File location

blewenstein

It would be nice to be able to specify default file location. I've now loaded Zotero on both home and office computers. Rather than carrying a laptop around, I just move an external harddrive from one machine to the other with data files. I'd like to keep my Zotero files there, rather than in the default profile directory on the C:/ drive. (Using WinXP.) Is there an obvious workaround?

noksagt

You can store your whole profile on the external hard drive.

If you want to use the official builds, you can create a new, empty folder and then choose that folder in the Create Profile Wizard.

Otherwise, you might consider using Firefox Portable.

CB

I don't know if the Firefox addin system allows this, but it would be ideal to be able to store the Zotero stuff outside of the FF profile. Portable firefox isn't always practical (eg. institutions that don't allow running apps from USB drives), and changing the profile location, though easy enough, isn't something you want to do on a machine you're using casually.

Many of us also like to keep our permanent data entirely separate from transient app support files.

dancohen

We're definitely going to provide a way to store one's Zotero library external to the Firefox application support directory.

Marbux

Thank Microsoft for not making it easy, but there is a registry hack for WinXP that allows you to specify the drive/directory to be used as the "Documents and Settings" directory. <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314843>. That way, you can put all your data generated by apps that respect the setting on a separate drive. The usual cautions apply about backing up your registry and creating a system restore point before editing the registry.

Happily, I've moved on to Linux and no longer have to dive for registry hacks to accomplish such miracles.