Hi Jim,
Technically, simply swapping out to a new hard drive should work without too much hassles, but I’m inclined to say that little is guaranteed with how activation of PSCS is currently working. At worst, you should only find you are presented with a dialog specifying that you must immediately reactivate PSCS to continue use of it. However, you might instead find that reactivation fails with an "activation denied". If so, that will require a phone call, which must be done between 6am-10pm PST (assuing you’re in the US) so as to obtain peronal support. I ran into that situation recently, which I found annoying since personal help wasn’t available outside those hours. But, when I did call this past Monday at 6:15am PST, I received prompt help with no questions asked other than what my serial number and activation key were. I was provided the reponse key and was back to using PS CS again.
Now, having said this, that was all on a laptop system. Some time ago I went through a series of imaging and restoring images of my desktop system’s hard drive. In several cases I was presented with having to reactivate and that was accomplished online without any problem at all. I also had an instance wherein I performed a low-level format of the hard drive and later restored an image of my system on which an activated PS CS resided. Again, I was presented with a reactivation required dialog that was easily accomplished online.
This last scenario is most like what you’re describing but the hardware ID of the drive is still unchanged in my case. Since your drive would be a different device altogether, there is an added risk that you might encounter the denied activation, but only if the activation process is truly faulty.
Activation is supposed to generate an activation key based upon select hardware components in your system, such that if only one of those devices is changed out, then you should still be able to activate/reactivate PS CS. Whether you install everything fresh or from an image of your system made before the drive swap, automated activation should still be possible. This is also true if more than one hardware change is made, but I don’t recall just how many such changes it takes before activation treats this as a totally different system. If activation does see this as a new system and you’ve already activated PS CS twice elsewhere, then you’ll see the denied activation notice and be reuquired to resolve things via personal support from Adobe. Similarly, if you truly move to a new system, you may need to get personal support from Adobe unless you’re still within the two-site limit of the license.
It is possible to activate PS CS on more than two PCs, but not concurrently. You will need to convince Adobe that a license being "reused" has truly been removed from one system for transfer to another. I don’t know how difficult that is.
I hope that helps,
Daryl
I have a similar problem to Jim’s. I’m getting a new desktop, and I want to delete Photoshop from my old one and install it on the new one. I started using Photoshop with version 4.0 and last year upgraded to version 7.0 and then to 7.01.
Will I have to install version 4.0 on my new computer and then install the 7.0 upgrade on top of it, or can I just copy the program(s)from my old to my new computer? Do I have to keep both versions of Photoshop on the computer or can I delete the parts of 4.0 that don’t contain the registration info. If I do have to do the double installation (V4.0 followed by V7.0) how will I get the various upgrades that Adobe has been automatically putting on my computer from time to time when I start up Photoshop?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
John Houser
IIRC, the 7.0 upgrade will ask you how to verify your
eligibility…installed prior version or CD of prior version.
I think, 7.0 will accept a 4.0 CD but I won’t swear to it. CS needs 5.5 or newer to verify. If 4.0 is too old you’ll have to call Adobe Customer Service to get special installation instructions.
Bob
John
You should be able to install 7 alone if you have the original 4 CD. If the installer is not able to find a qualifying version installed, it will ask you to insert the original media. You can download the update from the Adobe site.
Mick,
I appreciate the help. thanks
John
I also started with PS 4.0 and upgraded to PS CS via PS5.0, PS6.0 and PS7.01. When I installed PS CS (as part of full CS Premium Suit upgrade) on my desktop it didnt ask for a previous qualifying version as PS 7.01 was still installed. Recently I installed the full CS Premium Suit on a new Laptop when it asked for the qualifying media I just put my PS7.0 disk in the CDROM and the installation continued without a hitch.
So PS CS will accept previous upgrade versions without having to go all the way back to the original full version (in my case PS4.0).
Thanks to everyone for your insights-Daryl especially. It is good to know the potential requirements, but overall I don’t mind all that much going through the personal support and reactivation if needed since I think the cost of CS for two systems is certainly reasonable enough for what it does-Adobe should be able to protect its copyright and receive a fair return. My fear was that I’d diddle around with the hardware to the point that I couldn’t get CS running on the two systems I wanted and then when I called for help would be SOL. I didn’t think Adobe would be all THAT hard to deal with, but I was a little concerned after installing CS the first time and trying to get live activation help. I’d have to say they weren’t exactly CORDIAL with me, it was like they immediately assumed I was trying to screw them over somehow.
Thanks again,
Jim
I have a similar issue. I purchased CS and put it on a machine then quickly realized it wasn’t going to do the job. Built a new machine and put CS on it, junked the old machine. So, I have installed CS twice, but only have it on one machine. I need it on my laptop for work, capture when traveling etc. Who do I call, write etc? Is there an issue running CS on a tablet pc? Need Help!!
Install it first. If it won’t activate, call Adobe and explain the situation. They’ll give you a new activation code.
