I am finally receiving FCS2 this week, finally get to use proper workflow with my HVX ;) I think I have read in other forums that I need to uninstall my old FCP 4.5 before I install? Do I just move FCP, STP, Compressor, and DVDStudio folders to the trash? Anything else to be aware of before installing besides a good clone?

Regards

_Eric

This thread would be better suited to the "nonlinear editing on a mac" forum but I'll let the moderators move it...

I've had a handful of emails about installation "bugs" with FCS2; this kind of thing is most always due to some deep file corruption or permissions issues that have been lingering within the system for a long time and left un-addressed.

My suggestion to anyone who has had the same OS install on their system for more than a year - especially those who have constantly upgraded both the OS and FCP versions - is to save all your personal data (emails and account settings, favorites, ICC profiles etc), wipe the main drive and do a clean install of both the OS and and FCS2.

Yes, this is time consuming and a real pain to most (I can already hear the whining start) however this will guarantee that you don't migrate old file or OS problems into the new FCS version and, it's a great way to start with a completely fresh set of preferences, cache, log and other miscellaneous files that make the OS run.

In fact, this exact operation is what I've set aside time for to do on our main edit suite today.

There is one major caveat in making this fresh install: Do NOT make an image of your main drive and then re-install that image. If you have file/permission/OS issues that are long-term and deep then all you'd be doing is re-copying those corruptions onto your clean drive. A "clean" install means starting fresh with the supplied OS install disks that either came with your computer or, you bought as a retail copy. 10.4.6 is the last retail image in the stores; any new system purchased within the last month will ship with 10.4.9 disks.

If you don't have the time or patience to do this, there is a supplied white-paper that comes with FCS2 which clearly explains the installation/upgrade process in detail. It and other installation tips are on the Apple Support site for installation help.

As a side note: for those who like myself are always wanting to boost their system performance to the max, the 10,000rpm WD Raptor series will be re-released as a SATA-II interface soon - probably within 30 days. If you really want to make things like FCS2 or any other resource-heavy app run as quickly as possible this will do the trick. We replaced the 7200rpm drive that came with our MacPro with the current 150gb Raptor and it made a very noticeable difference in both boot and app response times; I can only imagine how much better it will get when the throughput of that drive is doubled.

I just wanted to reply and backup Robert with his comments on doing fresh installs. I also wanted to say, try and setup your personal documents in a fashion that lets you do this with minimal hassle in the future too. If you keep things organized better you will know exactly where all important files reside and can quickly backup everything you need when the time comes again. And it will.

Thanks for the info.

Regards

_Eric

I wrote this approach and follow it for all major updates:

http://www.lafcpug.org/tutorials/basic_tiger_upgrade.html