I've just transferred all my data and Metastock v9 to a new laptop. I've kept the same file structure for the stock data. Every time I open a chart (if I have opened it before and it has a Smartchart associated with it), Metastock tells me "The folder containing this Smartchart's data no longer exists or is not accessible". I'm then only able to open the chart if I hit 'cancel' a number of times, but then have to save it as a "chart" (not "smartchart") to be able to access the data, otherwise Metastock just closes the chart. I'd really appreciate some help with this!! Thanks!

Thanks very much for your reply, DOC. I just copied all the files in the Metastock data directories onto CD and copied them to the new laptop. I have set the chart type to "Smartchart" in the open dialog box. On your suggestion, I have checked the MSSmart folder, and I have a number of files in there, and they don't appear to be read only. Have i just lost the link to the MSSmart folder? How can I re-establish that? Hope I answered your questions. What could you suggest?

hey tim.... every folder should have its own mssmart sub-folder.... to see it corectly you must take the "start->my computer->local disk c->metastock data->dow 30-> then click on the folder mssmart" type route.... your folder path might vary..... by doing that i can see my smart charts that apply to the dow 30..... "c1" will be smart chart for the first security in that folder , "c2" smart chart for the second and so on.... those numbers are determined by the orignal folders make up..... i say orignal because if later using the downloader i add 'dia' to that folder and move it to third place it will still be "c31".... or if for some reason later i move "aa" to the end of the folder it will still be "c1"..... if you have taken the above route my computer->local disk c->metastock,,,,,,, once in the mssmart folder you should see the chart icons.... you should be able to double click on them and the chart should open..... or give you one of about 6 error messages...... if your looking at the icons, there should be a minimum of 7kb in each one.... it should be listed.... if you have indicators and such it should be in excess of 12kb..... and of course if there are tons of symbols on the chart it should much more.... upwards of 1000kb...... if it has 1kb, do not click on it..... to tell if the charts are read only, right click on one of the icons in the mssmart folder and click properties..... at the bottom will be attributes and 'read only' should not be checked.... i suspect its not..... if it was you should be getting the error, 'unexpected file format'..... meta expects to be able to write to that file..... your folder path might not match mine above, so follow yours it its different..... you have not mentioned any desire to recover the smart charts, rather just the anoyance of the error message.... if thats the case you can delete your smart charts which would get you back to day one so to speak..... it should not take long to delete the smart charts unless you have 50 folders like me...... and even with 50 folders it should only take a couple minutes..... if i wanted to delete all the smart charts associated with my dow 30 folder, i could delete them 1 at a time or just delete the entire mssmart folder ..... meta will create a new mssmart folder for the dow 30 once i open something ....... holler back if ya don't follow......h

Thanks very much, DOC & Hayseed. Your suggestions were helpful: 1. I checked the MSSmart files, and they were not Read only, so seem to have copied OK. 2. I didn't change any of the file structure in transferring the files, so I don't think this caused it. 3. I've just deleted all the MSSmart folders and started again (arghh!). I figured this was probably going to be quicker, and I wanted to revamp a lot of my layouts/smartcharts anyway. This seems to have fixed the problem, and the charts just open up with the price and volume data without any problems. Traderbullish, not sure I can answer your question properly, but let me try - My understanding is that the smartchart will stay as you have left it (with indicators etc.) unless you delete the smartchart (as I have done - see above). You don't need to save the Smartchart - MS does that for you automatically. MS will always open the Smartchart if you have "Smartcharts" selected as the file type in the Open dialog box. If you want to save a copy of the chart (for example, in an "Open positions" folder as part of a watchlist), then you have to save it as a "Chart", not a "Smartchart". I believe there can be only one "Smartchart" for a particular security. DOC, Hayseed, pls correct me if i'm wrong.

hey tim.... did not want to suggest deleting them all even though my thoughts leaned that way.... you have probably made the right choice.... good luck with the laptop, there handy as 2 shirt pockets..... and i believe like doc, your correct on the chart/smart charts.... multiple smart charts.... smart charts are saved in respect to several parameters.... security ticker being the most obvious, but also folder path and even periodicty.... csco's smart chart in my nasdaq 100 folder is different than csco's smart chart in my russell 1000 folder and so on.... each folder contains its own smart charts.... you can have more than 1 csco in a folder.... few do but you can...... in my 'dow 90' folder there are all 30 dow securities each in , day, week, month time frames..... my reasons for that vary..... but all 90 have there own individual smart chart..... or at least have the potential to have....... you can download many time frames into a single folder..... again few do but you can..... i have experts and some of henry's codes applied to the higher time frames..... among other things.....h