Frequently Asked Questions About
Now You're Cooking! 
Upgrading to a New Version of NYC
I just installed NYC on a new
Let’s pretend that your old NYC version is v5.61. To get your NYC user files from your 5.61 installation onto your new computer:
STEP 1 (copy over your NYC 5.61 folder to
your
On your old PC, make sure your NYC user folder is under your NYC main folder (probably under “Program Files\Nyc561\user” or “Program Files\FFTS\Nyc5xx\users”). If you user folder is not under your NYC main folder, move the folder back there using Tools… Options… User Folder tab.
Copy
your entire NYC 5.61 folder (which includes the user subfolder) from your old
computer to a USB flash drive. Do not
use a CD for this unless you have to, because this will designate your files as
"read-only" and you will have to undo that attribute later.
Put
the USB flash drive into your
Using
File Explorer on your
<drive:>\Users\Public\Public Documents\FFTS\Nyc561
NOTE: Do NOT copy the 5.61 folder to Program Files
on your
STEP 2 (upgrade your 5.61 user files as
they are brought into v5.84):
Run v5.84 on your new computer and select File… Upgrade…
Use the Browse… button to locate the folder above where you copied the files (dbl-click the folder list to find and select the folder).
Press Proceed in the Upgrade window to bring over/upgrade user files (including reg info and cookbooks) from your previous version's NYC folder on the flash drive.
Afterward,
use File… Open Cookbook… to see all cookbooks in your folder. Note that incoming cookbooks may be slightly
renamed to avoid name conflicts (e.g., RECIPES may be changed to RECIPES1,
etc). After a couple weeks, when you are
sure you have everything, you can remove your previous version's folder (v5.61)
from your
I just installed a
new version of NYC on my computer. I
still have my old NYC version on the same computer. How do I get my user files from my old
version onto the new version?
Run the new version and use File… Upgrade… to bring over/upgrade user files (including registration info and cookbooks) from your previous installation. Afterward, use File… Open Cookbook… to see all cookbooks in your folder. Note that incoming cookbooks may be slightly renamed to avoid name conflicts (e.g., RECIPES may be changed to RECIPES1, etc). After a couple weeks, when you are sure you have everything, you can remove your previous version’s folder.
When I try to upgrade
using File… Upgrade… then Browse… to “nyc/cookbook/user” (or whatever), NYC says it is not
the old version (but it is). Any ideas?
When you use File... Upgrade... , NYC expects you to tell it the main folder where your previous version was installed. NYC will then find your official user folder (based on what is displayed in Tools... Options... User Folder...) and will bring over/upgrade files from that user folder (and no other).
Thus, if you have your user files stored in a folder OTHER than the official user folder, then the upgrade process will not work on those files. You might try simply importing those cookbooks into copies that are stored in your new version’s official user folder.
After installing a new
NYC version and I use File… Upgrade…, NYC brings over files from a
previous user folder to the local \user folder under NYC as it upgrades
them. Why not just upgrade the user
files in place, so I don’t have to move my upgraded data back to my data
drive?
Our
philosophy of File... Upgrade... has been that we NEVER TOUCH your previous
user folder, so that we never can be blamed for such. So if something goes awry in the upgrade, you
still have your original user folder untouched.
In other words, we avoid "upgrading in place" to minimize the
chance of corrupting your info
So
the way the upgrade works now is best in the long run. It upgrades files from your previous user
folder as it brings them into your new NYC \user folder. You can then move the user folder where you
want it using Tools… Options… User Folder…
.
How do I let you know my new email address so I can
continue to get upgrade notices?
To get NYC upgrade
notices, you need to join the email group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYC_Updates/
. This is the only mechanism for update
notifications that we use.
I just got a new computer and installed NYC on it, but my
previous NYC installation and all my cookbooks are on my old computer. Now I want to get your cookbooks onto my new
computer, but even zipped my cookbooks are over diskette size.
What to do?
You should really use File… Upgrade…
to bring over user files from a copy of your previous NYC folder that you put
on your new computer. This will
upgrade file fo
If all you have is diskettes, you could put all the .zip files into one .zip file that spans multiple diskettes using WinZip. In other words, create an “allcookbooks.zip” file on your A:\ drive, then use WinZip to Add all your .zip (zipped cookbook) files to it. WinZip will prompt you for additional diskettes as it needs them to span the “allcookbooks.zip” file across how every many diskettes it needs.
If you need to make
your cookbooks smaller for a transfer via diskette:
- Export your recipes to a text file. Text files are smaller than NYC
cookbooks and may fit on diskettes.
NYC cookbooks are databases with lots of extra space in them for
unused recipe fields.
- Defrag your cookbooks to make them
smaller (Tools… Data Management… Cookbooks tab… Defrag)
and then zip them (File… Zip Cookbook…) – the .zip file
might fit on diskette better. You
can then unzip the cookbook on your new computer.
- Break the cookbooks into smaller
cookbooks using File… Export Recipes… “to other NYC cookbooks” so that when zipped each
cookbook will fit on a 1.44MB diskette.
Here are a few other
more ways to get your cookbooks from your old to your new computer to get
around a 1.44MB diskette size limit.
- Purchase a USB flash drive (also called
“jump drive” or “thumb drive”) to put into a USB port (it
looks to your computer like another
hard drive). Then copy the
data and put the flash drive into your new computer’s USB port to
retrieve it. These are VERY handy
because almost every computer has a USB port, and the flash drives are
small and can be easily carried anywhere. (THIS METHOD IS HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED)
- Network the computers. If both computers have a network
interface card, you don’t need a hub or anything fancy to network
them. Just plug a
“crossover” cable between them and set up a little 2-computer
network. Then share the drive on
the old computer (rt
click the drive in Explorer and use Sharing…), and map it on the new
computer (Tools…
- Email your cookbooks to yourself
(File… Email Cookbook(s)…) and retrieve them on the other
computer. With large cookbooks,
this works best with a high-speed broadband connection like DSL or cable
but it will work on 56K dialup too (it may take a while if the cookbooks
are large).
