uTorrent and Dual Boot

[phlahme]

I am currently working in a dual boot environment. I have both Windows XP and Windows Vista on my laptop. I am an uTorrent addict and I was wondering, does anyone have any ideas on how to move the %appdata% to a location that both could see? I don't care which partition, but it would be nice to be downloading/uploading when I am in either OS. Maybe this is just one of the perks to having only one OS, but I really am curious about this. I have heard something about putting uTorrent on your USB flash drive, but I don't know if that is applicable. And do they need to do that Re-check garbage? Thank you for your help!

[Lord Alderaan]

Covered in FAQ:

http://www.utorrent.com/faq.php#How_can_I_share_my_torrents_between_user_profiles.3F

[jewelisheaven]

Rechecking only happens after an unnatural shutdown of uT.

If you are getting this bt.graceful_shutdown may help. If not there is an external conflict which must be resolved to stop the rechecking of having active torrents on shutdown. If all torrents are STOPPED on shutdown rechecking should never occur.

[phlahme]

Good to know about the unnatural shutdown thing. I guess it makes sense that uTorrent would do that.

And this *wasn't* covered in the FAQ. What Lord Alderaan referred to was multiple user logins. This is what is says in the FAQ:

How can I share my torrents between user profiles / make µTorrent run self-contained in one directory?

Simply copy the entire contents of %AppData%\uTorrent into the same folder as utorrent.exe. Alternatively, create a blank file named settings.dat in the same folder as utorrent.exe, if you'd like to start out fresh (no settings/torrents). If using it in a multi-user environment, this folder should be accessible and writeable by all users so they can share settings and resume data.

This is NOT what I am trying to do. I have a dual-boot computer and I am thinking there is a way to have the appdata somewhere that both installations of uTorrent (one installation for XP, another for Vista) can read and operate under.

[DreadWingKnight]

The steps are the same for dual-boot and multiple profiles, just make sure the drive letters are the same.

[phlahme]

So, DreadWingKnight, are you saying that I should pick a partition and just run the uTorrent off of solely that partition, thereby eliminating the second installation?

Such as installing uTorrent under XP and then creating a shortcut in Vista to run uTorrent off of the XP partition? How does this handle the appdata?

[GTHK]

Create a shortcut to a µT install in one place, and have all the appdata in that folder. If settings.dat is in the same folder as µTorrent, it doesn't use %appdata%. Either that or merge all your appdata into one folder and change the environmental variables. I don't know how variables are changed on Vista though.

[DreadWingKnight]

settings.dat stored in the same folder as the uTorrent exe prevents uTorrent from using the appdata folders.

[phlahme]

...oh wait. I think I get it now! So I put the appdata in the program files and just run it off of the one partition that it is installed in from both OSes. Right?

[GTHK]

Right. Same folder as µT. It can be in any folder as long as the shortcuts are right and the files are in the same folder.

[DreadWingKnight]

yup.

[jewelisheaven]

No. Program Files is not necessary. Stick it in one folder on partition X. Be sure partition X, and the partition for data storage are the same drive letter from both OSes

[phlahme]

But Program files, is the default if you actually install the program, so I think I will leave it there, unless I have to move it.

Why do I need to worry about the drive letters? Does it have to do with where uTorrent points to look for the torrent contents/files? And how do I even do this because both XP and Vista see the partition that the OS is installed on as "C:"? Give me a possible scenario--I don't follow.

[DreadWingKnight]

You need to worry about drive letters because downloads won't be retained between OS swaps if you don't at least pay attention to the letter changes.

[GTHK]

Ignore the drive letter thing, just lump the appdata together and make a shortcut since, as you say, both OS'es see it as "C:". If you download to another drive, make sure both Vista and XP show the same drive letter for it.

[DreadWingKnight]

The drive letter thing can't be ignored if downloads are being shared between the two OSes.

There will be a whole lot of file not found and similar errors if it is ignored.

[jewelisheaven]

If you only have one partition (one drive in My computer) on BOTH oses you don't need to worry about what I said.

IF however there is more than one, AND you save your uT data to the NON-C drive on ONE OS, you NEED to make sure that SAME parition has the SAME LETTER in the OTHER OS

That's all

[GTHK]

I mis-read his post as saying each OS read the same partition as "C:"...

Do you have a third partition?

[jewelisheaven]

Or it could occur if the data is saved on one respective OSes's C: drive

In that event one would need to use subst or drive manager to use NTFS' ability to softlink the downloaded folder as visible on another drive. For example I have c:\documents and settings\nazgul\my documents\downloads -> O:

Therefore from any OS (2K onward) I can have the same OS and data settings as long as I remember to path the RELATIVE path from that OS to my absolute path in uT settings as O:

[phlahme]

So I absolutely do need a third partition for uTorrent's completed and uncompleted downloads? (not for the program files and appdata-I realize that) A third partition would be something I could have a mutual drive letter to point to, right?

This sounds reasonable, but what I don't get is why there isn't another way--can you not make uTorrent portable? If you did have uTorrent on a USB flash drive, etc wouldn't that cause the same problem? How do people get around that?

[GTHK]

A third partition seems the simplest to me. I'm trying to think of how to implement something like jewelisheavens suggestion... too many things to do, brain fried >.<.

[jewelisheaven]

Under Disk Management you want to look at "change drive letters and paths".

It could be as simple as mounting both partitions for each os as d:\ -> c:\downloads ... since for two partitions you will obviously have some idssonance when accessing the settings from the drive.

uT runs portable when utilizing the 1-folder approach. 1.8 has improved in allowing all data to be self-contained in that one folder... presuming you have enough space for your on-the-go downloads folder. If you're not understanding why this is necessary, pick up Ultima's Bencoded Files Editor. Open up your resume.dat . You are looking for both the sub-ROOT keys (where the torrents are stored) as well as the PATH key under each torrent's heading.

If each respective OSes system partition is C, that means at the very least it would have to be D: from the other OS by default. That's where the Disk Management options I mentioned come in.

[phlahme]

So are you saying that I should make, for example, my XP partition "C:" according to both OSes and my Vista partition "D:" in both OSes? Does that fix the lettering issue(s)?

Oh, and just a slightly off-topic question, but slightly prevalent question, jewelisheaven--what exactly does idssonance mean?

[jewelisheaven]

That's an alternate way. I didn't think of it heh. But to me it seems making this silent redirect for uT is so much easier than actually changing the drive which could affect all your other programs. If you're afraid of links, don't be. They've been in use since forever. No I'm not old enough to remember when "We didn't have linking. We had to type out all our pathing manually" heh.

isddonance is what happens when there is dissonance between fingers and the numpad

[phlahme]

OK. I will attempt the silent redirect for uT, but I didn't quite understand what you were saying--I'm not familiar with this.

It could be as simple as mounting both partitions for each os as d:\ -> c:\downloads ...

Oh, and as if I wasn't confused enough (though I am still motivated to try this dual-boot share uT) does appdata in Vista being different than XP cause further problems, or does it not affect it because of the moving of the appdata to the program files.

(For future and later readers, the appdata differences in XP vs. Vista are explained, by reference to Google, here: http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vista_appdata.htm )