Virtual Drive

PicasaStarter Virtual Drive Feature

Purpose

The Virtual Drive feature provides a way to dynamically map the database/picture set to the correct drive and path at run time.

Picasa requires that all pictures be on a drive that has a drive letter. The Picasa Tools/Folder Manager allows the user to select which folders of pictures are to be included. The folders to be included are set to "Scan Always", and the only locations that can be selected are those located in a physical or network drive that has a drive letter. The Picasa Database catalogs all of the pictures in the folders set to "Scan Always" by the complete Path including the Drive Letter. These facts mean that for the database to be valid and not require re-indexing, the Pictures must be in the same path as they were when originally indexed by the Scan Always function.

One of the reasons PicasaStarter was developed was to allow the Picasa user to have more than one database/picture set, and to be able to have these sets on any portable or network drive. When the database/picture set is on a network drive and is mapped to the same drive and path as when it was originally indexed, the set can be shared with other PCs and/or users.

EXAMPLE:

The user has a USB drive that was mapped to drive P: on his/her home PC. She has copied a set of pictures to this USB drive, and using PicasaStarter, has created a database also on this drive for those pictures. The user wishes to take the USB drive with him/her to another PC and show the pictures to someone. PicasaStarter and it's settings xml file will also need to be on this drive so the user can use the database/picture set.

When the user plugs the USB drive into the second PC, The drive will normally be mapped to the first available drive letter, which may or may not be the same letter as it was on the original PC, for instance Drive L:. Without the Virtual Drive feature, the user will have to go into the Disk Manager function on the second PC and re-assign the USB drive to the correct drive letter. With the Virtual Drive feature, the user can just start PicasaStarter and click Run Picasa, and the virtual drive function will assign the correct drive letter (P:) to the USB drive while Picasa is running. It will be unmapped again as soon as PicasaStarter is exited.

2ND EXAMPLE:

Instead of a USB drive in the example above, the user has a network URL, for instance: \\NAS1\share\Picasa P Pictures mapped to drive letter P: and he created the database\picture set in P: as in Example one above. The Picasa P Pictures folder would have the database, pictures, and the PicasaStarter directories.

Another user on the network, even if the NAS was not mapped to a drive letter, could go to the NAS Picasa P Pictures\PicasaStarter folder, and run PicasaStarter from there, and the virtual drive function will assign the correct drive letter (P:) and Picasa would run normally.

Virtual Drive Configuration

In the PicasaStarter main menu, click the Edit button to get to the Database Configuration screen, then click on the Virtual Drive Tab to get to Virtual Drive Configuration screen.

The Relative Source Drive is shown above the Relative Path button. This is the Drive letter (or URL) of the drive the PicasaStarter settings file is on, and any Virtual Drive Source Path that is relative to the drive root will be on this path. Relative paths will depend on the present installed path of the portable or NAS drive.

If the Portable or NAS drive is already installed in the requested drive letter, or the drive letter is already in use, no mapping will be done.

Map Virtual Picture Drive Settings Tab

Map Virtual Picture Drive Settings Tab:

  • Relative Path Button
    Use a Relative Path when the Picture Source Drive path to be mapped to the Virtual Drive Letter may be on a different path in different PCs or for different users. This path must be on the same drive as the PicasaStarter settings directory.

  • Absolute Path Button
    Use an Absolute Path when the Virtual Drive Source Path is always on the same drive or URL for all users and PCs.

  • Virtual Drive Source Path and Browse Button
    Browse to the Drive or folder that will be mapped to the Virtual Drive Letter. The Virtual Drive Source directory is the parent directory of the Pictures subdirectory. This means that if a portable or network drive is connected to a new PC and not mapped to the expected drive, PicasaStarter will map it to the correct drive for the duration of that Picasa session.

  • Virtual Drive Letter pulldown box
    Select the Drive Letter the database will expect the pictures in. (A: to Z:) On a Portable or Network drive, this is the Drive letter the picture folder was on when the database was created.

  • Enable Virtual Drive CheckBox
    If the drive specified above is not mapped on the PC to the specified drive letter, PicasaStarter will Map the "Virtual Drive Source Path" directory to this drive.

  • Map Drive Now! Button
    Click the Map Drive Now button to test whether the drive can be successfully mapped. If mapped successfully no message will be generated. If not mapped successfully, a message box will explain the problem.

Note: When Mapping a relative drive letter to the same letter, as is done for a portable drive, the message will indicate that the drive is already mapped, but this is the correct behavior since the source and virtual drive letters are the same.