Preparing to switch from Win to Mac -- I read Victoria's FAQ, and have a question...

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

turnstyle

Active Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
229
Hi all,

I'm preparing to switch from Win to Mac -- I read Victoria's FAQ:
http://members.lightroomqueen.com/i...s-and-other-lightroom-files-to-a-new-computer

And I have one question...

I keep some recent photos on my laptop, and the bulk of them are archived off to a USB NTFS drive, which is attached to another PC on my home network, which acts as a home server.

So my archived files in Lightroom are not coming from an attached drive, but are rather coming over my LAN.

Victoria says that NTFS won't work, but does that only apply to an NTFS drive attached to the Mac?

Meaning: do I have to worry about NTFS even if I would be pointing the Lightroom catalog to files stored on a PC on my LAN?

I hope that made some sense, I'm oddly eager to try Lightroom on a nice retina Mac!

-Scott
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Your other computer is acting as a file server on a local network (NAS) Most NAS run a version of LINUX. Yours runs Windows. The filesystem used by the file server is irrelevant to the client. Victoria is referring to NTFS attached as a USB. You will be fine here. Where you will get in to difficulty is with your LR catalog. Windows most likely has the network drive attached and assigned a drive letter. LR will use that drive letter in the path referenced in the catalog. When you attach the network drive or any drive in OSX it will be attached like any other volume as a folder off of the root folder. (i.e. no drive letter).
The first time you open your LR Windows catalog in OSX it will show the top level folders as missing. You will need to use the Folder panel to help LR find the new location for the folders on that network volume.

So, Don't worry about your master images being on a file server that uses NTFS. No one worries about file servers that use XFS or another filesystem that is foreign to both Windows and OSX. Because it is the OS of the fileserver that needs to be able to read and write to that HD.

FWIW, I made the transition about two years ago. I have no regrets. Because I recognised the Drive letter issue with Windows and LR much earlier, I created a package in one folder containing my catalog and sub folders for all images while still in Windows. I copied that package folder to OSX and did not have any transition problems. I was then able to move most of my master image inventory to other drives attached to OSX inside of the LR Folder panel.

Remember the adage - PPPPPP
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Super, thanks! Good to confirm that the NTFS issue doesn't apply here.

fwiw, my plan is to: 1) install LR on the rMPB, 2) copy over my LR catalog file, 3) open the LR catalog on the rMBP, and then see "?" over my folders, and then re-sync those folder by giving Mac-friendly network paths. Right?

My archived folders in LR are specified with a path that looks like \\SERVERNAME\DIRECTORY -- would that same path possibly "just work" on OSX?

(btw, I also have a question about the rMBP GPU, mind if I ask?)

Thanks, -Scott
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
turnstyle said:
...My archived folders in LR are specified with a path that looks like \\SERVERNAME\DIRECTORY -- would that same path possibly "just work" on OSX?.
Click to expand...
Earlier I said "Windows most likely has the network drive attached and assigned a drive letter". The other Windows method uses the Universal Naming Convention (UNC or \\SERVERNAME\Share\FilePath\) The "U" in UNC means Universal to all POSIX compliant operating systems including OSX This should work without a hitch. If you do get the (?) on the folders then you have the customary method to find missing LR folders.

Perhaps to anticipate your GPU question, LR does not use the GPU. GPU is useful for FMV and Video gaming. LR throws static images to the screen and nothing more. So, A faster GPU with more VRAM is not necessary for LR.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks, glad this is lining up well!

One last question regarding the Nvidia GPU -- since I'll not be using it for Lightroom (and I'm not a gamer) -- is it perhaps advantageous to get the rMBP without the Nvidia care, with the thinking being: the addition of Nvida adds some complexity to the system, and might be hotter and/or more battery intensive than just having Iris Pro only?

Or is there no downside to having the Nvidia? (One weird complication is that the system costs the same with or without the Nvidia card.)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
It was never an important issue for me. My late 2012 13" rMBP only came with the IntelGraphics. The only features that I find important are maxing out the RAM and the SSD and getting the fastest CPU that I can afford. A GPU is not critical for my use of a laptop. Small screen size is important to me for portability. I have an iMac with dual 27" displays for doing serious LR work.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks, the weird thing is: it costs THE SAME if I get a system *with or *without* the Nvidia card -- so I'm especially curious if there is some downside to having the Nvidia installed, assuming I would be using Iris Pro most all the time. eg, am I somehow actually better off paying the same total to have just Iris Pro on-board?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
clee01l said:
Earlier I said "Windows most likely has the network drive attached and assigned a drive letter". The other Windows method uses the Universal Naming Convention (UNC or \\SERVERNAME\Share\FilePath\) The "U" in UNC means Universal to all POSIX compliant operating systems including OSX This should work without a hitch. If you do get the (?) on the folders then you have the customary method to find missing LR folders.
Click to expand...

fyi, I did wind up getting ?'s -- and then I reset the folder -- didn't actually seem to work, it seemed odd -- then I quit/restarted, and it seemed ok.

But I've noticed that if I restart the Mac, they all show up as ?'s again -- and then if I "do something" to interact with the network share, then it's back to normal. (And, perhaps it would have "just worked" the first time if I had "done something" to interact with the network share then.)

Is there some way to make sure the network share is "alive" when you boot?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've dragged the network share to the startup items so it automatically connects when booting.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Victoria, do you use the cifs:// rather than smb:// method?

And with it in your startup, does the Finder open every time you reboot?

Thanks, I think I'm going to enjoy the switch to Mac, but there's much to get up to speed on! -Scott
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Upvote 0 Downvote
Victoria Bampton said:
That's a good question. My NAS appears to be afp and this page seems to think that's a good choice: http://www.helios.de/web/EN/news/AFP_vs_SMB-NFS.html
Click to expand...
Not all NAS can or will support AFP. SMB is the fallback when AFP is not supported. Apple considers AFP to be a legacy protocol and has abandoned it in favor of SMB2 However, Apple's implementation of SMB2 in Mavericks is apparently buggy.
Duelling URLs:
Here is another take on the issue.
http://www.zdnet.com/mavericks-smb2-problem-and-fixes-7000022519/
http://blogs.creativecow.net/blog/13123/smb2-in-mavericks-compared-to-afp-and-nfs
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top