PSE 9, external hard drives and moving to new computer

I had an old desktop running PSE 3, yep...3, and my husband bought me a new laptop. Laptop's operating system would not run PSE 3, so I purchased PSE 9, reconnected all my "misplaced" photo files, loaded PSE 9 on the old desktop and converted all files to 9. NOW, I am ready to move everything to the laptop and am unsure what would be best.
I have a large collection of photos and have always stored them on an external harddrive that I just plug in when needed. I purchased a second external hard drive that I am now using for backup ONLY, so I have 2 external HD's - (1) storage and (2) backup.
New laptop has PSE 9 installed and has a some newer photos in the organizer that are presently stored on the laptop harddrive. I have not done any tagging on the laptop because I didn't want to complicate matters. I now want to import my old catalog photos (stored on the external hard drive), including PSE tags. The part that causes me confusion is that I want to continue storing the photos on the external hard drive where they are. It seems counter productive to import, make new files on the laptop, then export back to where they were all along.
Gosh, I hope I'm making sense here. Anyone have any suggestions - simplest of terms, please, regarding how to get access to my photos and tags moved to the laptop if the fewest and easiest steps?

Ken, I am struggling with this. I have renamed the external harddrive with my photos, found the catalog and copied it to the external with the photos and have connected this external hard drive to the laptop (new computer).
I am now at step 5. of your first response. I have browsed and found the catalog, now my only two options are new or convert. I don't think I need to convert because I have already converted to from 3 to PSE 9 and don't really think it's a "new" catalog.
I need an "outline for dummies", please. If I didn't have so darn many photos, I'd be tempted to just start over. If it helps, I have written tag info to my files.
Thank you for all your patience and help.

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Incremental back ups to external hard drive and importing to new computer

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Secondly, I believe that to import the catalog into LR on a second computer,all that is necessary is direct LR to open the last dated LRCAT file from My Lightroom Photos folder on the EHD.However,my last backed up "fourth" LR folder only imported two grayed out images with no previews visible.
Any advice would be appreciated.

I assume that what you really need is some form of keeping the photograph folders on your internal hard drive in sync with the folders on your external hard drive (the catalog itself can be backed up from within Lightroom). This downloadable little utility works for me when I want to keep my spreadsheets, letters, iTunes files ...etc... backed up;
http://www.goodsync.com/download/update
It's nothing to do with Lightroom. You first set up simple jobs within the utility, telling it which folders on your internal drive should be backed up to which folders on your external drive. It will then run, and copy to the ehd any items in the source folder that have changed since the last sync. Then, if your internal hard drive fails, you can copy these folders and catalogs from your ehd to the replacement hd, using the original folder structure.
In Lightroom, the catalog is the main organisational tool, rather than the folder. I let LR decide on it's own folder structure, because I never refer to my RAW files outside of LR. Hope this helps.

I have an 2tb time capsule 802.11n Wi-Fi base station can I use this as an external hard drive and use a new airport extreme 802.11ac Wi-Fi for my wifi?

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You can use the 2 TB Time Capsule as a network drive. That means that it must connect to one of the Ethernet LAN <--> ports on the new AirPort Extreme, or connect to the network using wireless.

I have two separate iTunes libraries on two separate Computers. I need to consolidate them so I can play them on a brand new computer. How do I do this so I can play them off an External Hard Drive on my brand new computer?

I have two separate iTunes libraries on two separate Computers. I need to consolidate them so I can play them on my brand new computer. How do I do this so I can play them off an External Hard Drive on my brand new computer?

Why, if it told you you have insufficient space on your computer, would it suggest making more space available on your phone?
At a guess, you have insufficient space on your phone. Installing software will typically require more space than the final size of the software, perhaps even twice or three times as much, for the installation process. You can easily dump some videos or music temporarily, and then synch them back in afterwards.

Backing up images on external hard drive and restoring to new internal driv

I recently purchased a new external hard drive and a new internal hard drive. Before installing the new internal drive, I backed up the old internal drive on the external drive. Then I installed the new internal drive to my Macbook Pro. However, when I tried to access and print my Aperture images on the new internal drive, I received an error message saying "versions with unavailable master images cannot be printed." I clicked on 'show referenced files," but couldn't determine how to recover my master images. I checked the forum and under "referenced files go offline after restore from a backup" it said to go to "File>manage referenced files" but nothing else. How can I recover my master images? Please help - I have nearly 6000 images that are lost without recovering the master images. And no, I was ultra stupid in not placing everything in a vault = but I'm relatively new to Mac OS and thought a backup would be sufficient. Thank!

