Upgrading Computers

<p>I am finally getting a new system this weekend. Big upgrade that has been needed for a while!<br>

My question is not about what to buy or what it will do for me . . . I will take suggestions and ideas in this area though! My question has to do with what comes after. I will need to move all sorts of licensed software from the old machine to the new: Photoshop CS3, Lightroom, ACDSee, Office etc. How does all of that work?<br>

Thanks,<br>

Ed</p>

<p>I am sure you will get a lot of suggestions, Ed. A couple of starting points - Do you have the original DVD's (or CD's) that the software was distributed on? And, are all of these licensed programs the latest (or at least close) versions? Depending on the age of the version you have, and the operating system you are getting, there may be some compatibility challenges.</p>

<p>First of all what type of system are you upgrading to 64 bit or 32 bit. When I upgraded from 32 bit to 64 bit it took me more than a few 8 hour days to get all that sorted out. Some software will be easily tranfrable, while with other sofware you are going to need technical help from the company. Some software might be un-transferable. These you might have to leave on your old computer. <br>

Be careful about upgrading to new software such as word 2010. These new softwares packages are highly dependent on the Web, so if your internet is down so is the software. I would make a backup of everything before trying to transfer anything over and I would not transfer everything over all in one shot unless I knoew exactly what I was doing. </p>

<p>I just did the same thing a couple of weeks ago, though all I had to port were Lightroom and Photoshop. The latter is easier in my opinion since I manage my collection in LR. Only thing I had to remember with Photoshop was to deactivate the license on my old computer before uninstalling.</p>

<p>With Lightroom however, I had to export the catalog and import it into the new machine once LR was installed. Google "transfer lightroom to a new computer" for some good advice. It's easier than it sounds. I found good instructions including a page from Scott Kelby.</p>

<p>Good luck and hope this helps.</p>

<p>I am going from Windows XP (32 bit) to some 64 bit version of Seven. Some software was downloaded and some installed from CDs. I have the disks for those. It is not my intention to "Move" very much at all. Everything will be copied. Most of my data is already on external drives that will just be moved to the new system.</p>

<p>Do the external drives just hold your data, or do they hold the software as well? E.G. the Office program directory? As Harry points out above, this will likely be a mixed bag of what can be transferred, and what you need to acquire new (or at least upgrade to). When we went to 64bit we ended up upgrading several software suites, including Office.</p>

<p>I'm not sure if it has been said yet, but make sure you buy the Windows 7 OS version that allows you to run in XP Mode. It's pretty fantastic with Windows and being able to run 10 year old software.</p>

<p>Follow-up to Eric's comments about 32bit Windows XP running on 64 bit Windows 7- here's a forum I've gone to before for answers</p>

<p><a href="http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/11173-windows-xp-32-bit-windows-7-64-bit-os.html">http://www.sevenforums.com/virtualization/11173-windows-xp-32-bit-windows-7-64-bit-os.html</a></p>

