Need help transferring PSE to new computer

[Wolfgang]

I've been using PSE 5.0 for about a year and a half on an old computer with barely sufficient RAM and have just about run out of hard drive to hold the photos. So, I bought a new laptop that should prove sufficient for my needs for the next couple of years at least. Now I need to load Elements onto the new computer and be sure that I can transfer all the photos including the metadata for tags, captions, collections etc., so that I don't have to start over in organizing everything. I suspect that it's not as simple as loading Elements onto the new computer and copying all the photo files. Can anyone walk me through this process? Incidentally, the old computer runs on XP and the new one on Vista. Will this cause any problems?

Thanks in advance,

Wolfgang

[Bob Chadwick]

Just went through that with PSE7 due to a hard drive crash. Had backed up the photos in PSE using the backup catalog command and restored it back using the restore feature. Everything was there.

[dj_paige]

In PSE on the old computer, File->Backup Catalog. (This backup can work to CDs, DVDs or external hard drive).

In PSE on the new computer, File->Restore Catalog.

Make sure you install the PSE 5.0.2 patch on the new computer.

Also, please read this about running PSE5 on Vista:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb400848&sliceId=1

[Wolfgang]

Thanks. It took several hours, but it worked.