Running more than one copy of MT4

Well, MT4 just decided to crash on me and I lost a lot of code or it's hidden somewhere. I'm not sure if this has something to do with running more than one copy of MT4 at a time from the same 'start icon' but it might have. Either way, I was testing a scalping EA that I put together that was doing pretty crappy for 7 out of 10 pairs and was doing pretty well for 3 others. Anyway, I reinstalled MT4 figuring that would fix the problem but it still crashes on a restart and when changing the profile, if I can get there. I have the basic code for the EA that I will have to put together...again but that's another story. All those code files are now gone. I can run MT4 from my laptop so there's no problem with the live acount.

Either way, for those of you that run multiple copies at the same time to forward test 'something'...Do you install each version into a seperate folder and name them Demo1, Demo2, etc. and run the start program from that folder or create a desktop icon na,e Demo1, Demo2, etc?

Why run more than one copy at a time you ask????

Well the scalping EA produced 98 trades in 2 days and the other EA was about 2 trades a week and I'd like to keep the trading journal specific to each EA. Yes, I can dump everything into Excel and filter it but that's extra work I'd like to avoid.

So, multiple copies into multiple folders...that the way to go?

Personally I have separate installations on my VPS. As you've noted it makes it easier to track the profitable and non-profitable.

Just a thought about your crashing problem. I've seen this happen before but I tracked it down to problems with an indicator the EA was using which was written by somebody else. May not be relevant to your problem but just thought I'd throw it out there.

Good luck

Lux

Thanks lux..the EA code is pretty basic and it uses the standard indy's so there's nothing really crazy there. Will look into the VPS though...

Thanks

Yep I often have a M15 MT4 setup for going on the other screen for a quick over view works fine for that!!

Thanks guys...I did the multiple folder/install thing and named them Demo1 and Demo2 within the main MT4 folder and re-named the desktop icons Demo1 and Demo2...we'll see. Both start up with thier own unique account #'s.

If running vista, may be worth checking your virtualstore folders that are created for MT4/Meta editer.
For the 2 brokers I use, mine hide in something like
C :>Users>scalpz>AppData>Local>VirtualStore>Program Files>FXDD - MetaTrader 4
& also in
C :>Users>scalpz>AppData>Local>VirtualStore>Program Files>IBFX Trader 4

cheers scalpz

I run Vista Home Premium and had many MT4 problems until I created a new drive and loaded MT4 there. I have setup two different folders and run two copies of the same Live MT4 account at the same time with no problems.

Attached is a picture showing how I have setup my file locations