Technical Forum

How do you copy a story/project from Microsoft's Photo Story 3 to a flash drive nee memory card? It keeps telling me it cannot find the path. OR is it not possible? I wanted to be able to take a memory card to friends and have then see the photos on their PCs.

Can you not copy it from 'My Documents' or 'Computer'?

I don't know MS Photo Story, but I do find that sometimes software applications won't let me save direct to a flash drive and I have to copy it using 'Computer'. I preferred the old-fashioned Windows Explorer.

I have had it in My Documents, Windows Media Player 11 and of course My Videos and none of them will allow me to to copy to a memory card/flash Drive. I even copied the path to show it, I have talked to it nicely, threatened it and cajoled it to no avail Grrrr.

what do you mean "didn't allow me"? What error message did it give?

Umm, lessee, I think it said it could not find the path. Conversely is their a application/software that is creative, easy to use and allows captions,music and allows it to be saved to either a CD, DVD or a memory card?

I think maybe it's telling the truth and you haven't got the path set up properly. Try this:
start/control panel/administrative tools/computer management/disk management

this should show a picture map of all your disks, including the flash drive. If it doesn't then it's a hardware problem, such as not installed properly. Otherise Right-click on the flash drive, then select 'Change drive letter and paths...' This should show a drive letter, i.e. D: to Z: If it doesn't, you need to add one. I don't think it matters which, unless elsewhere you have already given a path (such as E:) in which case choose that.

I quite often have a problem where powering down manages to loose connections to the external drive where I hold all 'My Pictures'.

Thanks John, I will have a crack at it tomorrow. I have printed out your sage like response.

I love this program and use it a lot!
Photostory 3 allows you to (1) - save the "Project" and (2) save it as a format for playing on DVD players, PC's, Phones etc.
Saving the project gives you a xxx.wp3 file which isn't of any use except in photostory 3 itself (editing etc)

In the final screen, when you have saved the project by clicking the "Save Project" button, if you click on "next", it saves the slideshow as a video.
This uses the box labelled "Specify the filename and location for your story". The Browse button allows you to select where.

IT WILL SAVE THE FIRST FORMAT IT IS TOLD TO - i.e. if you do not use the "settings" button to select the type of video file you want it will choose the first one - "Profile for Computers 640 x 480".
This gives you a .wmv file for playing on a computer. There are other, better, resolutions than 640 x 480 but which take up more space.
You may sometimes want to select "PAL" or "email" or "smart phone"
Files can be very large - make sure you have room on the memory stick which will show as a separate drive letter in the browse option above.
Hope this helps!

Thanks guys, I will have a further browse and see if I can get things moving. John, I went through your suggestion and found that Disk Management did not recognize the offered Flash Drive, which is removable disk H. Yet when I use the Safely Remove Disk utility it recognizes disk H ??? I will continue to fumble along unless you have any other suggestions. BTW all recognised disks were shown as healthy.

Maybe you should try actually uninstalling it then removing it. Then when you plug it in again, it might install it better.

start/control/system/hardware/device manager
see what it thinks of the flash drive - if there's a highlighted exclamation mark, something is wrong. Right-click and uninstall, then unplug it and plug it back in.

Ah - one thing I should have mentioned....
I find that th eprogram doesn't work all that well if th ephotos are stored on a flash drive or external drive (USB connected).
I find that they don't always copy to the resulting video file (.wmv etc) especially if you add music to the slideshow also.
Maybe it's the transfer speed - I don't know - but when you come to burn to a DVD, then it doesn't work very well for me unless ALL th ephotos and music files are first copied to my "C" drive.
I copy them to the PC, make the DVD slideshow, then delete them. (leaving on the original external drive of course!)
Might be worth considering.
(OH , I know that there are fast USB2 connections but I have also tried that - maybe the processor in my PC isn't fast enough? Still - it definitely works OK when dealing with photos and music from my hard drive!)

I think I have some serious transfer problems. I have, with you guys help, found that my PC will no longer recognise external drives or burn CDs. Time to call in a pro. I am still on XP Pro and will change to Windows7 in about a year. I have always preferred the choices you have with a desktop PC. However, with these transfer problems I think a biggish notebook with a good screen is the way of the future. That way I can take the successful slide show with me rather than hoping the transferred show will work on someone elses PC.