The volume name of the new hard drive needs to be the same as the old hard drive - rename it if you have to - then they should be fine.
If you cannot seem to make this work then you will have to reconnect them with locate referenced files under the file menu. Select all the files that are disconnected before going into the dialog.
RB

I need to get my iPhoto library off my external hard drive and onto my new Imac

I just purchase a new iMac. I've been trying to get my old iPhoto library onto my new iMac from my old iMac. I have the tower and when we tried to connect the new computer with the tower back up of course it did not work so I've had to transfer everything manually. The latest thing I'm working on is my iPhoto library with over 22,000 pictures. How can do this without losing the quality of my pictures. I can open them through my external hard drive on iPhoto, but I really want them on the actual computer. I've read several places that importing my iPhoto library would be a mess and I don't want that either. HELP. Everyone says it's a mess but I don't see any solutions.

If you have an iPhoto Library on your new Mac and it contains photos you want to keep then rename it before you copy the library from your old Mac.

Photos on External Hard Drive, Catalog on Internal; New Computer

I just got a new computer and want to move my Adobe PSE catalog over to the new internal hard drive. I don't know where to put it since Vista's directories look different than XPs. All of my photos are on an external hard drive, but my guess is that the letter will change when I move it to the new computer. How do I handle this migration so that I can see all of my information (photos, tags, titles) on the new PC? Thanks for any advice.

The entire process of making a backup, including backups of photos, via the PSE Backup Catalog command, makes moving catalogs and photos as successful as possible. Doesn't depend on what version of PSE you own.
If you are using PSE5, and the drive letter of the external HD remains the same, you can simply move the catalog file to the new computer. You can put the catalog anywhere you want on the new computer, and then double-click on it the first time to open it. Really doesn't matter where you put it.
i But
, if the drive letter where your photos are stored changes ... oops, that makes things a whole lot more difficult. Best to go back to the solution in paragraph 1.
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How to import previous Itunes database from external hard drive into Itunes on new computer

I need to know how to import a previous iTunes data base that is saved onto an external hard drive into the iTunes library on my new computer

There's only one way to do this.
Copy the iPhoto Library from the old machine to the Pictures Folder on the new machine. You have to copy it as a single item. Then open it, don't import it.
Regards
TD

My computer will not let me authorize my music and movies when i transferred my external hard drive over to my new computer why

why can't i authorize my new computer

Two things:
- Completely remove and reinstall the Apple software by the following. That link provides a link for Win &.
Removing and Reinstalling iTunes, QuickTime, and other software components for Windows XP
- If you still have a problem after restoring the iPod to factory defaults/new iPod you likely have a hardware problem. An appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store is then in order.

Can I put my library on an external hard drive and use it between two computers?

Can I put my library on an external hard drive and use it between two computers? I have two MBP; I will refer to one as computer A and to the other as computer B. I would like to be able to plug in my external hard drive, boot up iTunes, and if there were any changes made to the library previous to its last time accessed on this compluter, they show up on that computer, regardless of being imported on the other.
A hypothetical example: I import three albums called 1, 2, and 3 on computer A over a week or so. I take the external hard drive and plug it into computer B. The entire library which was visible on A, is visible on B, including albums 1, 2, and 3.
Is this possible? If so, what files need to be copied onto the external? I'm trying some different combinations, trial and error basically. Hopefully someone knows and can answer before I mess up my library. I also want to do this to free up space on my computer. All importing will be done from disc.

iTunes/Preferences/Advanced : point your iTunes to the new location of the Library.
Set "Share on local network" in the Sharing tab, and you or everyone on the local network can play your music.
You make a backup first of the Library.
Move the follwing to the new location:
/Users/your username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music
have fun.

I've had my iTunes library stored on an external hard drive, and I'm now trying to load it onto a new computer, how do I do it?

I have my complete iTunes library stored on an external hard rice and bought a new computer yesterday, I've connected the external hard drive to my new computer, downloaded iTunes but cant get my library to show, can anybody tell me how to fix this?

