Admin, but to no avail.

I can go directly to my apps and start them without any apparent problem - everything else seems to work fine - but I can't get past this platform/menu issue. Does anybody have any idea what this sudden problem might be?

Thanks in advance - Bob Yorke

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November 10, 2016 - 1:26pm
John T. Haller
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Errors or Permissions

That's definitely either errors on the drive or permissions issues. The errors seeing lblAppButton, etc means the platform is unable to read its files from the drive. The "Error opening file for writing" means the installer is unable to write to the drive. There is nothing in the platform or its installer that can cause these issues.

1. Ensure you set the whole external drive permissions to "Everyone" with "Full Control". This will likely have no effect.

2. To reset the whole platform's files: Delete the X:\PortableApps\PortableApps.com folder manually in Windows Explorer (do NOT delete the PortrableApps folder itself). If you have any platform settings you want to keep (favorites, renames, category changes), you'll want to preserve the X:\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\Data\PortableAppsMenu.ini file first. Then reinstall the platform. That will completely recreate all the files and folders within its main directory but not address corruption in the PortableApps folder itself or the Documents hierarchy.

If an older USB drive, it's likely either dying or it was disconnected without safe ejecting or used on a faulty USB port (short, over/undervolt).

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

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November 12, 2016 - 6:21am
bobyorke
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Joined: 2016-11-10 05:16
Hi John,

Hi John,

I checked permissions and they were as I thought all set to full control - the whole thing had always worked in the past, so they shouldn't suddenly have changed, barring disk corruption. I then saved my menu.ini file, deleted the PortableApps.com folder and reinstalled, and it all worked straight off. I have no idea why but it looks *on the face of it* as if the installer didn't want to install over the top of the previous files.

Anyway, all looks normal and I appear to be up and running again, so thank you for your time and help.

Regards, Bob Yorke

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November 12, 2016 - 2:44pm
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Corruption or File System Permissions

The only thing that can cause that issue is one of these two things. The installer always overwrites those files on every upgrade for millions of users.

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

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