<p> </p>

<p>leave the old system intact for a while<br>

you may find something you overlooked.</p>

<p>from XP to either vista or windows 7:<br>

some programs will not work (period)<br>

others will. My cd burning program said there were no compatib;le drives<br>

My office 2000 worked properly.<br>

I do not know about deactivating a license..<br>

I thought that went away after programs were<br>

no longer installed on floppies.<br>

as the original cd cannot be written to.<br>

It may be appropriate if you have a problem<br>

installing an important program on the newer pc,<br>

to telephomne the company and explain you are<br>

setting up a newer , more powerful, pc.<br>

it may be a non issue. Sometimes if a motherboard<br>

or hard drive fails - and they do-<br>

Microsoft , for example, is reasonable and will<br>

allow you to re-install from the same original cd.<br>

But this is not an operation system issue,<br>

but a program issue.<br>

it may vary from company to company.<br>

I would just use the same cd/ dvd and attempt<br>

to install it on the new pc.<br>

it will most likely work with the old serial number.<br>

it is not as if you are trying to get a second (illegal)copy.<br>

even if the old pc is untouched and just site in<br>

a corner in working condition, you are doing nothing<br>

wrong.<br>

JUST so long as you do not give the old pc to<br>

someone else<br>

without removing all the software.<br>

Do not assume you are violating some license<br>

agrement if the cd/dvd foes not install.<br>

it may neans that it will not work with windows 7..<br>

again don't burn any bridges, you may need to<br>

go back.<br>

The operating system cd/dvd supplied with<br>

the new pc may not re-install the operating system<br>

it may be simply a RESTORE cd that does not<br>

always work.<br>

EXCEPTION DELL. a dell restore disk will work<br>

even when the hard drive is new or toatally blank.<br>

If you purchase another systems you MIGHT<br>

have to purchase a new copy of the operating<br>

system if the system has a serious failure.<br>

However you PAID for the operating system and<br>

the case will have a tag<br>

with a valid legal serial number.<br>

again with a dell, it is licenced from the factory<br>

and the number on the label may<br>

not correspond to the number imbedded in the<br>

operating system.</p>

<p>I was at a large company. they all used windows xp,<br>

but the labels were either vista or windows 7- go figure.<br>

I hope you crossover goes smoothly.</p>

<p>I wne through this about 2-years ago.</p>

<p>For Photoshop:<br>

1) Export any actions you have written.</p>

<p>2) On your old system start Photoshop go to HELP and select DEACTIVATE. This will tell the Adobe servers that you are removing the software from one machine and allow you to install it on the new machine.</p>

<p>The only time I moved Office (Office 2003) was for a person whose old machine died. There was no problem installing from the Microsoft distribution DVD.</p>

<p>I do not have Lightroom, so I cannot say. If it has a DEACTIVATE option, I would deactivate it before retiring the old machine and before trying to install on the new machine.</p>

<p>Before you retire the old machine, pull the hard drive and keep it on a shelf. If you need any data from the old disk, it will be available. If you do not want to do this, use a good disk wipe program to erase all the data - especially if you have any financial data (taxes, Quicken, etc.) on the machine. Do not forget to wipe the "free" area on the disk; it probably has file reminants. Here is a good article about erasing data:<br>

<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/254509/free_tools_to_wipe_your_drives_securely.html#tk.nl_esx_t_cbintro">http://www.pcworld.com/article/254509/free_tools_to_wipe_your_drives_securely.html#tk.nl_esx_t_cbintro</a><br>

The last machine I retired, I kept the primary disk, wiped the secondary disk - to military specification - and then installed Ubuntu Linux on the secondary, which became the primary and only disk in the machine.</p>

<p>Lightroom doesn't need to be deactivated, but Photoshop and some other Adobe products do. Your life will be easier if you do. I just upgraded and forgot to do it first, so I had to contact Adobe. They were very nice, but it was a pain to do it.</p>

<p>When I went from XP quite a few years ago, my portable hard drives wouldn't work on Vista or Windows 7. They are Maxtor and there isn't any software for vista or 7 so I had to buy new hard drives, transfer everything from the old drives to the new drives, and then go from the new drives to the new computer, total pain! Go to the manufacturers website for your current portable drives and make sure they have the software to work with Windows 7. Shirley</p>

<p>Thanks for all of the help! As it ended up, I upgraded both Lightroom, from 3 to 4 and Photoshop, CS3 to CS6. So, I just downloaded and installed the new versions on the new computer. I have to talk to Kevin Kubota's people about moving my actions and presets.<br>

Office might be a different story . . . I have to locate the disks for the version installed on the old machine in order to install on the new. But, then it should go pretty easy.<br>

To anyone interested . . . I ended up with an Asus i7, 8G RAM (I will end up putting in another 8) and a 750G drive. I also bought a 2T drive to add in and I will end up with a Blu-Ray burner as I start to do some video work but I don't need it yet.<br>

Thanks again,<br>

Ed</p>