What to do before re-installation?

[Maars]

Hi All,

Since upgrading to Leopard my MacBook Pro has been really slow. Doing just about anything in PT8 takes a really long time. Even loading up.

I am going to conduct a clean install and wipe my harddrive. PT8 is really the only custom software I have on my computer.

1. What information do I need to collect/make sure I have before wiping everything? Where can I find it? eg Authorization codes, etc...

2. Will I lose Xpand!1 if I only install PT8?

3. For any mac heads out there, if I run an archive and install instead, will I have to reinstall PT8 anyway?

Thanks,

Maars

[flommer]

Before wiping and reinstalling, you might want to make sure that you have used the COMBO 10.5.6 updater that you D/L from Apple. The updates that Software Update provide are not as complete. It's worth a try... Might save you some time.

Authorizations depend of the software mfgr. iLok authorizations should be OK.
You should do a super-duper or carbon copy cloner copy to an external FW drive before wiping.. That way you should be able to access any info you currently have on the drive and even boot from the FW drive if you have to..

Xpand2, which is installed with PT8, will recognize all your Xpand patch settings. If you have presets saved for any plugins, those are something you would want to make sure you have backed up..

I'm not sure how archive and install works.. If that's part of the Apple installer, you should be able to read about it on the Apple site... But if it does a clean installation of the OS, then yes you would have to install PT8 again, I think..

Make sure you back any PT installers that you have downloaded along the way too. No need to D/L them again...

What kind of shape is your System drive in? If it is a 5400RPM drive, you might consider getting a new 7200 rpm drive.. That will improve the overall responsiveness of your Mac..

[Maars]

Thanks Flommer,

I'll keep that in mind.

Are my already existing authorization codes somewhere within the software that I can find to write down for the re-intall?

E.g. I remember when I initially installed PT an authorization code was requested when I first used the software.

[flommer]

You definitely need your PT code... A quick check in PT and I couldn't find it.

I think you can get it when you log in to "My Digi". Check any old email from the Digi store, too. My initial code was inside the "Getting Started" manual that came with my 002, and I diligently write down the code for every new version of PT in there..

As far as other authorizations, I couldn't tell you..

I will say that when I installed Leopard for the first time, I imported all my settings and files from my previous Tiger installation and all the authorizations worked in PT when I got 8 installed.. If you clone your System disk to a FW drive, and then have that connected during the reinstall of Leopard you may have that option... But unfortunately in your case, you don't really want to import your old settings because the root of you problem might lie therein..

Here's another option for you that you could do with little risk to your current settings:

Do a clean install of Leopard on a FW drive, use the COMBO updater to get to 10.5.6, then install PT8 and patch to cs2.. If you boot into the new Leopard drive and you suddenly have better performance then you know that wiping and reinstalling your internal drive has a good chance of fixing your problems..

[wilrock]

hello Flommer I am new in the community and nOt been able to even enter directly forum for that reason i ask the question directly if you can help me, my question: I have a Digi 002 and I finish pasSINg of protool 7.1.1 to prottool 8 and when I Open the archives and they open incomplete to which does Not open some tracks to me Nor instruments.

[flommer]

Originally Posted by wilrock

hello Flommer I am new in the community and nOt been able to even enter directly forum for that reason i ask the question directly if you can help me, my question: I have a Digi 002 and I finish pasSINg of protool 7.1.1 to prottool 8 and when I Open the archives and they open incomplete to which does Not open some tracks to me Nor instruments.

So you upgraded 7.1.1 to 8 and old sessions do not open correctly?

By instruments you mean plugins? You have to make sure all your old plugins get updated to work with PT8. Do you have plugins besides Digidesign?

And are you saying that the tracks themselves do not open, or just that the audio regions are missing?

I may not be much help with this because I personally don't have much 3rd party software, and I've never had many problems opening old sessions, back to v5.. I'v always assumed ProTools handled that pretty well..

Maybe some others will have more specific advice for you..

PS If you are looking at the main forum page here:

PTLE for Mac

then the button to start a new thread, called "New Thread" is a couple inches below the picture of the duck. You will probably get better help if you start your own thread...