Change Data Folder

General discussion about the Tickstory Lite software package.
Trader2384
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 3:24 pm

Change Data Folder

Post by Trader2384 »

Hi,

As I test different strategies on different time periods/symbols, the 2 history folders are getting to be large in size and difficult to manage (i.e. backup or copy to a different location) so I thought the easiest solution would be to copy the data folder in terminal without the tick data files and use that as a template for each project. The only problem is I don't how to associate a new data folder with a particular mt4 installation. Even when you change the data folder in tickstory settings, it still opens the original data folder when mt4 opens. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance :)

tickstory
Posts: 4883
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:27 am

Re: Change Data Folder

Post by tickstory »

Hi Trader2384,

Unfortunately a single MT4 installation allows you to use a single data folder location. This means to achieve what you want you would firstly need to install multiple copies of MT4, each with it's own data. As for Tickstory, it currently only allows a single MT4 installation to be defined at the moment which means you will need to change it when you change back-testing terminals. Multiple terminal support is a feature we are working on.

Hope this helps.

Trader2384
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 3:24 pm

Re: Change Data Folder

Post by Trader2384 »

ok, I understand that a single MT4 installation allows you to use a single data folder location but what I am wondering is how mt4 knows where to look for the data folder, in other words where is the path C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\MetaQuotes\Terminal\D9CB00435C7F0D694E302C2AB3887B0D stored such that I can change the 24-alphanumeric directory name at the end to use a different one instead?

For example let's say I have these 3 directories set up in \Terminal\ for different projects:
\Terminal\project1
\Terminal\project2
\Terminal\project3

Is there a way to tell a single MT4 installation to read from project1 and then when I am done working on project1, tell MT4 to use project2 instead?

Or maybe having multiple installations is the easiest way for now until multi-terminal support becomes available?

tickstory
Posts: 4883
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:27 am

Re: Change Data Folder

Post by tickstory »

Hi Trader2384,

In the MT4 Data Folder there is a file called 'origin.txt' which has the folder location of the MT4 installation directory.
If you're not aware already, MT4 supports a 'portable' mode (specify /portable when launching your MT4 terminal). This mode uses the MT4 installation directory as the data directory as well. Perhaps this would be more suited to what you are trying to achieve.

Regards.

Trader2384
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 3:24 pm

Re: Change Data Folder

Post by Trader2384 »

portable mode or even 1 mt4 installation per strategy will work but I was hoping to find how to update the data folder associated with mt4 such that I could just change the data folder path to have mt4 launch to a new directory. The origin.txt file has a reference back to the mt4 installation it is associated with but the question is how mt4 know in the first place to open that data folder and how can we tell it to open a different folder? Basically, the path in origin.txt is the path of the mt4 installation, what I'm looking for is where to find the path of the data folder that mt4 opens and change that.

tickstory
Posts: 4883
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:27 am

Re: Change Data Folder

Post by tickstory »

Hi Trader2384,

Here is some more information about how the MT4 works with it's data folder:

https://www.mql5.com/en/articles/1388

As far as Tickstory works, it checks all directories in the 'Roaming' path to find the matching origin.txt.

Hope this helps.

Trader2384
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 3:24 pm

Re: Change Data Folder

Post by Trader2384 »

great, thanks!

camhawk
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 3:06 am

Re: Change Data Folder

Post by camhawk »

Hi Trader2384

Did you find out how to do this?

I'm wanting to store my data in an external hard drive, so need to save MT4 FXT files in that location... which looks easy enough in Tickstory, but how do you get MT4 to read it?

Thanks

tickstory
Posts: 4883
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:27 am

Re: Change Data Folder

Post by tickstory »

Hi Camhawk,

The only way we know of to specify the location of the FXT files is if you work in "portable" mode. That is, all the installation and data files are kept in the same root folder (such as E:\Metatrader).
To operate in this mode, do the following:

1) Install Metatrader in a non-protected Windows folder (such as E:\Metatrader).
2) Create a short-cut for Metatrader and add the switch "/portable" (without quotes) to your command-line parameter.
3) Run Metatrader and double check your data folder is located on the E:\Metatrader path.
4) Quit Metatrader. We will launch it again shortly via Tickstory.
4) Configure Tickstory to point to this Metatrader location. Go to File->Settings and select the Installation folder. Select the Data Folder that should be the same directory as the Installation folder. Configure the "Command-line parameters" so it has the "/portable" switch.
5) Launch Metatrader via Tickstory by pressing F8.
6) Check again that your data folder is on the E:\Metatrader path.

Hope this helps!

camhawk
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 3:06 am

Re: Change Data Folder

Post by camhawk »

Thanks, I've got it working.

And if you run the TickstoryInfoExpert, where does this save the info to? I can't see it anywhere. Or is there a way to specify the location?

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