When I went to reinstall Photoshop CS3 recently I discovered I’d misplaced the install disc. I have the packaging, the manual, the license numbers, the purchase receipt, just not the all-important CD.
You see the last few months of last year were very busy, and in the midst of the busiest time we had carpet laid. That meant quickly packing up most of our ‘stuff’ and moving it out of the way, into the shed, the roof, the kitchen which wasn’t being carpeted, any nook or cranny in fact where there was an otherwise empty space.
I suspect that somewhere in that process I put my Photoshop disc in a ‘safe place’. And we all know that ‘safe places’ are fatal.
Who knows why the disc wasn’t with all my other install discs! In any case, I have install discs to hand for versions of Photoshop dating back to 4, 5.5, 6 and 7, but not CS3.
I needed the install disc because over the last week I wiped clean my MacBook Pro and am gradually reinstalling everything fresh.
I’d been having problems with the machine: random crashes and freezes and kernel panics, probably brought on by one or more corrupt files, thanks to earlier battery problems. What I don’t want to do is just copy back all my files.
After hours of unsuccessful hunting though I gave in. I needed to handle some photos. I located what seemed to be all the Photoshop files from my backup disc (including invisible files) and dragged them to the correct locations on the laptop. I started up Photoshop:
Licensing for this product has stopped working. You cannot use this product at this time. You must repair the problem by uninstalling and then reinstalling this product or contacting your IT administrator or Adobe customer support for help.
After much messing about, searching, checking and so on, even leaving a Help request at the Adobe website to ask if a replacement disc would be possible I found this article: Error “Licensing for this product has stopped working” when you start any Adobe Creative Suite 3 application.
I followed the steps, and although Photoshop still complains about a missing support file it all seems to work perfectly now.
My hunt continues though. That install disc must be somewhere right in front of me. Once I locate it I’ll be reinstalling the program properly.
Update: Adobe responded promptly and helpfully to my Help request. They gave me an URL that allowed me to download an install image (800Mb). I’ve now reinstalled the software properly. Thanks Adobe — your constant update messages drive me crazy, but your support actually works.
Update: I’ve listed a filing cabinet on TradeMe. When I moved it out of the shed I found a whole box of stuff behind it and beneath other boring stuff. Guess what was in that box!
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