Hold down SHIFT and launch iTunes.
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HT1364 I have moved my library to an external hard drive and changed the location of the iTunes media folder in Preferences, but every time I close and re-open iTunes, I have to do it all over again. How can I make the iTunes media folder change permanen

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I don't believe mounting the hard drive should be necessary, unless you have several external drives and want your computer to recognise them as folders, rather than drives. I've never had to mount a hard drive, ever. If you don't know how to do it, then it shouldn't be necessary now.
Try this:
Prepare iTunes so that it can see the external drive.
Make a note of which drive-letter the external drive has been allocated. (Look in Windows Exploer)
Look at the file location for a song. Make sure it plays (and therefore that iTunes has found it). Highlight it and select File/Get Info/Summary>Where: and make a note of the drive letter for that song.
Close and shut down the computer.
The next time you turn the computer on again, connect the external drive
Before you start iTunes - check the external drive in Windows Explorer. Is it ready, does it have the same drive-letter that it had last time? Can you go into the drive and see the files on it?
Once you can, start iTunes. (If the drive lettter has changed, you need to work out why before going any further.)
If iTunes fails to find your external drive, you need to check where iTunes is looking for your Library.
Select the same song you checked before (presumably iTunes can no longer find it). Follow the procedure for locating it. You should be able to see where iTunes thinks the file is. It's the drive that counts. Which drive letter is iTunes looking at? Is it the same one that it was previously (which should also be the same one that the drive has now).
What happens, which step do you have problems with?
Message was edited by: the fiend

Moving Content to External Hard Drive and Using New Computers

Before doing this, I want to make sure I know how to do all of it:
We are going to buy two new laptops, and retire the old one. I want to move all of my iTunes content from the old laptop to an external hard drive attached to an Airport Extreme. I then want to be able to share the content between the two computers. I know how to do this, and plan to move the library data base files to the external hard drive, as well.
However, I also want to be able to continue synching all of the content to the Apple TV. To what should the Apple TV be synched after the content is moved to the external hard-drive and the old computer is replaced by two new computers? How is that done under the circumstances? And, in the meantime, will the Apple TV lose all of its content and need to be re-synched entirely from scratch, or will it continue recognizing the current iTunes library as moved to the external hard drive?
Thanks!

This is an option, although as a note of caution; depending on how regularly you modify your library this could become a little bit of a chore. The option is likely a good one in many cases but not all.
In my own case I considered using an old mac as my media server in the sense mentioned by tmartine. (I do a bit of experimental stuff and need to restart my mac quite often, I also have 5 Apple tv's and a library which is too large to do anything but stream, my family don't take too kindly to my frequent restarts and I find myself waiting until the early hours).
However I also modify my itunes library on a daily basis, I buy quite a bit of stuff and also add my own movies regularly, as well as make several recordings a day through my eyetv, all this new content would need to be manually added to my (server) library (and deleted manually), I felt this would be too many extra things for me to do and so my personal preference is to have my itunes library on my main computer as the primary library.

HT1473 Help I just moved my music files to a external hard drive and am using the new crappy version ( i know my opinion) of itunes and cant add the files to my libray it gives me the add file to library option but not the add folder to library option wha

Help I just moved my music files to a external hard drive and am using the new crappy version ( i know my opinion) of itunes and cant add the files to my libray it gives me the add file to library option but not the add folder to library option what am i doing wrong?

In iTunes 11 uncheck the preferences setting in in the iTunes Preferences panel "Advanced > Copy Files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library"

I moved my itunes library to an external hard drive and now when I try to sync my ipad it says it is already synced to another library.

I moved my itunes library to an external hard drive and then I tried to sync my ipad. I got a message that says my ipad is synced to another library and it will erase my ipad, which I don't want to do. I'm not sure how to fix this problem, any ideas?

Ok. progress...
So is your media folder called iTunes Music or iTunes Media? And does it have a folder called Music inside it?
Before going any further you should first attempt to use File > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange files in the folder "<Media Folder>" (ignore if grayed out). This will make sure that any iPod Games or Mobile Applications get placed inside the iTunes Media folder which is needed for portability.
If your iTunes Media folder is called iTunes Music, close iTunes, rename the folder as iTunes Media and start iTunes again. iTunes will automatically adjust. Close iTunes again.
On your external drive rearrange the folders that you have already copied there so that they match the layout in your active library. You should end up with a folder called X:\iTunes where X: is the external drive letter, and the media folder is X:\iTunes\iTunes Media. If the library layout was upgraded then you will need to create a Music folder inside this and move all the artist folders and Compilations into Music. You will also need to copy iPod Games and Mobile Applications from your internal drive into the new media folder. Next copy the files iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, sentinel and the folder Album Artwork from the internal drive into X:\iTunes. The preceding manipulations should make the internal and external copies of your library match without you having to copy all of the media over again.
Now hold shift as you start iTunes. Click choose, browse to and open X:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl.
Finally use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate files. This will ensure that any stray files that might have been added from outside your original media folder will be copied into the new one.
You can now reclaim the space used by your library on the internal drive, however before you do so I would advise you to obtain another external drive and make use of this backup tip.
tt2

PSE 9, external hard drives and moving to new computer

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