- Install your old hard drive into the new
computer (make it slave to your existing hard drive). See your computer manuals on how to do
this.
- Hook up an Iomega ZIP drive to the old
computer, copy the zipped cookbooks, then hook up the ZIP drive to your
new computer and retrieve the zipped cookbooks.
- Use a direct PC-to-PC connection (see
your Windows Help on this) using a direct PC-to-PC parallel cable between
the parallel ports on both computers.
- Burn a CD (640MB) on your old computer
and transfer to your new computer using its CD drive. We don’t recommend this method
because you will have to uncheck "read only" on all the files
transferred this way. Files copied to
CD usually get labeled “read-only” during the process.
Where there's a will there's a way...
What is best way to transfer NYC from desktop to laptop, or from an old computer to a new computer?
IF YOU HAVE THE 2 COMPUTERS NETWOR
Download and install the latest version of NYC on your laptop/new computer. Run the new version on your laptop/new computer and use File... Upgrade... to bring over/upgrade user files (including registration info, cookbooks, user lists, etc.) over your network from the NYC folder on your desktop/old computer.
IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE 2 COMPUTERS NETWOR
Here are 2 methods you can use, depending on your preferences:
Transfer only your cookbooks…
Download and install the latest version of NYC on your laptop. Then run your desktop NYC and zip up your cookbooks using File... Zip Cookbook.… Doing this from within NYC will ensure that all your cookbook indexes get zipped up with the cookbook itself. Copy the .zip file for each cookbook you zipped to your laptop's NYC \user folder (use your ZIP drive, diskettes, CD burner, or email them to yourself), and unzip them there. You will need to reenter your reg info into the new version using Help... Register... (email sales@ffts.com for your reg info if you don’t have it). If you use a CD for the transfer, remember to undo the 'read-only' attribute that the CD transfer gives to each file after you restore them from the CD.
Transfer all user files (registration info, cookbooks, meal plans, shopping lists, store aisles, user-defined lists, etc.)…
Copy your entire NYC folder from desktop/old computer to your laptop/new computer using your backup media (ZIP drive, diskettes, CD burner). Then install the latest version of NYC into a different folder. Then run the new version of NYC and use File.. Upgrade... to bring over/upgrade user files from your previous installation. This will bring over your reg info as well.
If more than one person
will be using the software on these computers, you will need to purchase an
additional license (registration
code) for the other person.
When I installed NYC v5.45 and ran File… Upgrade… the suggested path to upgrade from was given as C:\Cook Books\Nyc545, not C:\Cook Books\Nyc544. It always does this – why?
NYC sets the default to the new folder if it cannot find
your previous one -- thus, NYC is not finding your old one. Here is why.
NYC only looks in first level folders under your root directory and
first level folders in your \Program Files directory (on all drives, including
network drives). Thus, in your case,
NYC is not finding your old version because it doesn't look under secondary
folders. Install NYC under the root
directory or under Program Files and it will find it when you upgrade.
I just installed the latest version of NYC. How do I get my cookbooks and registration into the new version?
Whenever you install a new version, run the new version and
use File... Upgrade... to bring
over/upgrade user files (including your cookbooks and reg
info) from your previous installation. Afterward, use File…
Open Cookbook… to see all cookbooks in your folder. Note that incoming cookbooks may be slightly
renamed to avoid name conflicts (e.g., RECIPES may be changed to RECIPE1,
etc). After a couple weeks, when you are
sure you have everything, you can remove your previous version's folder.
After a few weeks, when you are sure you have all your user files, you can uninstall the previous version by executing the "unwise.exe" file in your previous installation's NYC folder. This will uninstall all files whose names match those originally installed by NYC. You can manually delete remaining files in the old folder.
If you are upgrading from NYC 4.xx to NYC 5.xx, please note that you will need an upgraded reg code and you will have to enter it manually (Help... Register... Reg Code button).
I downloaded the latest NYC 5.xx and tried to upgrade from my previous version. NYC asks for my previous version but it's confused because it thinks I want to put the old and new in the same spot. Can you help?
You should install new versions of NYC into their default folder, which is a new folder each time. Then run the new version and use File... Upgrade... to bring over/upgrade user files from your previous version. You must dbl-click in the directory listbox until your previous NYC folder appears in the blue textbox. When that blue box shows your previous installation, you are ready proceed with the upgrade (press Proceed).
After a few weeks when you are satisfied that you have all your files from your previous installation, you can uninstall the previous version by dbl-clicking the file "unwise.exe" in your previous version's folder.
I have NYC Lite. Can I upgrade to NYC for free?
No, these are two separate programs. The upgrade from NYC Lite to NYC is $18. You can order it online (see product #3192) on the NYC registration page .
If I want to copy over my critical user files myself without using Upgrade, what files should I include?
This is not recommended, because you may copy over a file that needs upgrading. However, if you are a brave, independent cuss, then you can give it a shot on your own. You should copy your cookbooks and indexes (*.gcf, *.cdx, *.idx, *.cli, *.tag, *.ima, *.imx, *.rdx, *.rli); all lists (*.lst), meal plans (*.mnu), shopping lists (*.shp), additional price lists (*.pls), and user preferences (nyc.ini).
Does NYC work with any Windows operating system (e.g., XP)?
The 32-bit version (v5) works with Windows Vista/XP/Me/2000/98/95/NT4.
If you use Windows 3.1x (yikes! where you been?), you must use the 16-bit version (v4).
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Last Updated: 4/30/2008 8:52 PM