New computer with a little twist

**rrogers44** · 14 Apr 2012, 5:03 pm

Hello,

I had downloaded a LR4 trial to my old PC. All my files are on an external hard drive. I have backed up the catalog.

So how do I start on the new PC?

Download LR4
Buy it
Restore the catalog?
What if the drive letter of the EHD is different?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Rich

**clee01l** · 14 Apr 2012, 11:52 pm

You only need one purchase license. When you say "All my files are on an external hard drive", what exactly does that mean? You need at the minimum the original image copies and the catalog (*.lrcat file). When you open the "*.lrcat" file on the new PC with the copy of LR4, it will want to find the original image copies on the drive letter that was stored in the catalog. If this is not the case, you can do one of two things. You can reassign the Drive letter on the new computer to match the EHD designation of the old by following the instructions at this link http://www.lightroomforums.net/showthread.php?12166-How-to-Re-assign-a-Drive-Letter-on-Windows-(XP-Vista-and-7) The other thing you can do is click on the top level missing folder and choose "Find Missing Folder..." from the context menu and navigate to the correct location on the newly designated EHD drive letter.

**rrogers44** · 15 Apr 2012, 12:07 am

Originally Posted by clee01l

You only need one purchase license. When you say "All my files are on an external hard drive", what exactly does that mean? You need at the minimum the original image copies and the catalog (*.lrcat file). When you open the "*.lrcat" file on the new PC with the copy of LR4, it will want to find the original image copies on the drive letter that was stored in the catalog. If this is not the case, you can do one of two things. You can reassign the Drive letter on the new computer to match the EHD designation of the old by following the instructions at this link http://www.lightroomforums.net/showthread.php?12166-How-to-Re-assign-a-Drive-Letter-on-Windows-(XP-Vista-and-7) The other thing you can do is click on the top level missing folder and choose "Find Missing Folder..." from the context menu and navigate to the correct location on the newly designated EHD drive letter.

Thanks Cleetus.

Yes, I did not buy LR4 on the old PC. So I jsut figured i'd wait to pay for the new PC.

All the pictures that are referenced in LR are on an EHD. The catalog file was backed up and is available on an EHD as well.

Thanks again,

Rich

**rrogers44** · 15 Apr 2012, 7:50 am

Hello Clee0l. One last question.

Is there a preferences file somewhere that I need to move as well? I pulled in all the pictures, stacks, and keyword hierarchy, but it did not pull my saved keywords sets and other preferences.

thanks,

Rich