Migrating to new computer

[lpgut]

I'm hoping I might be able to get some tips for the most seamless transfer of Notion 3 to a new computer. My main concern is that I've had a copy of Notion since it first came out and have purchased all the expansion packs for Notion 2 instruments (which I happen to like very much), plus several for Notion 3 instruments. Some are on CDs, and other later ones are downloads, etc. In short, my Notion sounds are all over the place and I'm concerned that it will be a nightmare to try to get myself installed correctly on my new machine.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation and have any advice? Of all the software installed on my computer, Notion is the one I really, really don't want to have messed up. Many thanks in advance!

[Surfwhammy]

In some respects it depends on the operating system platform (Mac OS X or Windows) . . .

IF YOUR CURRENT COMPUTER IS A MAC

If your current computer is a Mac and is running a recent version of Mac OS X, then you can get a LaCie external drive and use SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket) to clone your current internal hard drive as well as to make the external drive bootable, where you can verify that the bootable clone works by booting to it, where instead of running the computer off the internal hard drive, the external drive will be the primary drive, until you reboot and return to the internal hard drive being the primary boot drive . . .

[NOTE: The external drive needs to be a FireWire drive, and if your Mac only has a FireWire 400 port, then you need to get the LaCie external drive that supports FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 rather than only FireWire 800. The newer LaCie external drives cost less, but I provided the link to the Enterprise model, because it supports FireWire 400 and FireWire 800. I have not checked in a while, so you might be able to boot with USB-2, but as I recall it is important that the bootable external drive be connected to a FireWIre port on the computer . . . ]

LaCie d2 Quadra Hard Disk

This the link to SuperDuper!, where the free version is fine for doing a bootable clone of your internal hard drive, again if you are doing everything on a Mac:

SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket)

And your Mac needs to be an Intel Mac . . .

The advantage of doing it this way is that you have a complete backup of your current internal drive, and it is bootable, so you can run your current Mac from the external hard drive, which in turn maps to having everything where you can access it, since you also can connect the external hard drive to your new Mac . . .

IF YOUR CURRENT COMPUTER IS RUNNING WINDOWS

On the other hand, if you are doing everything on a Windows computer, there probably are similar products, but I have not done much of anything on Windows machines for quite a while, so I have no idea specifically what to recommend . . .

However, the sound libraries for NOTION should not be so difficult to find if all of them are installed on your current computer, so this might be an excellent time to create a new folder and to copy all the sound libraries to the new folder using a subfolder hierarchy that matches the original folders, where the key is that this is a copy of everything, because you probably do not want to start moving folders, so I would leave everything where it is, but just make copies of it in a way that you can determine the organization of the various folders and files later by examining the high-level folder you use for the copy, and if you have an external hard drive, copy it there, as well . . .

Another thing you can do if you have an Ethernet network is to connect the new computer to the old computer and share the files on the old computer, which makes copying them to the new computer easier and faster than messing with CDs, DVDs, and downloads . . .

And it certainly makes sense to keep the old computer running at least until you have verified that everything is working correctly on the new computer . . .

IF YOUR CURRENT COMPUTER IS RUNNING WINDOWS BUT YOU ARE GETTING A MAC

In this scenario, having the LaCie external drive will be handy, as is having an Ethernet cable or whatever, and it is similar to the Windows computer scenario in terms of copying all the sound libraries and so forth, but because the new computer is a Mac, you will need to install the Mac version of the NOTION 3 application . . .

I am not so certain about the way NOTION expansion sound libraries are licensed, but I am confident that there is a way to transfer the license to the new Mac, and you can call Notion Music technical support for help on this . . .

There is a Mac program which makes moving from a Windows computer to a Mac easier, and you might try it, but I have never used it, and while it should be able to move data files, moving application executables makes no sense, so my advice is to do everything manually . . .

And for reference, doing digital music production on the Mac is easier, because as a general rule everything works without requiring you to mess with it other than to do a few very simple installs and occasionally to set some configuration parameters (preferences, including where you want sound libraries to be stored, and so forth) . . .

