how to move NT to new computer?

[Tasuki]

Hi Folks,
I have to move my Ninjatrader to a new computer. I've got 36 workspaces, each with three charts, and I would dearly love to be able to transfer all of them to the new computer so I don't have to re-do all that work, with all those settings I've so meticulously worked on. I have USB sticks with 16 Gigabytes of memory, so that should be plenty of room to copy whatever files are necessary and then upload them to the new computer, but unfortunately, I haven't a clue which files are needed, how to save them, or anything. Any help much appreciated.
Thanks,
Taz

[sledge]

Hi Folks,
I have to move my Ninjatrader to a new computer. I've got 36 workspaces, each with three charts, and I would dearly love to be able to transfer all of them to the new computer so I don't have to re-do all that work, with all those settings I've so meticulously worked on. I have USB sticks with 16 Gigabytes of memory, so that should be plenty of room to copy whatever files are necessary and then upload them to the new computer, but unfortunately, I haven't a clue which files are needed, how to save them, or anything. Any help much appreciated.
Thanks,
Taz

start here:

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/index.html?backup__restore.htm

[Tasuki]

Thanks, Percy, (sorry, Sledge, couldn't resist the R&B reference),
So, this looks simple enough.
I gather that all I have to do is to put Ninjatrader on my new computer (I need some sort of "key" or something, don't I?) and then, when the NT is all installed, I copy/paste the backup file to the new computer---making sure I put it into the right folder in My Documents, I assume) and follow the Restore prompts. Seems easy enough (but knowing me, something will inevitably go wrong). Anyway, thanks, I'll give this a try when the new computer arrives.
Many thanks!
Taz

[sledge]

Thanks, Percy, (sorry, Sledge, couldn't resist the R&B reference),
So, this looks simple enough.
I gather that all I have to do is to put Ninjatrader on my new computer (I need some sort of "key" or something, don't I?) and then, when the NT is all installed, I copy/paste the backup file to the new computer---making sure I put it into the right folder in My Documents, I assume) and follow the Restore prompts. Seems easy enough (but knowing me, something will inevitably go wrong). Anyway, thanks, I'll give this a try when the new computer arrives.
Many thanks!
Taz

I've seen at times where the key gets transferred when doing a full backup/restore. I could be mistaken.


But yes, backup on old machine and restore on new machine should do the trick.
You might have to re-add your connection(s) to your account(s).

[NinjaTrader_JC]

Hello Tasuki,

You may want to write down your license key as you will need that to Install NinjaTrader on your other computer, but you can use the Simulation License Key as well. Note that if you selected the option "Configuration files" then your Key will be restored from your older computer as Sledge mentioned.

[Tasuki]

Well, that was most unsatisfactory. The process itself was very simple, but it appears as if the backup process did a very poor job. To wit, I have about 30 workspaces, each with three charts---daily, weekly and monthly. On each of my workspaces, only the weekly chart was backed up and restored, or that's the way it appears. After I ran restore and started to open each of my workspaces, imagine my horror to find that two thirds of my work had seemingly disappeared.
Does anybody know what went wrong, or is there something I can do to retrieve all those daily and monthly charts?
Thanks,
Taz

[koganam]

Well, that was most unsatisfactory. The process itself was very simple, but it appears as if the backup process did a very poor job. To wit, I have about 30 workspaces, each with three charts---daily, weekly and monthly. On each of my workspaces, only the weekly chart was backed up and restored, or that's the way it appears. After I ran restore and started to open each of my workspaces, imagine my horror to find that two thirds of my work had seemingly disappeared.
Does anybody know what went wrong, or is there something I can do to retrieve all those daily and monthly charts?
Thanks,
Taz

I have a fundamental dissonance with using proprietary formats for backup on anything, precisely because of this issue of not being able to get to the data if the backup is fubar, or even just has a snafu. My only backup methods consist of zipping and xcopy. That way I have direct OS access to my data whenever I want to reach it, without having to run some program to restore some data from a format that I cannot natively access. (I do not consider unzipping to be really running a program, even though it is).

For moving NT, all I do is make sure that I install NT to the same directory on the new 'puter as the old, then copy over the whole NT data directory, and overwrite the new installation. I usually want my Database to follow me, so that is not an issue. If I do not want the Database, I just do the copy directory by directory, and do not copy the db directory. Sometimes I will copy the Database, but leave the data directories behind.

[Tasuki]

Wow, I was fondly hoping (and expecting) someone to reply with some simple explanation for why two thirds of my charts didn't seem to get backed up or restored. So, does no one have an explanation for why only the weekly charts got saved during the backup process and not the daily or monthly charts which I had created for each of the thirty or so workspaces I have on the old computer?

I am grateful to both sledge and koganam for their answers, but I am still holding out hope that I just made an error somewhere (although the steps for backup and restore do seem painfully straightforward).

Is this a common problem in Nnjatrader? If so, it certainly makes Ninjatrader look pretty lame (but I doubt that's going to turn out to the be case. I still think there's a logical explanation for this seeming failure to backup and/or restore properly).

Koganam, I'm sure your method works, and probably perfectly, but it's way over my head.

Thanks,
Tasuki

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hello,

Please contact me at Support AT NinjaTrader DOT com. Please include a link to this forum thread with your reply. If you could also upload a copy of the backup so that we could test the file here, that would be great. Due to file size restrictions via email the best way to provide a copy of the backup file would be to use a service like SendSpace: http://www.sendspace.com/

[Tasuki]

Thanks, Kyle, email on its way. Backup file seemed to attach OK (yahoo email).
Taz