Using HEM from external hard drive

[conormce]

Hi,

My laptop which I played basically all my poker on has broken. However I was able to take out the hard drive and mount it in a caddy so I can use it as an external HD on the desktop.

Thing is the desktop already has HM on it with a different database, Dad's, which is rarely used. Is there a way I can boot HM from the external HD? It still has Program Files etc on it, it appears the exact same as it did when it was the main HD on my laptop.

I hope this post isn't too confusing and you'll be able to help!

[conormce]

Also I open hm.exe on the external drive but I have to reactivate the program because of the hardware changes.

Is there a way to merge the 2 databases?

[Sarek]

First of all: if you try to access DB on external drive, it is slow
Espetially if this HDD is from notebook - is is slower than desktop's one by design
Postgre version MUST be the same on both PCs (8.3.x on both, or 8.4.x - "x" don't matter).
Also success depends of your computer skill. Read all carefully and think - do you can accomplish that?
You have been warned...

So, options:
1. You can use "big" DB directly from external drive.
Tell Posgtre (allready installed on desktop) that data folder is located in other place
see step B (only) here FAQ - Hold'em Manager Poker Tracking Software :: How do I setup Holdem Manager to share one database between two computers?
and do it (except copying files - you have there you own), then reboot PC
now Postgres (and HM) are ready to access your "external" DB - but they "forget" the first one.

2. You can combine both DBs into one and hold it on "internal" HDD.
If you have HMArchive from laptop (and you are satisfied with it's completeness) - just import all from there into desktop DB. This is the best solution.
If HMArchive is not so full as you want - proceed as described in (1), export HHs from DB, then "revert" DB location in registry to the old path and import.