If you are on a Mac and are using Logic Pro (Apple) or Digital Performer 7.24 (MOTU) as your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application, then everything works, including ReWire . . .

This probably is the case with Cubase 6.5 (Steinberg), but I do not have Cubase, so all I can do is guess. However, I am intrigued by the HALion 4.5 synthesizer and Cubase 6.5, since they support VST 3.5.1, so I might do a few experiments in that respect, sooner or later, depending primarily on whether I can do the experiments with trial versions, since the budget here in the sound isolation studio is limited at present . . .

Lots of FUN!

[lpgut]

I will be migrating from a middling PC to a more powerful PC (and from Vista to Windows 7), so the advice to make a copy of the folders containing the sound library - with all folders in their proper hierarchy - is a good thing to hear. I am upgrading hardware primarily for the sake of other graphics-heavy programs that have either run sluggishly or have been "crippled" - but I didn't want to compromise the running of Notion!

Thanks for the advice.

[Robins1]

Hi. As your new computer will be win 7 then look at windows easy transfer. You can transfer files by cable or network. Think the cable is one you'll need to buy although I'm not sure.

[Surfwhammy]

I will be migrating from a middling PC to a more powerful PC (and from Vista to Windows 7), so the advice to make a copy of the folders containing the sound library - with all folders in their proper hierarchy - is a good thing to hear. I am upgrading hardware primarily for the sake of other graphics-heavy programs that have either run sluggishly or have been "crippled" - but I didn't want to compromise the running of Notion!

Thanks for the advice.

Since it is Windows-to-Windows, there is a newer LaCie external drive that has eSata, USB-3 (USB-2 compatible), and FireWire 800. You can format the LaCie external drives for Windows or Mac OS X, and I like these drives. Amazon.com has a 2TB LaCie external drive (7,200 RPM), which is handy, and the advantage of an external drive is that you can use it any of your computers. When you consider the price of a comparable internal hard drive, it does not cost so much more for the "external" case and so forth, and the case is aluminum, which is nice . . .

[NOTE: 7,200 RPM is better for multimedia work, including digital music production, and with USB-3 is a fast external drive . . . ]

LaCie d2 Quadra v3 Hard Disk 2 TB eSATA/FireWire800/USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 301543U in Aluminum Case (Amazon.com)

The most important thing is to make an archive copy of all the sound libraries, and I think the sound libraries just need to be copied to the new computer. There might be some licensing software for the sound libraries, but perhaps not. And you can download the current version of NOTION 3, but it also probably can be copied, although you will need to register it or whatever is required for licensing, which should not be a problem . . .

Lots of FUN . . .

[Brian]

Hello,

This is Brian from NOTION Music Tech Support. Moving to a new computer can always be a hassle and sometimes migrating all of your files from your old machine to your new one can bring old problems along as well. That being said, I wanted to clear up what you need to do for NOTION3.

1. Install NOTION3 from your DVD. Do not open the program yet.

2. To avoid having to download all of your Expansion sounds again, just copy your C:\Program Files\NOTION3\Sounds folder from your old machine to your new one. Copy/paste the Sounds folder into your new NOTION3 program folder and choose to replace everything when prompted. Do not open the program yet.

3. Go to http://notionmusic.com/support/downloads.html and download and install the latest version of NOTION for your operating system.

You do not need to install any of the old NOTION2 sound kits as they will not work with NOTION3. All of your sounds that you were using in NOTION3 will be available since you copied the old Sounds folder over. If you cannot find a way to copy this folder, you will have to download the Expansion sounds by logging into your account and simply double-click them to install. If you have any problems, please feel free to shoot me an email at support@notionmusic.com.

Cheers,



Brian

[Surfwhammy]

Hi. As your new computer will be win 7 then look at windows easy transfer. You can transfer files by cable or network. Think the cable is one you'll need to buy although I'm not sure.

Great!

I did a bit of checking, and it appears that the new Microsoft recommended procedure for migrating from an old computer running Windows Vista to a new computer running Windows 7 uses an external hard drive with a USB-2 or USB-3 cable. The option to use the "easy transfer cable" continues to exist, but the cable is expensive and basically is just used for this purpose, so I prefer the external hard drive strategy . . .

