using 1881 lds cds

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Falkyrn
Posts: 295
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2005 7:04 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: using 1881 lds cds

Post by Falkyrn » Wed Sep 25, 2013 9:57 am

Some of the high end versions of 64 bit Windows have an XP Mode which is a virtual XP machine which will run the discs. If however you have the home or home premium versions you can run and install other virtual machines . One such program is VMWare from www.vmware.com which is free for personal use add an old version of windows and you can get access to many discs which refuse to work under a 64 bit system
~RJ Paton~

Shortfuse
Posts: 89
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 4:05 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: using 1881 lds cds

Post by Shortfuse » Wed Sep 25, 2013 3:37 pm

Hi Nina
Eric posted about the possibility of installing a copy of Windows XP onto a virtual pc. I take it this would let us look at the cds while running Win7. I don't know how hard this would be and as I know very little about pcs I think I'm better off using the old desktop to look at the records.
Perhaps someone with a bit of pc knowhow could do it easily enough ?

regards sf

Andy
Posts: 735
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 8:06 am
Location: Gourock

Re: using 1881 lds cds

Post by Andy » Wed Sep 25, 2013 8:57 pm

Hi folks,

The still excellent LDS 1881 discs should work on Windows 7. They were created YEARS ago as a very basic (but quite large) Database. The problem is with the VIEWER, which is just an executable file leading to a Front End search page that calls out delimitted information from the discs. This was created for convenience.

Viewer 4.02 should work on the more basic versions on Windows 7 Home/Premium computers in compatibility mode for either 32 or 64 bit versions. (I've not tried it yet).

Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate will NOT run the viewer software but if you have any of these versions you can download the free version of Windows XP Virtual PC at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc. It should work with this.

When the discs were first produced Hard Drive space was at a premium. The British set was about 13Gb with a further 3Gb for the British Vital Records Index or about 7Gb for British Vital Records Index 2. So, about 20Gb.

Back in 1999 you would have paid a small fortune for a 30Gb drive and, the then new Windows XP, would have used up a lot of that space. With an extra Hard Drive it was possible to "Install" all of the discs and the viewer so you didn't have to swap discs all the time.

Regardless of the installer for the Viewer, anyone with Microsoft Office or the free OpenOffice program should be able to create their own Front End. Copy the 20Gb of data to the modern MASSIVE hard drive on which you're running Windows 7 and have a blisteringly fast 1881 search.

If the viewer is working in Compatibility Mode or with Windows XP Virtual PC:

1. Create TWO new folders named LDS and CENSUS on the root of C: drive (or any extra drive you have but remember the drive letter)
2. Insert the viewer disk into the CD drive, right click on the icon of your CD/DVD drive to open/explore. Copy the file intro32.exe from the INTRO folder to the C:\LDS folder
3. Insert the first CD of the National Index into the drive
4. Copy BI1881 (a folder) from the CD to C:\Census (the folder you've just created)
5. Copy the file title.cd to C:\Census\BI1881
6. From each of the remaining National Index CDs copy the following files to C:\Census\BI1881 (the folder you copied over)
bi1881XX.nfo (XX the alphabetical range of data on the disc)
NaX_1881 ( X is the disc number)

Next bit can take a while

7. Insert and Open the first disk of the Regional Indexes copy the entire contents to C:\Census (overwrite all if prompted)
8. Insert each of the remaining Regional discs, copy the following files from the BI1881 folder to C:\Census\BI1881
XXX_1881.lcf XXX will be unique to each disc, if prompted about overwriting click "no to all"
XXXdtlaz.nfo XXX will be unique to each disc, if prompted about overwriting click "no to all"
XXXndxXX.nfo XXX and XX will be unique to each disc, if prompted about overwriting click "no to all"

Note: some bigger regions have more than one disc. Prompted for overwriting the file ALWAYS select "no to all".

Not finished yet!

If you have not already done so, install the viewer software do (just as if you were going to use the discs from CD)

8. Start viewer program, select "Click here to add a resource file to this list". Insert CD1 of the National Index to the 1881 British Census A-B when that has registered select "Click here to add a resource file to this list" insert Disc 1 1881 British Census East Anglia Region ETC. ETC.

If you have any other sets that use the viewer software i.e. the Vital Records Index or the Mormon Immigration Index add these now as well.

That done that you now need to make some changes to Windows Registry.

Using the editor REGEDIT from the "start menu" (Circle at bottom left of monitor) type in regedit into the empty field to the left of the "Shut Down" option press return.

BE VERY CAREFUL!!!!!!!

Move to the Registry Key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Family History/Viewer

Select the entry for CD Drive and change the drive letter to read C: (or the drive to where you've loaded the files)

Close REGEDIT

I think the viewer installation places a shortcut on the desktop.

Bob's your uncle!

EXACT same process for people running Windows XP Virtual PC.

