Lightroom/General software migration help!

[Jasvox]

Hi,

I am about to upgrade from the computer I have been using for the past 4 years to a new one. I am concerned however about the software I have downloaded onto my current machine. One of them, being Lightroom. Is there a way to somehow transfer the entire software, along with presets to a new computer, via transferring to an external HD and then loading that onto my new machine as it current sits on my old computer? I am not so concerned about the photos files, which I have already copied on my external HD, but some of the software I have licensed for my current computer, I would like to transfer over. Is this possible?


Jason

[gawan]

Never done that but there is lot's of advice available in the internet, for example:

Adobe Forums - Moving Lightroom 2 folders and settings to another Lightroom 2 computer

Would be nice if report back to us all if you succeed and have some important note for us...

[Jasvox]

Saw that, but from my reading through it again, it never really advises something that sounds like a clear cut solution.

I am technically savvy, but not a desktop technician, so I was hoping soemone could point me some place where it seemed easy to understand, or perhaps someone here has done this before?

Meanwhile, I will continue my searching on the inter-web thingy.

Jason

[superfuzzy]

Originally Posted by Jasvox

Saw that, but from my reading through it again, it never really advises something that sounds like a clear cut solution.

I am technically savvy, but not a desktop technician, so I was hoping soemone could point me some place where it seemed easy to understand, or perhaps someone here has done this before?

Meanwhile, I will continue my searching on the inter-web thingy.

Jason

I migrated Lr 1.4 from one machine to a new build so can provide some real world advice.

1. Copy the data to the identical location on the new PC as the old. For example, if the old PC had data located at: E:\Lightroom Data\ , use the same path.
2. The Catalog can be moved to a different location, of course, since you can specify the location when you run Lr.
3. Install Lr in the same directory.
I moved the temporary files over as well - all Lr dependencies. Not sure if that was required.

This worked great for Lr v1, so should work for v2.

A significant improvement in v2 is the ability to move and rename the data directories, so that should also come in handy.

This worked under XP. Are you running Vista?

As a rule you will have to reinstall most programs (including Lr) since registry keys, DLL's and all the other etc have to be updated.

Let us know how it goes!

[Jasvox]

I will post my results as soon as I am at home long enough to do this...may be later in Spring.

Jason