What you need:

An external hard disk. You'll need to move your files off of your PC before you install Windows 7. To make this easier, we recommend a free download called Windows Easy Transfer, which will require an external hard disk. They're readily available at electronics and office supply stores, and they provide an easy way to add additional storage space to your computer.

The original installation discs or setup files for the programs that you want to use with Windows 7. You'll need to reinstall your programs by hand after installing Windows 7.

GUIDE: Transfer files and settings from another computer (Microsoft)

This video is excellent, and it explains how the external hard drive method works, which uses the standard USB cable that comes with the external hard drive . . .

VIDEO: Transferring files and settings from another PC (Microsoft)

I like this strategy better than using the custom "easy transfer cable", which basically is a one-time use cable and ranges in cost from $15 to $40 (US) . . .

The LaCie external hard drive I recommended comes with the required cable, so not needing to purchase the "easy transfer cable" makes the price of the LaCie external drive all the more attractive . . .

For example, a Seagate 2TB 7,200 RPM internal drive similar to the one in the LaCie d2 Quadra external drive costs approximately $110 (US), while the LaCie d2 Quadra external drive costs approximately $200 (US), so if you subtract $15 (US) for the lowest price, one-time use "easy transfer cable", this makes the difference approximately $75 (US), which I think is a reasonable extra cost for the external case, cables, power supply, and so forth, as well as having several ports . . .

Lots of FUN . . .

P. S. While I have not done much of anything with a newer Windows computer over the past few years, I started doing Windows software engineering in 1987 with the first version of Windows and continue to do a bit of work occasionally, but mostly on Windows XP or Windows Server (no Windows Vista or Windows 7), and I think the information I found is accurate. In some respects, it is easier for me to wade through detailed technical information about Windows than to wade through equally detailed information about Mac OS X, since I continue to understand Windows better than Mac OS X, and I am more familiar with Windows "jargon" or whatever one wants to call it. I prefer Mac OS X, and it makes more sense now than it did just over a decade ago when I switched, but (a) some of the internal stuff is a bit puzzling and (b) Mac OS X and iOS applications usually are programmed using what for me is a patently strange software programming model, where nearly everything is abstracted. I prefer low-level C/C++ API programming, since I like to know exactly what the computer is doing, essentially instruction by instruction, but not so deep as assembly programming. As a user, I want stuff to happen "automagically", but when I am coding I like to do things essentially one note at a time, where for example I hate Core Data, but I love the native low-level C/C++ API for SQLite, since I can do advanced SQL work easily with this "old-fashioned" style interface for SQLite, and it is not possible to do the advanced SQL stuff with Core Data, since among other vastly annoying things, Core Data uses Managed Object Models, where what happens is that instead of doing a series of simple SELECT statements to jump from one place to another, you have to set properties and then do a "fetch", and this does not work for advanced SQL, which is just stupid . . .

Core Data (Mac OS X, iOS)

And it is not a matter of hating abstraction, because I love meta-meta-metadata, and over the years I have devised a stellar way to store all the information in the known universe using a SQL database (a) that has approximately 10 tables and (b) that is managed with vastly simple SQL statements (INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE [ISUD]), where the general idea is that you get tiny bits of information and then use it to jump to the next place, and so forth and so on, which makes it very fast and extraordinarily simple, albeit with a bit carefully controlled recursion, but so what . . .

So what!

[lpgut]

This is great - thank you all for your very helpful suggestions! Now I can stop worrying (a little, anyway)!!!

[kurldedumo]

I have a problem of re-activating my software. I just installed my software to a new laptop then suddenly I cant activate it anymore. including the IK multimedia CSR Hall Reverb and Amplitude X-Gear. Can someone help me? I badly need to activate my software. Thank you!

[Admin]

You need to contact IK to get help with this problem. If you registered, you can go onto your IK Account Page, look at what software you have installed. From there you should be able to re-activate your IK Multimedia Products. If not, you can contact their technical support lines from there as well.

-Admin