Since all the English 1881 census is available for free on Familysearch.org and Ancestry.com (co.uk) it should be possible to put the Scottish records on a pen drive of about 4Gb capacity and run it directly from the drive. I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers M'Dears

Andy
Searching for Keogh, Kelly, Fitzgerald, Riddell, Stewart, Wilson, McQuilkin, Lynch, Boyle, Cairney, Ross, King, McIlravey, McCurdy, Drennan and Woods (to name but a few).

Also looking for any information on Rathlin Island, County Antrim, Ireland.

Shortfuse
Posts: 89
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 4:05 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: using 1881 lds cds

Post by Shortfuse » Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:00 pm

Hi Andy
Thank you for the great how-to, not being very technically minded I don't know if I should try, although it looks as if its something I could possibly just manage. I'll see how my nerves are at the weekend :D
many thanks again sf

Falkyrn
Posts: 295
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2005 7:04 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: using 1881 lds cds

Post by Falkyrn » Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:39 pm

The problem is that the viewer program does not work under the 64 bit version of either Windows 7 or 8 .... it works fine under the 32 bit version of Windows 7.

To get it to work under the 64 bit systems you need to run it from within an emulator either Microsoft's own or another such as the VMware Player I mentioned in my previous post
~RJ Paton~

ninatoo
Posts: 1221
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2005 10:42 am
Location: Australia

Re: using 1881 lds cds

Post by ninatoo » Wed Sep 25, 2013 11:13 pm

I tried running the Vital Records using the XP mode already on my laptop as part of Windows 7 Enterprise, but no luck. I will try using an emulator a bit later in my day.
Researching: Easton ( Renfrewshire, Dunbarton and Glasgow), Corr (Londonderry and Glasgow), Carson (Co. Down, Irvine, Ayrshire and Glasgow), Logan (Londonderry and Glasgow)

Andy
Posts: 735
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 8:06 am
Location: Gourock

Re: using 1881 lds cds

Post by Andy » Thu Sep 26, 2013 8:16 pm

Windows XP Virtual does work. When I got home last night I tried it.

Had a couple of pints with a colleague after work today and we're POSITIVE that the full set of U.K. discs can be uploaded onto a 32Gb pen drive. The Scottish part would only need an 8Gb pen drive.

Since the original data is structured so well (Sutherland/Sunderland aside) it would only take half a day to reverse engineer the installable "Viewer" to be a stand-alone Front-End search engine pulling out identical data, or MORE, from the data that is already there.

Bound to be Copyright issues but it IS possible.

By the way, the workstation install above IS legal, it's just at the time of original production there were very few Hard Drives that could hold the information.
Searching for Keogh, Kelly, Fitzgerald, Riddell, Stewart, Wilson, McQuilkin, Lynch, Boyle, Cairney, Ross, King, McIlravey, McCurdy, Drennan and Woods (to name but a few).

Also looking for any information on Rathlin Island, County Antrim, Ireland.

Currie
Posts: 3924
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:20 am
Location: Australia

Re: using 1881 lds cds

Post by Currie » Fri Sep 27, 2013 3:25 pm

Some prophesy from 1999.
http://news.rootsweb.com/th/read/GENCMP ... 0942743161

This would be much less of a problem if the LDS 1881 Scottish Census transcriptions were available on the FamilySearch site as are those for England, Wales, Canada and USA.

A couple of years ago the 1881 Scottish transcriptions did appear on FamilySearch but after about three days they were pulled and all that was left was the index that is there now.

ScotlandsPeople is still charging people to access 1881 LDS transcriptions years after their own 1881 census images were put online. They seem to have no conscience at all about profiting from the work of volunteers. I wonder if the volunteers were aware that this would happen.

I would never volunteer to do anything for a site that charges a fee or a subscription. There are much more worthy causes.

Alan

StewL
Posts: 1396
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:59 am
Location: Perth Western Australia

Re: using 1881 lds cds

Post by StewL » Sun Dec 22, 2013 7:48 am

Hi all
I followed Andy's instructions on loading all the bits onto an external hard drive. It used about 1.2gb but that hardly put a dent in the hard drive :lol:
Thanks Andy, it worked a treat, and it put a link onto my desk top.
It did take a bit of time to do, although not as much as I expected.
[cheers] [cheers]
Stewie

Searching for: Anderson, Balks, Barton, Courtney, Davidson, Downie, Dunlop, Edward, Flucker, Galloway, Graham, Guthrie, Higgins, Laurie, Mathieson, McLean, McLuckie, Miln, Nielson, Payne, Phillips, Porterfield, Stewart, Watson

pencee
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:17 pm

Re: using 1881 lds cds

Post by pencee » Sun Feb 02, 2014 3:22 pm

Hi

I have the cd roms. I have an aging Vista laptop that's also very full. The discs came with version 4 of the viewer which has installed onto D drive but when I put the other discs in I get run time error 5.

I'm not at all techie. I thought I could just pop the discs in when I wanted them, Is it possible to copy them to a pen drive without downloading to the laptop-assuming I can get the viewer to work?

My vista is sp1, 32 bit, home premium if anyone can help.
Researching Kay, Crawford, Baxter, Inglis

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