PC to Mac & Lightroom

[Martin_Doudoroff]

Originally Posted by Ken Little

1) Since I now have a Mac with Lightroom installed, what steps are necessary to get my Library database from my PC to Mac and in Lightroom what do I do to import the library?

Read this.

Originally Posted by Ken Little

2) With this new setup, with the MacBook Pro as both my "Desktop" (for office use with an external hard drive where my library resides) and also my "Remote" computer that I transport to shoot locations or vacation, I need a Library strategy for Lightroom. I guess I can just take my External Hard drive with me would be one solution. What are other Library options that can be used. I don't necessarily want to fill up my MacBook Pro with photos.

No completely satisfactory solution to offer. Hopefully LR 2.0 will address this sort of problem better. The key, I think, is that if you hold down the alt key while running Lightroom, you can tell it which catalog to open. Then you can maintain catalogs on your laptop and on removables as necessary. Of course, if you have multiple catalogs, that precludes a unified library...

[Ken Little]

Hey Martin,

I moved my database file and previews over my network from my PC to my Mac. I then clicked on the database file and Lightroom opened, and my database was in takt. However, I must have named my drive in Mac something besides the name I used on my PC. Therefore, I had the previews, but they weren't properly attached or connected. So, I had to go try to reconnect my folders on my 15,000 plus picture library. I posted a question in the Photoshop/Lightroom forum, which is not the proper name, but if I go check it now, I will lose this message. Anyway, I didn't want to clog up this thread with issues related to another forum.

Regarding my second question about Library management on the notebook, you can have numerous libraries by just holding down the Option key on the Mac (Ctrl on the PC) while starting Lightroom and a select database dialog is presented, where you can select or create a new library database. I guess I could keep a family vacation library on my notebook. But surely there is someone out there who shoots adn loads to the notebook in the field. Maybe they just copy to a directory, not importing, but rather using a browser like Irfanview to look at their work and then when back in the office, transfer to the external hard-drive and then import. This keeps only the database on the notebook, which itself should be backed up.

Anyway, I'm sure there are hundreds of library solutions out there, custom fit for the type photographer you are. Thanks again for all the help!

[John_S_Chapman]

Ken

I am about to migrate from PC to Mac in a month or two's time. I've read the thread with interest and wondered if in addition to the comments already made there is something else I should bear in mind.

Currently I keep my images on external drives, the latest is a LaCie quadra drive, running via an eSata card in my Dell. Did you have any problems with the Mac reading NTFS formated disks.

I don't plan top run windows applications on the Mac as I have 2 XP machines already.

Any suggestions welcomed

Thanks

John C

[Jerry Skrocki]

Originally Posted by John_S_Chapman

Ken

I am about to migrate from PC to Mac in a month or two's time. I've read the thread with interest and wondered if in addition to the comments already made there is something else I should bear in mind.

Currently I keep my images on external drives, the latest is a LaCie quadra drive, running via an eSata card in my Dell. Did you have any problems with the Mac reading NTFS formated disks.

I don't plan top run windows applications on the Mac as I have 2 XP machines already.

Any suggestions welcomed

Thanks

John C

The Mac will read NTFS formatted drives, but will not write to them.

[Ken Little]

Hey John,

Yes, I had all my images on a hard drive that I used with Windows XP and my old computer. I found a utility software from Paragon Software Group, located at: Paragon NTFS for MAC OS X - full read and write access to Windows NTFS partitions under Mac OS X called NTFS for Mac OS X that allows me to read and write to the NTFS drive using my Mac. I didn't have to reformat the drive. After downloading the driver, which you can do on a trial basis, it just worked. It was about $40, which was worth it to me. I think there were other cheaper alternatives, but it involved more installation procedures, that I didn't feel comfortable attempting. So far, it has worked like a charm!

[John_S_Chapman]

Ken , Jerry

Thanks very much, should make the transission a lot easier

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