Coming back after illness - help please :)

[BrianCurtis]

Hello All

My name is Brian Curtis. I know some of you long-term users will remember me as I was Actinic's Conference as a test customer in 2002 and have been using Actinic since the first developer but I am desperate for some help please!

Over 6 yrs ago, I launched Organic Image and it grew to have so many customers around the world. I was teaching airbrush art classes with the world's elite from the USA and Australia and have taught students from all over the world while based in Wiltshire.

I am now in N London and unfortunately, for the past 2 years have been very ill. It has taken me a long time and a tough road to come through but i am so very pleased to say, that I am very much on the mend now

While being ill I stopped running the Actinic 10 site and i now want to re-build this. I have saved snapshots and still own the URL but I need somewhere to host it (which I'll come to in a mo). My biggest issue is this: my girlfriend has bought a new iMac and we have Lion 10.7 new on it. I do not have access to my old PC which housed my site and I have read you can use something called 'VMWare Fusion' to simultaneously run Windows software on the newer Macs.

I desperately need to look at this (or to boot the Mac as a PC which I have heard you can do but haven't looked into yet) not only to run Actinic again but also, I have an Adobe CS3 Production Premium Suite which i need to install so i can do all my designs and videos in Photoshop and Premiere.

Can anyone please give me some advice on this?

And to Actinic: I do not have access to my PC and I have no idea where my version (either on disc or d-load) is. When i was in hospital my Easily account (email which went back 5 years or more!!) was deleted by them. Thanks for that! So i have no access to anything but desperately need to get a copy of the software I purchased, I then got an upgrade to V10.

If someone could contact me re this i would be very grateful as I'd like to get the site re-born as soon as I can.

On the server-side issue:

I am looking for someone to host the site. I did have a merchant account all set up and ran the site this way but I understand it is possible to get this now from Actinic so would really appreciate some advice on this please.

I want to add hi-res video files for purchase/d-load to my site and don't want to be stuck (like i was with Easily) with on-going bandwidth costs EVERY month so any advice/help with this would be very, very much appreciated.

Looking fwd to hearing back

Sincerely,

Beej

[Josh Barling]

Hi Brian,

Sorry to hear you've been ill lately, but good news you're on the mend. If you can email me directly then I will reply with your licence key. My email address is jbarling@actinic.co.uk

I'm also happy to discuss our services and versions.

Regards
Josh

[BrianCurtis]

Well, I managed to get to my PC last week and brought it to London and bummer, it blue screened! Tried EVERYTHING even paid to d-load iso to make a boot disk and that didn't work, couldn't get the BIOS or BOOT to make it run from the disk at all? On the net found a tip to run in SAFE mode and then to 'Run' ChkDsk. Did this and it asked me to confirm that it needed to do this on a restart as disk was locked etc (from what I understand this is normal) so i selected Y and hit return. Rebooted with F8 key down for safe mode and the black DOS screen started the usual 'Loading Windows Files' but this time, it halted at \crcdisk.sys

I let it run for hrs and eventually, it did run the disk check and found NO problems? Diagnostic tests from within the Bios also gave NO errors to Memory, Discs or Processor? Ran all the tests and even tried Restore but it said there was no restore point. Lost count of the amount of time I have run Disk Repair which says it can't repair it and it won't even start in Safe Mode any more so can't get to anything now!

*sigh*

So, looking at VMWare Fusion for the Mac and wondered: Is it possible to put this software on on the Mac and THEN install Actinic inside Windows? I hate the fact that I didn't get a Windows DVD with my PC when i bought it - wot a rip-off! now I have to buy Windows so i can install it on the Mac!

Has anyone else done this without the use of an actual laptop/PC tower connected to the Mac or, do you actually NEED a PC working to install all the stuff you had on the PC previously? I'm hoping not.

Would appreciate any help, quite desperate now

Josh: I didn't hear back from you re the key? Would appreciate some help with that too please.

Thanks

Brian

[Duncan Rounding]

I think there are some people around who use Parallels on a Mac for Actinci but you'd still need to install Windows inside Parallels as you would with VMWare.

[BrianCurtis]

I think there are some people around who use Parallels on a Mac for Actinci but you'd still need to install Windows inside Parallels as you would with VMWare.

Thanks Duncan

Beej

[Mike Hughes]

If the data is still on the disk then you should be able to read it using an external drive adapter. I have one of the universal IDE/SATA USB adapters and it works fine. You'll find them on ebay, amazon, etc.

With these you just take the hard disk out of the PC, plug it into the adapter and then plug the adapter into a USB port. The disk can then be read as normal.

I don't know if a MAC can read a windows disk using these. I haven't tried. If I were you I'd just buy one of these and go find a friend with a PC. With a bit of luck you'll be able to read the disk fine and copy off your Actinic files.

Mike

PS. Unless you're technically minded I would be trying to run windows programs on a MAC. That could just be me though.

[BrianCurtis]

If the data is still on the disk then you should be able to read it using an external drive adapter. I have one of the universal IDE/SATA USB adapters and it works fine. You'll find them on ebay, amazon, etc.

With these you just take the hard disk out of the PC, plug it into the adapter and then plug the adapter into a USB port. The disk can then be read as normal.

I don't know if a MAC can read a windows disk using these. I haven't tried. If I were you I'd just buy one of these and go find a friend with a PC. With a bit of luck you'll be able to read the disk fine and copy off your Actinic files.

Mike

PS. Unless you're technically minded I would be trying to run windows programs on a MAC. That could just be me though.

Thanks Mike, that really helps I'm going to go off and search for that adapter now...

Just one quick question: Which vsn of Windows is best to buy? Is Home Premium OK for this or, do i need to get the 7 Professional? Never had to actually buy one b4, it's usually on the PC isn't it!

Thanks

[BrianCurtis]

If the data is still on the disk then you should be able to read it using an external drive adapter. I have one of the universal IDE/SATA USB adapters and it works fine. You'll find them on ebay, amazon, etc.

With these you just take the hard disk out of the PC, plug it into the adapter and then plug the adapter into a USB port. The disk can then be read as normal.

I don't know if a MAC can read a windows disk using these. I haven't tried. If I were you I'd just buy one of these and go find a friend with a PC. With a bit of luck you'll be able to read the disk fine and copy off your Actinic files.

Mike

PS. Unless you're technically minded I would be trying to run windows programs on a MAC. That could just be me though.

Hi Mike,

Been quite ill but eventually . . managed to get the cable you mentioned this week!! Plugged the drive into a PC and managed to get access to all my files to copy them off! Got the disc back in the machine and eventually (after several attempts at booting-up as it just wouldn't do ANYTHING!) it finally started and i was able to put it back to factory settings. Yayy Happy Days!

So, just gotta get Actinic loaded next (been putting Photoshop etc on it) and then, gonna buy the VMware Fusion . .

Just one quickie: Does anyone know, if you then run your programs such as Photoshop off the Mac, will the program then use the Mac's BIG processing power to work or it is only 'showing' it on the Mac?? Not quite sure on that one?

Thanks again for this invaluable help guys

Brian

[guccij]

This sounds like mega progress, hope you and your Actinic installation are finally on the mend now.

As far as Photoshop is concerned, would you not be better buying a version for Mac? There are a lot of excellent picture editing products in the app store.