Quick Q about setting up new laptop and differing drive names from old computer

[vfleslie]

I am fairly computer literate as in I can figure out how to do something when I know I need to do something. I ust don't know if I need to fiddle with this or not. I'm in Windows 7.

Old laptop: operating systems and programs installed to C drive. Data stored in much larger D drive. The laptop came partitioned this way so I dealt with it.

New laptop: Huge open C drive and much, much smaller D drive (laptop says it is the recovery drive)

I have everything (I hope!) backed up on an EHD. I also have Carbonite backup. The old laptop works ok so I won't be losing any data and I can take my time figuring this out.

I believe I will have to point the Lightroom catalog and ACDSee catalog to the C drive in the new laptop if I put all my programs and data in the C drive.

There is no need for me to have the new laptop set up with a huge D drive so it is the same as the old laptop, correct? Just putting everything on the huge new C drive and getting the database catalogs transferred over is ok? I had the local shop transfer data the last time I did it but I think I can do it now. I've done all my ACDSee tagging and LR keywording since then. I have all my ACDSee catagories embedded in the files and the catalog backed up. The Lightroom catalog is backed up.

Any advice?

[DonnaNJ]

That should work fine.. just make sure everything is backed up so you can always get yourself out of any trouble

[esther_a]

When I moved computers, I put all my cataloged files onto a drive with the same name. So they went from D: drive on the old to D: drive on the new. That way when I restored the ACDSee backup it found the files instantly on the new computer. I don't know how you can tell it to search on a different drive.
Once it is linked back up withing ACDSee on the new computer you can open ACDSee and move the files to whichever drive you like and ACDSee will adjust the links.

I wonder whether you could move them all to an external drive on the old computer, then create your backup. Then on the new computer plug in the external drive (presuming it has the same letter, like E: ), restore your backup, then move the files to their new location.

[vfleslie]

Thanks! I won't have time to give it a shot until middle of next week. Wish me luck! Leslie