Each disk volume that you use with your computer, including your hard drives, floppies, CDs and other removable volumes, has a unique serial number. PMIO uses this number as a 'key' to store the settings associated with the folders on each volume. Such settings include thumbnail size and quality, image memos and custom sort orders. Ordinarily, this system works very well, and allows PMIO to use all kinds of volumes including removable ones, without having to care about which drives the volumes are mounted in. However, the use of serial numbers has an inherent problem. If the volume's serial number changes, your settings are lost. In reality, the settings still exist but PMIO can't associate them with the volume anymore. The solution to this problem takes two forms. PMIO automatically detects and handles changes to the serial number of fixed volumes (hard drives), but you must explicitly tell it when removable volumes change.
Examples
1. Let's say you have a single hard drive (C:) which contains all your programs and data. You decide to upgrade to a new bigger hard drive, so you back up the drive's contents to tape and replace it. Then you restore the contents from the tape. The next time you run PMIO, it should automatically detect that the drive's serial number has changed and update its settings accordingly with no further action by you.
2. Now imagine that you have a CD full of pictures. The serial number is 9C428530 and PMIO has previously used this to store the settings for this volume. You upgrade to a new operating system and this causes the serial number to appear to change. Although it hasn’t really changed, the serial number is now reported as 3085429C (the bytes are reversed). This means that your PMIO settings for this volume are no longer accessible. To solve this problem, use the Volume Serial # Update function (on the Tools menu). Enter 9C428530 as the old serial number, and 3085429C as the new serial number. PMIO will change the registry key that the settings were stored under so that it matches the new serial number. Now the settings for this volume are once again available in PMIO.
Note: When PMIO updates the settings to reflect a changed volume serial number, it actually swaps the settings under two registry keys (the old and new names). This means that you can reverse the change if you make a mistake, by simply repeating your mistake deliberately.
- See also:
- About Volumes
Volume Serial # Update