Many people do.
Read through this lot - you may pick up a hint.
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1. These instructions apply for Windows 95 and later users.
2. They cover the DOS KAware2 software as used on the 3 NSW, WA, TAS and earlier edition VIC Pioneers BDM CDs.
3. They cover the Digger software as used for the newer VIC Pioneers index, all other VIC indexes, the 2 SA CDs, the QLD Pioneers CD and the VIC Inquest CD.
The following provides an overview of the installation of the CDs using the KAware2 software.
When these CDs are installed the installation routine asks:
What letter is used for the hard disk drive?
and
BULMER Lord 55Dear Denise, Any genealogy to do with American input must be taken with a grain of salt. There's been been a craze...
What letter is used for the CD-ROM drive?
The responses are typically C and D and a directory named Kawaren is created on the hard drive containing files.
Note in the case of the TAS CD the directory is named Kaware however the files can be moved to the Karawen directory as used by the other CDs so as to enable a common Kawaref.exe file to be used.
Taking the NSW Federation Cd as an example the files created in the Kawaren directory are as follows:
Kawaref.exe
Kawaref.hlp
Manual
Printman.bat
Nswfed.cfg
Nswfed.exe
BULMER Lord 56I once read a website which detailed a fellow in the 1800's who sold potted family histories to the Yanks. He was clbuttic and as good a conman as any I have heard...
The first 4 files are common to each KAware2 installation and the last two vary, depending on the CD. For example the last two files are named Wapi.cfg and Wapi.exe for the WA Pioneers CD.
It is the Nswfed.exe or Wapi.exe etc file that is used to run each particular CD, this being the file that any start menu or desktop shortcut points to, and the drive letter of the CD-ROM drive, as answered during installation, is recorded in the config file, ie the Nswfed.cfg or Wapi.cfg etc.
Want to identify two WW1 diggersSounds like another needle in a haystack - not impossible perhaps, but very difficult. Suppose it depends on how much time and energy you can devote to your query. Have...
The actual BDM data (or rests & marriages only in the case of the NSW Between the Wars CD) in contained in directories on the CD named Births, rests, & Marriages (for the NSW Federation Cd), or Wapib, Wapid & Wapim (for the WA Pioneers CD) for example.
To run these KAware2 indexes from a hard drive instead of the CDs three steps are required, as follows:
1. Copy from the CD to the your hard drive the 3 data directories together with all the files contained in each directory (noting that there are only 2 data directories on the NSW Between the Wars CD).
2. Open the relevant config file (eg Nswfed.cfg) using Windows Notepad and replace the existing CD-ROM drive letter with the drive letter of the hard drive that you copied the data directories and files to and save the file. For example in a single hard drive and single CD-ROM drive computer you would be typically changing D to C.
3. Obtain a copy of the file named Kawaref.exe from the supplier of your CD that has been modified to allow for a hard drive installation of the data directories (this being akin to a network installation).
I obtained mine from Informit some years ago. They were available from their Web site but the last time I looked it was available for download without contacting them. The modified Kawaref.exe files were available for Windows NT and Novel network installations and I have found that the NT version worked for Windows 95 and 98. Without the modified Kawaref.exe file the KAware2 software will not run using hard drive installed data files.
The following overviews the Digger software CDs.
The default installation creates a Digger directory containing a number of files. The files particular to each CD are identified by reference to the CD breastle, for example the VIC Pioneers CD files start with Vicp, the QLD Pioneers Cd files start with Qld1 and the SA rests CD files start with Sad1.
The birth, marriage and rest data is contained on each CD in a directory named Data which contains files that have unique names for each CD.
To run these Digger indexes from a hard drive instead of the CDs two steps are required, as follows:
1. Copy from the CD to your hard drive the Data directory together with all the files contained in that directory (noting that as the file names are unique to each CD they can be all copied to the same Data directory on the hard drive).
2. Identify the .ini file relevant to the particular CD in the Digger directory, for example Vicp.ini for the VIC Pioneers CD and open that file with Windows Notepad. At the end of each relevant .ini file you will see the following (buttuming the CD was installed from a D drive letter CD-ROM drive):
Paths
DBPath=D:-data
MsgPath=D:-data
Change the last two lines to match the hard drive letter that you copied the Data directory to, for example buttuming a C drive, change the lines to show:
Paths
DBPath=C:-data
MsgPath=C:-data
and save the file.
Notes
For both the KAware2 and Digger software these instructions buttume that the CD ROM data directories are replicated on the hard drive and are not located on the hard drive as a sub directory, for example D:-Births is copied to C:-Births and not C:-Some directory name-Births
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johnf
