Lost my HD w/ver 3.66 should I upgrade?

[schundg]

I completely lost my hard drive and everything on it ... yes even my camera configuration files. and the blue iris config file. I'm wondering, since I have to rebuild, what are my options? I could stay with V3?? and install it from the CD but will I be able to upgrade it to 3.66 for now, just to get started back up? Should I just jump in and go directly to V 5?

I am a long time user (5+ years) of v 3 but there are some things, since I moved twice, that I am unable to get functional again. Geofence is one, and remote access from my Iphone to my blue iris server.

Any advice?

thanks for any and all feedback.

Schundg

[Matts1984]

I can't particularly give advice as I've only ever known v5 but I know for me that it would eat at me that I was two major releases behind - especially if building from scratch. In reading about people that have used v4... yes there are differences and after being on an older version so long, there are going to be some growing pains. Much like going through the progressions of Windows. Everyone struggles and hates it at first but eventually most (of course I stress 'most') have come to like Win10.

If you have no backup configs, I would just start from scratch on v5 rather than try to rebuild v3 and then migrate (if a v3 -> v5 direct path is even supported). There is no real benefit of starting early and upgrading and you are more likely to run into snags. You wouldn't install WinXP first just because you wanted a working Win10 machine.

Going forward, I do have all my config backups going to a specific folder and then that folder is sync'd to my Google Drive. My 4 most recent backups only consume ~ 5MB and it's all automatic and available if needed.

[schundg]

Matts1984, thanks for the reply. Your logic is straight forward and very compelling. I remained on 3.66 because everything worked, it did what I wanted and needed and was the easiest. Slowly, after each of 2 household moves, certain "automatic" features seemed to quit working but yet still it worked. Now, faced with a complete rebuild the less painful rebuild would be to go directly to v5. I remember the "pain" of all the tweaking and "learning" I went through to get v3 running smooth, and it's not pleasant to think about reliving it when going to v5. Nonetheless, I will push forward with v5

Thanks for being a sounding board.

Schundg

[terk]

I would take that as the perfect time to get the latest version installed. That would mean purchasing the software again or at least a support agreement I'd send support an email asking what you'd need to buy to install v5 since you purchased v3 last. I started early in the v4 lifespan so I don't have experience with v3 but going from v4 to v5 was pretty easy as the interface was similar enough to find everything.

[Thixotropic]

I completely lost my hard drive and everything on it ... yes even my camera configuration files. and the blue iris config file.

If you have no backups, then it seems Fate has spoken.

Upgrade to 5 and start fresh with a brand new install.