Drake's Rocky 2nd Install

I am posting this to maybe save someone from the headaches I went through yesterday. Other users are reporting similar problems today.

If you are a Drake user and haven't installed the second 2020 release yet, you may wish to check out the Drake forum first. There are some issues with the install:

1. If Auto Backup from 2018 or 2019 is running in the background, it will freeze the install. Before you start, you may want to open Task Manager and look for (and close) a Drake Process called BackupRestore. You should also go into 2018 and 2019 and disable auto updates or they may start up again while you are trying to install (which will freeze the program)

2. Make sure your internet connection is up and running and Win updates are not in progress (Drake can't handle competition and will freeze up)

3. Once the install exe file is unzipped, it will hang for 1-5 minutes and then start up again. It will also hang for a longer period when it is installing support/help info (I think this is step 23)

4. When it is time to select State programs for install, it will hang for another few minutes before the selection box is popluated.

5. If you decide to abort the install and then try to sign in to Drake 19 (like I did to disable auto updates) all you will get is a greyed out screen. Even your mouse will not work on that screen. The good news is if you close it out with task manager, disconnect from the internet, and open Drake 19, the program will recover and you won't lose your data.

I am no tech whiz but I suspect a lot of these problems are caused by an overload on Drake's servers. There seem to be problems getting a good connection and/or the connection times out, particularly at certain points in the intall. I've been a Drake user for maybe 5 years and haven't seen problems like this before.

It is not only Drake software but some other software that has auto update or auto backup program running in the background tends to interfere with a fresh installation. I know certain Anti-virus programs stop installation are the worst moment. I remember Redhat software was not liked by Norton!

In general, it is a good idea to make sure you check Task Manager to disable any background processes that may interfere.

Ideally the installation module should warn and disable any background processes that may interfere and then proceed with installation.

I installed it the day it was released. Yes...it is a little slow and does pause at certain points for an extended period, which might give one the indication it is frozen, but it's really not.

Just go for a coffee break while it's installing or do work on your 2nd/3rd screen.

There appears to be a glitch installing additional states after the initial installation. Program crashes!
Hopefully Drake is aware of this glitch and working to fix it by Monday.

There appears to be a glitch installing additional states after the initial installation. Program crashes!
Hopefully Drake is aware of this glitch and working to fix it by Monday.

Interesting. I did not experience this "glitch" when I installed.

There appears to be a glitch installing additional states after the initial installation. Program crashes!
Hopefully Drake is aware of this glitch and working to fix it by Monday.

Yes, I experienced that too. If the States don't go on in the initial install, as it now stands, you can't add them later. It could be Drake is too busy trying to assist people in getting through the other initial installation issues to worry about installing states after the fact. Are you planning to call support? It might be a good idea. If they hear from a few people about this, they might fix the problem.

I really hope this install is not a sign of things to come. In prior years, Drake has always installed smoothly.

Update: Other folks are reporting this problem on the Drake Forum. I just tried this again. It takes maybe 3 minutes for the States to poplulate. Once a State is selected, it takes at least two minutes for it to begin to download---but it does download eventually.

This is not a good start to the year. By the way, I did the install on an old Win 7 computer (used for Drake 2018) just to see what would happen. The install actually worked a bit better on the Win 7 machine than it did on my Win 10 machine. There were delays, but they were shorter and there were no crashes.

Thanks for the heads up!

My installation froze while installing - but it recovered and didn't crash (I left it alone for a bit). I'm using a SSD and lots of RAM for my server CPU so it didn't freeze for too long.

Seems to be working well now.

My installation froze while installing - but it recovered and didn't crash (I left it alone for a bit). I'm using a SSD and lots of RAM for my server CPU so it didn't freeze for too long.

Same. I recommend those that have older PCs or slower PCs initiate the install before they go to lunch.

It does appear to freeze, but it ended up installing fine, just don't get impatient and mess with it.

It is about a 3min. delay. Perhaps their servers are overloaded??

We did initial Drake installation Saturday (Fed only).
It worked just fine. Will do state later and hope they have got the bugs out.

We did initial Drake installation Saturday (Fed only).
It worked just fine. Will do state later and hope they have got the bugs out.

This Bug has been eradicated! Works just fine