Will I Lose Linked Images or Fonts After Reinstalling Adobe on a New Hard Drive?

[K-Ten]

Hi everyone,

I am a graphic designer using a Windows laptop. My current 500 GB hard drive is full, and my office is installing a new 1 TB SSD internal drive.

Before the upgrade, I have backed up all my Adobe project files from the last 2.5 years. However, I’m concerned about linked images and fonts in those projects.

• Will I lose linked images in Illustrator, Photoshop or INDD files after reinstalling if I don't have the original image folders?
• Will I need to reinstall fonts used in those designs, or are they stored in the project files
  
  

Is there anything else I should take care of before the hard drive is replaced? I want to make sure my files open correctly after reinstalling everything.

Thanks in advance!

[Monika Gause]

If you didn't package your projects, then you will need to take great care that all your images folders get migrated. Also: fonts need to be installed on the new system. 

If images are linked from remote locations or external disks, make sure that those get attached again. 

Make sure to not rely only on migration software, because those can cause issues. So make a backup before the migration. Also make sure to backup all the brushes and swatches you have installed in Illustrator (if you have any custom ones).

Illustrator might probably need to be properly installed. Migration might not work. Same goes for other CC aps.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Yes, fonts will need to be reinstalled. This isn't an issue with any fonts you used from Adobe Fonts, but any you installed previously in your System/Font Manager will have to be brought over. 

Linked images will have to be relinked only because their File Path wil probably change on the new drive but if you have them in the same folder, that should be easy to relocate and relink.

The big advice i have for you is make sure your IT people KEEP the old hardrive and not erase it. You can install this in an external enclosure and use it to copy over anything you might have forgotten, e.g. fonts or images. Once you are sure you're done with it, then it can be erased and used as a respectably-sized external storage, or a good drive to do System Backups to.