Transferring to new computer

[NormaK]

I have Home Edition ACDSee on my computer...I have probably thousands of items tagged. Way back I always lost all my tagging when transferring to a new computer.

I have a few questions...
Do I need to backup including thumbnails to have them come back intact on a new computer

I couldn't find the program and found this... assuming this is my program files and this is where it is supposed to be?

[Greyfox]

I have Home Edition ACDSee on my computer...I have probably thousands of items tagged. Way back I always lost all my tagging when transferring to a new computer.

I have a few questions...
Do I need to backup including thumbnails to have them come back intact on a new computer

When asking about transfer of ACDSee to another computer you need to be precise about where everything is at the moment, and where you want everything to be after the transfer.

1/. Where is your collection of images at the moment, on a local drive on the old computer, on an external USB drive, or on a network drive?
2/. Will the collection stay where it is, or will it be moved, and if so to where.
3/. Have you embedded the ACDSee metadata in the images (or in xmp sidecar files where the image format doesn't support direct embedding (RAW, video etc)

4/. Where is the current database, on a local drive on the old computer, on an external USB drive, or on a network drive?
5/. Where do you want the database to be in the new arrangement.
6/. When you use the term "backup" in your question, are you referring to the ACDSee Database backup, or a generic backup of your files?

7/. Do you plan on installing the exact same version o ACDSee on the new computer (not just whether it is a Home version, but whether it is the same release of the home version), or will you be using this as an opportunity to upgrade to a later version.?

Pending having that information, the short answer to your question is "You don't need to make backups of the thumbnails, ACDSee can regenerate them"

When you install ACDSee on the new computer, it will create a new default database.
If the ACDSee version you install is not the same as the version that made the backup, then you can't simply restore from an earlier version ACDSee database backup. You would need to use the convert function in the new version and that means the new version would need to have access to a copy of the old database, not just the compressed backup.

If it is exactly the same version, you could restore from a compressed database backup, but it would expect to see everything exactly where it was when the backup was made, and if the location of images has changed then either you would have to go through a rebinding process, or you would need to Catalog the images into the new database. If you have embedded the ACDSee metadata in the images the catalog process would read the embedded metadata in the images, and write it into the new database. If you haven't embedded the metadata that method won't be available to you.

[NormaK]

My collection which is scrapbook items is on a local drive (D). It will stay where it is. From what I see the metadata is embedded. The database is on my C drive. I am installing the same version. I'm sure the drive names will change when my new computer is installed. The Dell computer is coming with a "migration" tool though I don't know if these always work or not.

[Greyfox]

My collection which is scrapbook items is on a local drive (D). It will stay where it is.

Sorry, I don't quite understand that. How will you access the collection on Drive D on your present computer from the new computer?. If you mean the contend of drive D: on your present computer will be copied onto a local drive D on the new computer, then that is not staying where it is. ACDSee uses Volume Serial Numbers to identify individual drives, and that will be different.
But perhaps you intend to physically change the drive over to the new computer?

From what I see the metadata is embedded.

Unlike IPTC metadata, embedding of ACDSee metadata (keywords, categories, labels, ratings, captions etc), and also Face data) in the files is not done by default. You have to elect do initiate that process manually on some sort of regular basis, and if this was a normal photo collection I would strongly recommend that you do it, because it provides a really good safeguard.

That said, I am not a "scrap booker", and I don't know whether the majority of your scrap book files have a file format that supports direct embedding metadata. For files that don't, ACDSee will generally create xmp "side car" (linked within ACDSee) files with the metadata stored in them, but I know of at least one type where it should create a sidecar file but doesn't, so it is a matter of checking that embedding works 100% in your situation.

In ACDSee there is an icon that shows on the thumbnails when there is an embed metadata pending for that item. The may be the initial embed of metadata, or it may be the items has had metadata embedded, but subsequent changes now make it necessary to update the embedded metadata..



In manage mode, left pane, Catalog tab, right near the bottom is a "special items" section. Selecting "Embed Pending" in that section, should display all of the files that have an embed pending status. (Note that this is only valid if you haven't played with the "Clear embed pending icon" option..

The database is on my C drive. I am installing the same version. I'm sure the drive names will change when my new computer is installed. The Dell computer is coming with a "migration" tool though I don't know if these always work or not.

Even if the migration package does copy the database to the new computer, the location references in the database to your files will likely not be correct (see my note about volume serial numbers above). Depending on the arrangement of your collection folders, it may be a simple task of re-binding a parent folder, or a more involved task of re-binding a whole lot of individual folders.

Other than perhaps embedding the ACDSee metadata, I would suggest taking the following precautions at this stage.
(a) In ACDSee on the "old computer" use Tools/Database/Backup database to make a compressed backup of the database

(b) In ACDSee on the "old" computer and go to the Dashboard. In the Dashboard select the Database tab. The full pah to the current to the database is shown. Make a note of that path. Perhaps even save a screen shot of the Dashboard, Database tab screen to an external file.

(c) On that screen it will also show the number of orphaned folders and files. If those numbers are high, I would consider running an Optimize process,but make sure all external drives that contain collection items are connected before you optimize.

(d) In ACDSee on the "old" computer go to Tools/Database/Export/Database and in the ACDSee Database Export Wizard select "Export entire ACDSee database to a read only, compressed version" and in the next dialog screed set it to export to an external drive with a suitable name. That way you have an accessible copy of the optimized current database should it be needed.