Elements 5 help (external drive)

[numptette]

Hi Everybody,

I currently use Elements 5 which I have loaded on a external Hard Drive. I also have a folder on the same Hard Drive for my Back-Ups.

I was just wondering if I could use that same hard drive on a different computer to run elements, I only really use Elements for the Organizer and not for editing.

Any advice on this would be great. Many Thanks

[dj_paige]

You could install Elements on that other computer, and then to use the catalog, the drive would have to be the exact same letter as it is on the other computer. In other words, if that external hard drive is D: on your current computer, it must be D: on the new computer. You would have to make sure your catalog file is on the external hard drive, or you would have to move the catalog file to the new computer as well.

I want to comment on your statement that your backups are on the same hard drive. These are not backups! They may be duplicates, but they are not backups! If your hard drive crashes and your originals and backups are on the same hard drive, you now have zero copies of your photos. Backups must be on different physical media. I have read zillions of stories (well, ok, dozens of stories) about people who didn’t make backups, and they are all very sad stories. They don’t end well. Please don’t make the same mistake.

[hukari]

One question:

You say you have Elements on your hard drive and the catalog also? Or do you have Elements on your PC and the catalog on your EHD?

If you have only the catalog on the EHD, make sure you have the EHD mapped to the same drive letter on both computers. Then it works. If you have the program installed on the EHD, my intuition tells me it should work as well, but I have no experience with that situation. Hope it works for you.

Edit:

Paige, you have a very good point. I missed that.Backups on the same drive...bad situation!!!

[dj_paige]

Reka -- Elements cannot be completely installed onto the External Hard Drive. It can only be partially installed on an External Hard Drive; other parts of Elements must go on the Windows System drive (usually the C: drive), including the parts that go into the Registry and into preferences (and maybe some other parts of Elements as well that I can't think of at the moment). So, you may think you have Elements installed on the EHD, but it is not.