CS4 Ri-installation Question

[Dave Gurtcheff]

Hi all: I have CS4 on my desk top, and also had it on my Notebook PC running Vista. We are on the road for 6 weeks, and my Notebook crashed. I had a local tech look at it and the result is it has a new hard drive. I had him install XP as I never liked Vista. I return home next week (from sunny Arizona to snowy NJ coast---lucky me).   Will I have a problem activating CS4 after I re-install from the original disks?
Thanks in advance
Dave Gurtcheff
Beach Haven, NJ

[Mark D Segal]

Been through it - yes you may - but it's easily solved. If you have already had two copies of CS4 installed, that is the limit of what's allowed. Adobe does not know one of them crashed with your hard drive and because of the crash you would not have had the opportunity to de-activate it. Most likely, if you install it you will need to call Adobe customer service and ask them to effectively de-activate one of your registrations and enable you to activate the new one. Probably best you do this before you start.

[Mark D Segal]

Dave, one thing you may wish to think about is having a mirror back-up of your whole C drive (one each for the laptop and the desktop) because hard drives crash - I've been through two C drives within 15 months - both Western Digital 10,000 RPM Raptors installed in a Dell 690 Precision Workstation. After the first experience, I bought a copy of Acronis True Image Home, created the boot CD-ROM using this program, and then creating a mirror of my C Drive on an external USB drive. I kept up-dating it periodically. Then after the second C Drive crash, all I needed to was to replace the drive and do a system restore with the Acronis boot CD and the mirror on the external drive. The process ran itself automatically (for about 4 hours) and was completely successful re-instating absolutely everything as it was based on the most recent back-up. No software had to be-registered because as far as the system was concerned nothing had changed. Highly recommended. It is the PC "equivalent" (but still not as good) to Apple's "Time Machine" for the Mac.

[AFairley]

Been through it - yes you may - but it's easily solved. If you have already had two copies of CS4 installed, that is the limit of what's allowed. Adobe does not know one of them crashed with your hard drive and because of the crash you would not have had the opportunity to de-activate it. Most likely, if you install it you will need to call Adobe customer service and ask them to effectively de-activate one of your registrations and enable you to activate the new one. Probably best you do this before you start.

If you have to call Adobe to get the old install de-activated, be prepared to spend a good 30 minutes on the phone with a moron script jockey.  Load up on the patience meds first.  I speak from unfortunate experience.  In fact my last rebuild I forgot to deactivate first, and I just installed a bootleg copy even though I own a full license of the exact software just because it was so much easier than dealing with those idiots.

[Mark D Segal]

If you have to call Adobe to get the old install de-activated, be prepared to spend a good 30 minutes on the phone with a moron script jockey.  Load up on the patience meds first.  I speak from unfortunate experience.  In fact my last rebuild I forgot to deactivate first, and I just installed a bootleg copy even though I own a full license of the exact software just because it was so much easier than dealing with those idiots.

I have two comments on this:

(1) Not my experience at all. I had a person at the other end of the line within a reasonably short time who was very helpful - in fact walked me through the process as I did it to make sure it worked and my re-activation succeeded.

(2) Under no circumstances should you be using a web Forum of this stature for encouraging the use of bootlegged software whatever the reasons.

[Dave Gurtcheff]

I have two comments on this:

(1) Not my experience at all. I had a person at the other end of the line within a reasonably short time who was very helpful - in fact walked me through the process as I did it to make sure it worked and my re-activation succeeded.

(2) Under no circumstances should you be using a web Forum of this stature for encouraging the use of bootlegged software whatever the reasons.

Thanks all:
I will attempt to reinstall CS4 next week. Thanks for the advice. My original disk is at home. I also have DXO Optics Pro, and DXO Exposure, and attempted to down load and re-install them. Their web site allowed me to down load, as I had a record of the Activation Code. When I tried to "activate" the newly installed software, it said I had already used my two installs, and I was instructed to send information as to the circumstances for an additional install; they said they would get back to me in two business days. That was today.....keep your fingers crossed.
Again, thanks for the replies
Dave

[Dave Gurtcheff]

Thanks all:
I will attempt to reinstall CS4 next week. Thanks for the advice. My original disk is at home. I also have DXO Optics Pro, and DXO Exposure, and attempted to down load and re-install them. Their web site allowed me to down load, as I had a record of the Activation Code. When I tried to "activate" the newly installed software, it said I had already used my two installs, and I was instructed to send information as to the circumstances for an additional install; they said they would get back to me in two business days. That was today.....keep your fingers crossed.
Again, thanks for the replies
Dave

DXO got back to me right away, and it is now re-installed and activated. GREAT service. Love that program!
Dave