Hi all

I have just opened my shiny new iMac (upgrading from a Macbook), and am in the process of transferring my old logic files across. I am reinstalling Logic on the new iMac (version 7.2 needs the dongle thing so I guess that will be easy enough), but I also need to transfer the 2 au's I purchased licenses for - Massive and Vangaurd. Has anyone had any experience transferring stuff with licenses to a new machine, and how do you go about doing it? I am guessing I will need the serial numbers, but I don't even know where they would be located on my HD. I also need these to register with the NI/refx forums and contact tech support.

Are there any other things I need to consider to make sure I can just open all the project files as they were on the Macbook? I guess I need to put all the samples used in the same folders on the new iMac. Also, have you been able to run your softsynths on 2 machines at once?

Any help is much appreciated - I am gagging to have a bash on Logic on the new 20 inch monitor!

quote:

Originally posted by rufus the dog Has anyone had any experience transferring stuff with licenses to a new machine, and how do you go about doing it?

Yes, I just did this a couple of weeks ago.

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Originally posted by rufus the dog I am guessing I will need the serial numbers, but I don't even know where they would be located on my HD.

They will not be located on your Hard Drive, they are located on the CD Jewel Case, or a license card that came with your purchased product.

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Originally posted by rufus the dog I also need these to register with the NI/refx forums and contact tech support.

I believe that you should have received a Serial # for your reFX product by email after purchase.

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Originally posted by rufus the dog Are there any other things I need to consider to make sure I can just open all the project files as they were on the Macbook?

Copy all of your audio data into the same path on the new computer. Make sure you grab all your preset files from /Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Application Support

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Originally posted by rufus the dog I guess I need to put all the samples used in the same folders on the new iMac.

Correct.

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Originally posted by rufus the dog Also, have you been able to run your softsynths on 2 machines at once?

Massive allows you to install it on 1 desktop and 1 laptop.

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Originally posted by rufus the dog Any help is much appreciated - I am gagging to have a bash on Logic on the new 20 inch monitor!

You should try it on dual 23 inch displays.

Cheers for the quick response Eric

With regards to the serial numbers - both products were downloaded from the websites (NI and refx), and I have a feeling the email address used at the time would be my old work one (which I no longer have access to). I have tried to register with both forums so hopefully they can help me out, but I am slightly worried that I am fooked for not writing down the serial numbers...... Are there any ways of retrieving these? (I have my old email address for example, date of purchase, debit card used etc)

I was going to get the 24inch screen and use my old 19 inch PC screen to dual screen, but unfortunately it wouldn't fit under my shelves (1cm too tall!), and my gf wasn't too happy about me drilling a sh1t load more holes in our walls to move the shelves!

I got a feeling this might be a long night!

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Originally posted by rufus the dog Cheers for the quick response Eric With regards to the serial numbers - both products were downloaded from the websites (NI and refx), and I have a feeling the email address used at the time would be my old work one (which I no longer have access to). I have tried to register with both forums so hopefully they can help me out, but I am slightly worried that I am fooked for not writing down the serial numbers...... Are there any ways of retrieving these? (I have my old email address for example, date of purchase, debit card used etc)

Well, you can try to contact support, but my gut feeling tells me that you'll have to repurchase the software. NI is going to be very difficult about providing you with a serial # if you cant definitively prove when and where you bought it. Even with the card numbers, date of purchase, etc. there is still a good chance they wont accept it.

reFX will probably be just as difficult, as I hear their support department is brutal with a capital B. There is a good chance they will tell you "too bad, you should have kept track of your serial #. Buy it again." They will probably also tell you that the license/serial # is the same thing as the disc. If you lose the serial #, its the same as losing the disc.

It sucks, but that's just the way it is nowadays. When you purchase software, you are purchasing the license to use that software, and the serial # is what you are buying. Most software companies are VERY unforgiving when it comes to retrieving serial #'s, for obvious reasons.

Whatever happens, take it as a lesson and be sure you keep your installation media/downloads and serial #'s in a safe place at ALL times! I keep a folder with all my installation media and serial numbers organized by company name, then product name. Back up this data frequently, and consider it part of your most valuable data. I have this data on 3 or 4 different hard disks and 3 or 4 hard copies of this data laying around. Make sure you keep the downloaded install files in the same place as the serial number, because occasionally a small company will go out of business, and you'll be unable to redownload your software.

Good luck!

Good news - in a moment of wisdom I forwarded all of the documents from my old work email to my hotmail - inspired!!!

Massive was really easy and the support was super quick - you can install it on 2 machines anyway, and all you need is the serial number - which you can find in the "about" tab on the Massive Synth!! That is ideal!! Support were really quick as well!

Refx I was just lucky to have forwarded it all from my old email - I reckon they would have been harder to get info from!!

Cheers Eric!

Awesome, glad it worked out for you.

Actually Eric, maybe you can help me with something?

I did a thread a while back about reformatting my mac but have held off due to really cucial business/work info being on there and just being too scared even with a backup of losing it at the moment....but I'm nearly ready to do it.

Someone suggested (woody?) just copying over the Users folder to an external drive, as absolutely everything is in there. Would this work all would application/program/data (etc.) remain somewhere else?

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN Actually Eric, maybe you can help me with something? I did a thread a while back about reformatting my mac but have held off due to really cucial business/work info being on there and just being too scared even with a backup of losing it at the moment....but I'm nearly ready to do it. Someone suggested (woody?) just copying over the Users folder to an external drive, as absolutely everything is in there. Would this work all would application/program/data (etc.) remain somewhere else?

I actually called Apple before doing this a few weeks ago. I wanted to upgrade from 10.4.11 (Tiger) to 10.5.7 (Leopard). Since my Mac has AppleCare, I wanted to know what Apple recommended as the best approach for upgrading my machine by doing a fresh install while retaining all my settings. I called Apple Support and was shortly put in touch with someone from the Logic Studio development team.


Incidentally, this is why Apple rules. Try that crap with Microsoft and see how far you get.


Anyway, I digress.

What he told me was to do the following things:

1. Backup all of your custom audio data (obvious). For me, I have all my custom data on a second disk, so i didn't need to worry about that. I'm sure you have something similar.
2. Backup everything in the /Library/Application Support directory. Technically, you only need a couple of folders, but I went ahead and backed up the whole directory.
3. Backup everything in /Library/Application Support. Ditto from above.
4. Backup anything else you want to keep.



Obviously you'll need all of your original installation media, and serial numbers. Then do a fresh install of OS 10.5 and copy everything back over (Erase & Install from the OS X Installer menu). You technically only need a couple of folders as I stated previously, but all your Applications custom settings are going to be in the two Application Support folders.

One other option, if you are super paranoid, is that if you have a second (or third or fourth) drive, you can use Backup to take a snapshot of your Macintosh HD disk and copy it to another (preferably blank) hard disk. Then you can do a fresh install on the primary disk. If you screw up, you can always boot from the backup disk and your system will act like nothing has changed. If you did everything OK, you can still copy what you need from the snapshot disk.

It is SO easy, and almost idiot proof. No registries, no 20 level deep file structures, everything is in one place, and you have multiple options for making sure you do not loose any valuable data.

clone the HD

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