Error message on PE7

Question

I have recently upgraded from PE2 to PE7. I have also upgraded my computer from 1 to 2 MB Ram which has made a difference. The reason why I stopped using PE2 was because of frequent crashes and I reinstalled, defragmented etc and couldn't get it to work. I still encounter crashes with PE7. IN particular:-
1. When I try and unlink video from audio and delete the audio so I can add my own music. After a few clips I receive the message " Sorry a serious error has occurred that requires PE to shut down."
2. WHen I try and open projects, particularly those created in PE2. However, this does not happen all the time. This morning I tried to open a project I made. One copy triggered the error message "Sorry a serious error has occurred that requires PE to shut down." Another copy of the same project that I had saved under the "save a copy" function in PE opened ok.
How can I overcome this?
Many thanks
Erika

Answer 1

Erika,
Back to the drive letter aspect. If you have been building Projects with floating drive letters on the same external -
b STOP!
You will want to consider which letter you assign. The reason for this is, given your examples, some Projects will look for F:\ and some will look for G:\. You will get things correct for, say the Projects referencing F:\, but will have to re-Link the Assets from the others, that reference G:\. I'd look at these Projects, and choose the drive letter that is referenced in the most of these.
PE is pretty smart with regards to Assets. Depending on the Project's folder structure, it will ask you to locate the first Asset. When you do, by navigating a typical Windows' file dialog box. All Assets in that Project in that folder will automatically link. Where the folder structure changes, you'll need to navigate to that sub-folder. Again, PE will link to all in that folder. And on, and on. This can be tedious, so plan your action first.
If, for instance, only your old Projects reference F:\, and your new Projects reference G:\, then go with G:\, knowing that if you open any of those older Projects, you will need to re-link, before you can work with the Assets in that Project. Please plan ahead.
One note: re-linking is easier, when you Open a Project. One could just choose Offline All to get the Project Open. If you do this, the re-linking can be done from the Project Panel. If you do choose Offline All, then do a Save_As for your Project. You'd much rather re-link from the initial pop-up, rather than from the Project Panel. This will save you a few clicks per Asset and will progress automatically. In Project Panel, you'll have to go down the list, and do it manually. If you just do Save, with Assets Offline, then you have only one choice - manually re-linking from the Project Panel. Avoid having to do so, to save mouse clicks.
When you acquire your next external HDD, after you have set it up (possibly NTFS instead of FAT-32), then set its drive letter in the OS. I go backward down the alphabet, as I have one machine with a ton of internal HDD's. My Maxtor 2TB units are: Z:\, Y:\, X:\, W:\, V:\ and U:\. This allows me to plug them into each of my computers, and not get in the way of any machine's internal drive letters.
Good luck,
Hunt