Bob
I don’t mean to be stupid, but what number do you call? In reviewing the site it doesn’t seem obvious to me?
Thanks for your help
Pete
I believe that number comes up when you install or start the activation, doesn’t it?
BTW, I picked up a 250GB Western Digital internal hard drive for $249.99 today, a buck a gig seems to be the going rate for the higher capacity hard drives but this is the first I’ve seen one as large as 250 GB at that price. I also saw that WD had a 200 GB external drive for $349.99 with some keen bells and whistles, including a digital card reader and an auto-backup deal.
I may pick one of them up soon, but I want to research a little more to see how suitable it would be for video applications. I think the firewire connection would provide enough speed to handle direct application use, but I had some problems burning DVDs through an external drive connected by USB.
JC
You can install 7.0 upgrade, but it would ask you for the original 4.0 disk to verify you have the full version..so you don’t have to actually install 4.0 just prove to the upgrade that you have it.
Ok so I did what many of you are facing. I installed it on my laptop, which proved too SLOW (1.6gjtz, 768Ram), so i tried it on my desktop (2.0 dual pentium, 1 gig ram), again too slow. So I (oops!) got desperate, and tech support saying they never heard of a "slow issue" before, i attempted it on my daughters computer… (2.6 gthz, 512 ram) again WAY WAY WAY too SLOW. So I broke down and bought a new system (3.0gthz, 2 GIG ram, and a video card with 256mb)and well activation failed! You have to call, and what they will tell you is they know EVERY machine you installed on. You can only have 2 machines with it loaded, so you need to do an UNINSTALL off the other machines. (Which is funny since there is NO UNINSTALL UNTILITY!!!). I did mine through Windows Add/Remove software.
This is the kicker…My new machine started acting funny..hmmm Keyboard shortcuts stopped working…it begins to deterirate until it stops working completely (that is what their activation center told me)…so mine started acting funny…at the same time , i uninstalled it on the laptop…it sent some info through the broadband and instantaneously the big machine was completely happy again.
What i want to know….is BIG BROTHER watching us, knowing what we do and how we do it? what kind of data are they gathering about their users???
Sue
That is interesting and suggests that there is some sort of deactivation process if you are interpreting the activity correctly. But last thing I read a while back was that there was no deactivation process. This would actually be a good thing for legit users if it worked properly but I can imagine the potential pitfalls. Like what if you have hard disk failure and can’t deactivate? Don’t worry about BigB. He’s here and there is nothing we can do. As long as he stays benign, that’s ok.
Pete, the activation phone number is 1-866-772-3623. But you’re gonna need your serial number and the activation number that pops up on the screen when you start the process.
Sue,
Uninstalling the app on one system has no effect on other systems as there is no information sent on an uninstall. (that is, there is no deactivation process). The only time information is sent is during registration and during activation. The latter collects limited data in order to create the activation key.
In regards to the uninstall utility – you access it through Add/Remove programs.
If it’s possible or practical for you you can just move your old hard drive, as is, into the new system as your primary drive. You should be able to get up and running without reinstalling your software, although you may need to ractivate some of it. This only makes sense if A. your old hard drive is worth moving and B.You are not getting a new (non-upgrade version) OS. If you are upgrading to a much faster, and much larger HD, you could use the new faster, larger HD as your D drive and primary scratch disk for Photoshop, which would still be a performance boost. If your old drive is nearly full and/or very slow, then it will certainly be worth the extra effort of reinstalling the software. Also, if your new system is coming preinstalled with a new OS, then you will have to re-install everything anyway.
Yes, I follow what you are saying, thank you. I am debating just that now-whether or not to continue to use the system drives as set up in my two activated workstations-one is a 60GB drive with a 250 GB storage drive, and the other is an 80GB drive with an 80GB storage drive. I also use a 120GB external USB drive to switch projects between the two workstations as needed as they are not yet networked.
All together, I presently need at least 800 GB of storage and workspace to handle my present volume and have 630 to work with, so I still have a ways to go and need to not only utilize the capacity I presently have but juggle it around quite a bit yet.
That being said, I do consider the 60GB drive worth moving into the new workstation I am building to use as the system drive and when I complete that the current workstation with the 250 GB storage drive will be dedicated to video production-and I won’t need CS on it, so if everything transitions smoothly I’ll be all set…until the volume I’m handling increases again and causes another bottleneck, anyway. Later, I may want to pull the video workstation back into photography and graphics production periodically as the added volume and deadlines dictate, and at that time I can just buy the additional CS (or later version) Photoshop software needed so I stay legal. The issue at the moment has been how to fit all of these goals into the budget and keeping the two authorized applications of CS activated and/or retaining the legal activations as I swap drives and other hardware around from workstation to workstation. I’m still a little foggy on what will work transparently and what won’t, but from the very good advice and commentary here I have learned that I can accomplish the goals I have in mind and keep CS functioning according to the licensing restrictions on whatever two systems I care to use the applications on, although it looks like it might take a few phone calls and etc to do so.
JC
