where do you store your designs

[levelbest]

Rod:

Honestly, I don't understand the issue with putting subfolders in the Designs folder. I've been watching this discussion for a while and havn't commented for fear that I was missing something... but we have put our customer files in sub folders under the design folder for years. I've upgraded, installed, uninstalled, deleted things etc, and not once has the program ever gone back and removed folders I specifically put there. The way I understand software, that's just not how it works. If you create folders under a folder, when the software is removed or upgraded, it leaves folders that were not included in the software install there. For example, if I put a folder called CLIENTA under the DESIGNS folder, if I remove Design Shop and AOS, it will remove everything ]it installed, but still leave C:/DESIGNS/CLIENTA there including the files in the folder.

If you are bored, try it and you'll see what I mean.

Now, as I said before, I backup up everything a few times over anyway, but I don't understand the issue here.

Again, maybe I am missing something.

[levelbest]

Maybe the point being made is if tech support tells you do do a clean install where they have a client go in and manually wipe all the folders out, clean the registry and such that you could accidentally delete all your files in the design folder?

Is that it?

[Rod or Sharon]

Yes John. However, way back in our early years, we simply deleted the old Melco Program to do a clean install and it wiped out everything---including all notes we had made in Design Shop. We are always a little leary now and so we set up a separate file totally unconnected to anything relating to Design Shop/OS to store our designs in. We also burn backup copies.
Sharon

[Marcelle]

Would it work to just rename the designs folder if you have to do a clean install?

[JTB Embroidery Services, Inc.]

I don't see what the big deal is with where you store your completed embroidery files that you are going to send to your Amaya. There is nothing that I can find that says you HAVE to use the Designs folder that DesignShop creates for saving files for anything. I look at it this way, It is my computer, I will put the files where I choose to. In my case, I run a networked operation. I have my sewing shop in the far corners of the basement of my house. In that room there is two Amaya machines 1 computer and all supporting hardware and accessories. That computer has Amaya OS loaded on it. My computer I use for DesignShop is on the 1st floor where I can see the light of day. I have a hybrid network (Windows/Macintosh) and use that network to transfer completed sew files from the DesignShop computer to a file system created on a secondary hard drive inside the computer that runs the sewing machines. I have ALL of my pattern files on that hard drive and they are backed up Monthly to DVD-ROM. I make two copies each time I back them up for safety. I use an iMac Dual Core 3.06 GHz 24 inch computer for doing my backups (and yes, they are still usable when and if I have to restore them on the Windows computer). This backup is also accomplished via the network.
I don't think I have looked in the C:/Designs folder since 2004 for any designs I think I might want. I used some of them as examples when I first got started with commercial embroidery for a few months to practice with.
Bottom Line: Put the files where you can access them and load them into the Amaya. If you do use the C:/Designs folder, back it up regularly or you might lose it.

Just my opinion, take it for what it is worth.

Regards,

Douglas J. Parker
JTB Embroidery Services, Inc.
Denver, CO 80219-4319
[email protected]

[Big Dog]

Originally posted by Rod or Sharon:
Big Dog,

It makes me a bit nervous when I see statements like, "Main hard drive has a folder called "Designs" included in this folder are subfolders "Customer files" "My files" "Designs by catagory" "Designs by company", the external drive has an exact copy of the same data.". In your case you are backing this up on an external harddrive, which is good.

But, when the Melco software is installed, it installs a folder on the harddrive called "Designs". If items are added to this folder, regardless whether or not they are in sub folders, they can be lost if the software has to be reloaded or it gets corrupted, a clean un-install is preformed or an Upgrade is purchased.

It would be better to create a folder, separate and apart, from Melco's Design folder, on the hard drive like "My Designs", etc......

Rod Springer
Amay Tech & Trainer

Oops let me clairify. The
"Designs" folder is one that I created on "E" drive( my main hard drive with the Windows OS). E:/Designs/Customer files or E:/My files etc. This folder is not part or parcel of the Melco software and not under Program Files. This folder and it's contents have been around longer than I've had my Amaya machine or software, from the old days of my Pfaff and Janome machines.
And yes the external drive is simply a backup drive of everything I have stored on "C" drive "D" drive and "E" drive excluding the OS.
Basically a home built system running three internal hard drives and the external drive for a back-up.