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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Photoshop reinstallation blues
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 07/10/2012 11:44:04 AM · #1
My hard drive is bursting at the seams and it was time for a new one. So I picked up a 1TB drive and reinstalled Windows 7 onto it. I then got the bright idea of keeping two installations; one for the family to do usual stuff and one exclusively for Photoshop, Premiere, and other intensive programs that take up a good amount of space. Nothing, though, is as easy as it seems. I couldn't find my CS5 box last night and started to psych myself out. Did I do a download only install? Is my CS5 box in storage somewhere? Where is my product key? Do I have to reinstall the whole line of previous photoshops because only the original is the full version? What about the other add-ons I have like Nik or Photomatix? Where did I put those product keys?

What a pain!

I couldn't quickly find an email from Adobe with a product key in it, but maybe it comes from something other than Adobe in the from line.
 07/10/2012 12:19:05 PM · #2
Here's where having that Adobe ID is valuable. I can sign in, click on "My Orders" and "Order History" and see all my previous purchases. Clicking on a purchase, I immediately see the details, including the product Serial Number. As far as I'm concerned, the way Adobe manages this is pretty much the current definition of "best practice" in this area.
Even if you don't have an Adobe ID/account set up, you can still call them and sort it out.

FWIW you should not have to install any previous versions, at least as far as I know. Be sure to deactivate any installation that you are no longer going to use, or you'll be forced to call Adobe to get your installation count re-set.

As far as plug-ins, well, here's hoping that you can find all those product keys. There are some apps that will find product keys for installed software, haven't used them in years, but they do work for a lot of stuff, or did at the time I used them.
 07/10/2012 12:20:11 PM · #3
Wait!! I DO have an Adobe ID (I found that email). I could kiss you Fritz!
 07/10/2012 12:29:21 PM · #4
Originally posted by DrAchoo:
Wait!! I DO have an Adobe ID (I found that email). I could kiss you Fritz!


Blech! Dang, Jason, good thing you're 2,000 miles away! ;-)
 07/10/2012 12:40:10 PM · #5
LOL. Ok, here's another question. Is there any decent way to get your drivers and other "settings" from one Windows install to the other? In my mind it seems like there won't be that much to do, but it's amazing the line of dominos that you find when you just want to reinstall something like these Adobe products. Last night I immediately reinstalled the drivers for my video card, but now I'm wondering about other drivers like that which I'm not considering.
 07/10/2012 12:55:29 PM · #6
It pays to visit the OEM(s) before you start, to download drivers for the OS you're going to be using. Question: are you going to install a SSD? I'm thinking of doing that this fall & upgrade to WIN8 at the same time.

Message edited by author 2012-07-10 12:56:43.
 07/10/2012 12:59:09 PM · #7
Originally posted by kirbic:
As far as plug-ins, well, here's hoping that you can find all those product keys. There are some apps that will find product keys for installed software, haven't used them in years, but they do work for a lot of stuff, or did at the time I used them.

The Topaz folks cheerfully, and promptly, sent me my product key from their records when my computer melted down a couple years ago......
 07/10/2012 01:26:55 PM · #8
Originally posted by pixelpig:
It pays to visit the OEM(s) before you start, to download drivers for the OS you're going to be using. Question: are you going to install a SSD? I'm thinking of doing that this fall & upgrade to WIN8 at the same time.


They aren't big enough yet. I want space for the programs to graze free range. My current HD only had between 1 and 3 gigs of free space left and it caused lots of pauses and crunching as various scratch disks scrambled around for space. All my data files like music, pictures, documents are on my Drobo which does cost me some in performance, but at least gives me never-think-about-it peace of mind for backups.
 07/10/2012 02:06:17 PM · #9
With regard to drivers, your video card drivers are by far the most important thing, unless you are setting up a RAID array, in which case that's first, video second, and everything else last.
Past the video, the only thing I can think of that would cause some real consternation would be lack of drivers for any wireless network hardware that has been added in. If you can't use the network, it's kinda hard to download the drivers ;-)
Still, even in a situation like that, you can still use another device to get the drivers, then sneakernet them over, or plug in a hard-wired connection to the router or modem temporarily.
Normally Win7 will manage pretty nicely with what generic drivers it can identify on it's own. As an example, last year I took a two-disk RAID installation of Win7 and transplanted it to a new box (new processor, motherboard and data drives, new monitor, keyboard, mouse). Configured the BIOS to see the drives as a bootable RAID array, booted it, and it found it's way quite nicely. Installed drivers for new hardware and we were off to the races. Windows of course needed reactivation, but that went without a hitch.
I've been looking at SSDs to replace that RAID array, and I love the new Intel Cherryville drives. In order to keep the wear leveling happy, you need at least 30% free space, so I figure I need a 240GB drive. Current pricing is about $330 USD, which isn't bad at all. The 550MB/s transfer speeds would be oh so nice!
 07/10/2012 03:22:56 PM · #10
I have a 240GB SSD in my work computer. It's a godsend for processing huge data files doing finite element analyses or 3D modeling. I'd consider one for anything where you were working on large files or needed swap or scratch disk space. Install a regular magnetic drive for storage and backup.
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