Can't change Shared Folder in Sonar

revnice1

Member
I'm now a Studio One user but I've orphaned a bunch of work in Sonar. I installed Sonar to an external disk (F:\) so the plug in scanner doesn't get confused and list everything twice.

The problem with that is that external drive letters get shuffled by Windows and F:\ might be something else, or the old F:\ drive has been given a new letter.

Removed everything, formatted, changed the drive letter to X:\ so it won't get renamed and tried to install but now I find the shared folder on F:\ can't be accessed and can't be changed! It's disabled.

You can click Ignore to every file that's supposed to be installed there but there are hundreds and I don't know if Sonar will function at the end of it. I could rename every instance of F:\Cakewalk\shared stuff - but there are hundreds of them.

Now I'm thinking there won't be any other references to F:\ in the registry and maybe I could do a global Replace? Anyone got any thoughts or a better idea?

Thanks - rev

Edit: There is no global Replace in regedit!
 
Ooh, that sounds like a mess. :(
What is it exactly that's looking for stuff at f:\?

If it's one of your DAWs it may be that there's an 'auto-copy audio to session folder' option, like Protools has.
If there is that would make all paths relative and solve the problem.

Regardless, why are the drive letters shuffling? They should be persistent.
I guess maybe your drive isn't permanently attached and if you attach some other drive while the 'real' F drive isn't attached, F gets taken?
What I'd do, if that's the case, is manually bump the undesired F up to G (control panel > disk management) then connect the real F. It should get its name back then.

I'm not sure if there's a way to permanently reserve a drive letter for a drive that may or may not be there but damn...Can't believe this is a thing in 2020.
All the guides say that manually setting the letter via DiskManagement should be persistent, even for removable media, but I guess it's not?
 
>What is it exactly that's looking for stuff at f:\?
Shared utils, control surfaces, .dlls, the plugin scanner, etc.

>Regardless, why are the drive letters shuffling?
Because I installed to an external drive. If you're plugging different drives in all day, they won't keep their original drive letters.

>All the guides say that manually setting the letter via DiskManagement should be persistent, even for removable media, but I guess it's not?
Correct, but that's easily solved by giving it a drive letter so far down the alphabet that it won't be shuffled. That I've done.

The bulk of the installation is on C:\ of course, and it's the registry that's held on to the old Shared Folders drive letter. Even if I changed all the occurrences of F:\ to X:\, in the registry, I think I would still hit errors because some of the references contain memory addresses.

I think it would be safe to delete all references to F:\ in the reg because there is no fixed disk of that name. So nothing else would be affected and Sonar would create or ask if I want to create the Shared Folder.

If I'm wrong, I'll be visited by a whirlwind from hell that drives me to the brink of insanity.

Thanks for the reply!
 
It's your party but I would not start altering registry. If you do I absolutely would not find-all and replace in there.

It makes more sense to me to just ensure your disk always gets F, even if that means ejecting some other drive first in order to free the letter up.
Minor inconvenience but a safe one.
 
>If you do I absolutely would not find-all and replace in there.
It's not as bad as it sounds. Reg, a free util, will give you a list of all occurrences of the Search string, then you're not doing something global without knowing what it is. I tried that but I didn't hit on the key or value for the shared folder, I still get offered a shared folder on F:\ that can't be changed.

>It makes more sense to me to just ensure your disk always gets F
Me too if that were possible but my C:\ drive has 4 partitions put there by the installation and even though three were not assigned drive letters, windows makes letters that might conflict, unavailable. So I can't get back to F:\.

That seems to leave 2 options:
* Carry on trying to nail that reference in the registry (it's backed up) which is not my favorite, or
* Use a different computer. I only want to Export MIDI and audio from Sonar and Import it to Studio One so a second machine doesn't have to be powerful.

I could purge the Sonar Audio folder of files that are not being used in the song, then get them into Studio One via drag and drop, no Export needed. But I have to Export the MIDI files.
 
Yeah, it's not very nice either way ^.
Is it possible to permanently mount these additional system partitions as x/y/z, or whatever?
Even if one of them is mountable under windows (or could be sacrificed), that could get you up and running again.
 
>Is it possible to permanently mount these additional system partitions as x/y/z, or whatever?
Yes, I have the drive letter set to X:\ and I can't see circumstances where it would get changed, I only have 17 USB ports. In the past, a Sonar support person would point me to the right reference in the reg and I'd be off and running again but even the old forum has gone.

I have another computer, it's only got 4 gig of RAM but as I mentioned, I won't be working in Sonar, just getting the MIDI and audio tracks out of unfinished songs. It will be slow and there are a lot of tracks but each time I recover one, I'll be done with it.
 
NEEDLESS to say! Y'all have lost me but. I do know that you can backup the registry before you hack it (to a thumb drive?) and as ever, I bet Pete of Scan at soundonsound.com will have some useful advice, he and Mr Walker.

Dave.
 
Those guys paying you or something? :laughings:

No, but funnily enough there is a thread (started by me) about a company that does not have a .pdf download for their products. Much discussion has been wrought especially along the lines of "but people get their answers online these days". "Ah but" Came the riposte, "can you trust the advice given online?"

The top mods at SoS are finding more and more 'raw' noobs are coming in with really basic questions. They have, it seems found a trusted source... AS OF COURSE is HR! (just a slightly different mix of experts)

Dave.
 
Yes, I have the drive letter set to X:\ and I can't see circumstances where it would get changed, I only have 17 USB ports. In the past, a Sonar support person would point me to the right reference in the reg and I'd be off and running again but even the old forum has gone.

I have another computer, it's only got 4 gig of RAM but as I mentioned, I won't be working in Sonar, just getting the MIDI and audio tracks out of unfinished songs. It will be slow and there are a lot of tracks but each time I recover one, I'll be done with it.

No, the additional system partitions which are causing D/E/F to be permanently reserved; is it possible to manually mount those, or at least one of those, as x/y/z, permanently freeing up F for your use?
 
My 2 cents: I wish foreign manufacturers would give their English manual to an English speaking person.

>more 'raw' noobs are coming in with really basic questions
And the 15 ways to fix it were written by monkeys with typewriters. Reboot, update your drivers, try a different port!? You look for an answer AFTER you've done the obvious things.
 
I solved this one. I found the reference to F:\...Cakewalk\Shared Utilities in the registry and deleted it. This was one of the first things I tried but somehow I missed the reference to F:\. Then I used a reg util that lists every occurrence of your Search string so you can concentrate on just the items in the list.

Now I can install Sonar anywhere and there is no residue of any previous installation.
 
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