Help reinstalling after partition deleted

[jlsturgeon]

I recently deleted a largely unused drive partition and converted the disk space to my main Windows 7 64-bit installation. Unfortunately, I forgot that my Calibre program installation (though not the library, fortunately) was on it. I tried to download the installer and just reinstall calibre, but I got an invalid drive error message and the installer failed. I then tried to go through the Control Panel and uninstall and/or repair calibre, but I got the same "drive invalid" error referring to the same deleted partition (z. I'm at a loss to figure out how to reinstall the program at this point so I can add new books. Any suggestions?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by jlsturgeon

I recently deleted a largely unused drive partition and converted the disk space to my main Windows 7 64-bit installation. Unfortunately, I forgot that my Calibre program installation (though not the library, fortunately) was on it. I tried to download the installer and just reinstall calibre, but I got an invalid drive error message and the installer failed. I then tried to go through the Control Panel and uninstall and/or repair calibre, but I got the same "drive invalid" error referring to the same deleted partition (z. I'm at a loss to figure out how to reinstall the program at this point so I can add new books. Any suggestions?

These are all Windows errors.
You need to repair Windows (maybe the Registry). I suggest that you consult Windows specific forums for help

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by jlsturgeon

I recently deleted a largely unused drive partition and converted the disk space to my main Windows 7 64-bit installation.

The MS installer is the only thing that puts anything Calibre related into the registry - basically whatever it needs itself and what the MS uninstaller needs - nothing that Calibre itself uses is there.

I suggest using the facility that's in Piriform's CCleaner to clean up your registry (it will offer to do a backup - which you should accept). Otherwise use the registry editor to back up the registry manually and then manually find and remove anything that refers to 'Calibre2'. I've cleaned dozens of registry with CCleaner and never had any problems.

BTW what process did you use to relocate Windows, I've done it a couple of times following a process I found on MS Technet, it relocated Windows and had the option to do the same with installed applications, user accounts etc. It was a process, not a "click the button and we'll do it all for you" script.

BR

[AnotherCat]

I go along with BR's suggestion to try CCleaner.

If not comfortable editing the registry then easy possibilities to try are:

- Microsoft has FixIt tools for fixing bad installs/uninstalls which among other things endeavour to fix the registry. Google for Microsoft Fixit and then look for "uninstall problems" and that should lead you to the correct tool (different for 32 and 64 bit systems). Working from memory as a long time since used Win 7, but I seem to recall that FixIt can also be got to via Control Panel.

- The application Revo Uninstaller will often uninstall under difficult circumstances. In use it leads you into shallow and deep type file searches for uninstalls.

[Katsunami]

When installing Calibre, make sure that the installation path does not point to the removed partition. Calibre reads its last installation path, either from the registry, or its configuration folder (I don't know which). Just make sure you substitute the path with a correct one during installation. That's all.

[jlsturgeon]

I didn't try that registry cleaner tool, but thanks for the suggestion. I may do so in future.
Unfortunately, calibre does not give you an option to change the directory during installation. If it did, this problem would never have arisen. I presume the installer pulls the information on your existing install from the registry because more often, one would be upgrading the existing installation rather than doing a fresh install. I ended up just deleting all registry entries to the installation on the now-nonexistent drive partition by hand and that worked. As for relocating Windows, I see that my original post could be misleading. I didn't relocate Windows at all, just reallocated the space from the deleted partition to another drive using Windows 7's disk tools. Sorry I was unclear about that. Thanks again for the suggestions.

[jlsturgeon]

I should clarify I suppose that Calibre gives you no option to change the install path during installation *if it detects an existing installation.* Naturally once I removed all traces of that, I was able to specify my desired installation path for the clean reinstall.

[Katsunami]

Of course it offers such an option. Look for a button called "Advanced" (if I remember correctly) during the installation. The path selection is in there. If you just go "Next, Next", you'll probably skip over it.

My Calibre installation is in "C:\Programs\Calibre\".

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by jlsturgeon

I didn't try that registry cleaner tool, but thanks for the suggestion. I may do so in future...

Glad you got it sorted.

From my own point of view the registry cleaner suggestion was just a quick and easy first try. Ones that are trusted are unlikely to do a clean deep enough to fix problems such as yours. But perhaps??

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by jlsturgeon

I should clarify I suppose that Calibre gives you no option to change the install path during installation *if it detects an existing installation.* Naturally once I removed all traces of that, I was able to specify my desired installation path for the clean reinstall.

I suspect that may be a feature of the MS Installer. I don't know if its 'tweakable' by the application, but its not a bad idea otherwise you could shoot yourself in the foot by having multiple copies of the same software installed in different locations.

If you want something like that it would probably be better to download the source, build the executable, and impose your preferred configuration management regime.

But I'll stick my neck out to say - most users of calibre are not skilled in best-practice system configuration management techniques and disciplines.

BR

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Of course it offers such an option. Look for a button called "Advanced" (if I remember correctly)...

You do remember correctly , but it is very, very easy to miss it being in the licence acceptance window through which most just flick through to the next (so kudos for remembering ).

However, for the comfort of the OP (am not suggesting that Katsunami was suggesting anything different), I think that cleaning out the Calibre remnants from the registry was the correct thing to do as the stuff found there to remove, relating to the deleted partition install, may have led to potential downstream issues.

EDIT: BR you posted while I was writing, interspersed with eating my breakfast, drinking my coffee etc. so I was not meaning to cut across you on the directory pointing option, however, the option does exist, albeit very easy to miss.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

You do remember correctly , but it is very, very easy to miss it being in the licence acceptance window through which most just flick through to the next (so kudos for remembering ).

However, for the comfort of the OP (am not suggesting that Katsunami was suggesting anything different), I think that cleaning out the Calibre remnants from the registry was the correct thing to do as the stuff found there to remove, relating to the deleted partition install, may have led to potential downstream issues.

EDIT: BR you posted while I was writing, interspersed with eating my breakfast, drinking my coffee etc. so I was not meaning to cut across you on the directory pointing option, however, the option does exist, albeit very easy to miss.

No worries mate - I wasn't sure whether it was always offered (that's I wrote "I suspect"), even though I always go in there to make sure my pristine desktop doesn't get polluted with shortcut droppings and there's nothing new that I wouldn't wanna miss...

Have beaut day

BR

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

You do remember correctly , but it is very, very easy to miss it being in the licence acceptance window through which most just flick through to the next (so kudos for remembering ).

I've seen more and more programs sticking the choice of installation path under an "Advanced" button as of late, and some indeed *DON'T* offer a choice anymore. Probably, that makes it "easier" to install them.

(There is nothing "easy" about having to install a 15 gig behemonth onto my 64GB SDD, before I can move all the parts somewhere else and create symlinks. Some programs come with a huge library of dead weight that doesn't benefit from being on an SSD.)

I'm not surprised if the OP missed the option and thought there was none.