Would Photoshop 7 from 2002 be compatible with Windows 7?

Hi AL,

You have a perfect understanding of what is going on. But the external hard drive that you would want to plug in to your computer should be a normal external hard drive, like a Lacie model or one of a hundred other models out there that plug in via a USB or Firewire cable... NOT a FLASH drive. Sometimes, applications like Photoshop and others can not run from a FLASH drive... especially older apps... they need to run from an normal hard drive with a spinning disk inside... FLASH memory is different and some apps can run from FLASH memory, but most older apps can not.

Installing another internal hard drive is something best left to a technician, but just plugging in an external hard drive and installing your PS 7 on that would be easy.

Now, that being said, after doing a search for new desktop hard drives, I found that most of them are now huge in capacity size... like 1 terabyte, which is like a thousand gigiabytes, up to 3 terabytes is now the norm... where as just a couple of years ago 300 to 500 gigabytes was the norm. I thought you could still get a normal old size, 30 gigabyte external desktop hard drive, but aside from getting one used on ebay or someplace, I'm not seeing smaller size desktop hard drives out there, which is what you need... but there is another cheap alternative.

I did find a few in the 300 gigabyte to 500 gigabyte size range drives, but I'm not even sure if that is small enough for Photoshop 7... but there is a way around that too... by partitioning the new plug-in hard drive, you can make a smaller partition on that, and you wouldn't have to to blank out your current internal hard drive and re-install Windows and everything.

At the bottom, I've included a few links to smaller, 300 to 500 gig hard drives, fairly inexpensive, and also to one page that shows what is now "average" size, 1 terabyte and up size hard drives... all of which can be partitioned with the software that comes with the hard drive... you can make a smaller, 30 gigabyte partition on the new drive and then install Photoshop 7 on that smaller partition.

Partitioning your existing hard drive is not that complicated, but like I said, you'd have to put in the Windows 7 installation disk, choose to format the hard drive and wipe it clean, then there is a partition option, which lets you create any number of smaller hard drives within your big, internal hard drive... then it installs Windows 7... I have done that on a Windows computer and it's not that hard, but the drawback is that you have to blank out and re-install everything... to partition a hard drive, re-formatting it and starting completely fresh is the only way to do it.

But with a new plug-in hard drive (NOT a FLASH drive), it is already blank, so, with Lacie hard drives, for example, they come with software that simply and easily allows you to partition the new hard drive so you can make a smaller partition to run your older apps from.

Below are a few links to smaller, cheaper hard drives, but on the first link to the Lacie hard drive website, the link goes to inexpensive hard drives that still are huge, at 1 terabyte and up... but like I said, that size can easily be partitioned in to smaller little hard drive spaces. Even with a 300 gigabyte or 500 gigabyte hard drive, you'd probably still have to partition it, since Photoshop 7 was created when hard drives were at a maximum of 200 or 300 gigabytes, usually smaller... and the 1 terabyte drives are about the same price as the few 300 or 500 gigabyte drives that are out there... I did find one USB, 500 gig Verbatim hard drive for only $59.95 and the others are between $100 and $200.

LaCie - Desktop External Hard Drives and RAID - USB 2.0, FireWire, FireWire 800 & eSATA

JR.com: Verbatim 500GB USB/FireWire 3.5" HD in Hard Drives

JR.com: Verbatim 500GB USB Portable HDD in Hard Drives

JR.com: Verbatim 320G USB Portable HDD 2.5" Blu in Hard Drives

So remember, don't get a FLASH drive to run PS 7 from... some newer apps can run from FLASH drive to be compatible with new FLASH memory hard drives that are in some of the newer computers, but FLASH drives are no good for running older or even allot of the current applications.

Let me know how it goes,

digi

As mentioned previously you can install a virtual PC and install XP mode, which will be fine for Photoshop 7, albeit a little slow.

I have tried the version with Windows 7 64-bit though and it worked fine.

If you wanted to go the virtual route, more details here: Windows Virtual PC: Home Page

Hi Artsie, PooMan and Vixen,

I'm no expert on anything, but isn't trying experimental registry hacks sort of like playing Russian Rulet?... one wrong character and the computer is inoperable.

And if, like the Adobe forum expert has advised, Photoshop 7 isn't opening because it is on a hard drive that is just too big for it to understand, then would running it in a virtual Windows XP environment make it work ?... in other words, was PS 7 able to run somehow on a super large hard drive in XP ?... and if it would, would one also need to have a copy of Windows XP to install after installing Virtual PC ?

PooMan, what is the size of the hard drive or the partition that you are running PS 7 on in Windows 7 now ?

Thanks,

digi

PooMan,
Is your PS 7 installed on a smaller partition on the 1 TB hard drive ?... or is its scratch disk directed at a smaller partition ?

I know even as a savy, but non-expert PC user, I have been instructed not to try registry hacks for fear of what they can do. I know experts have the confidence and knowledge to do registry hacks and they know how to back up the registry and re-impliment it if there is a problem, but I don't have that knowlege or confidence to go there. And I believe that those that don't have the actual knowledge to do registry hacks, but they do it anyway, are just too uninformed to know what they might do if they get it wrong.

If the problem is indeed due to PS 7 not understanding a super big hard drive (or what is today's average size hard drive), as Adobe-Noel has suggested, then a small partition on a new, cheap USB or Firewire hard drive seems like it would be the safest bet.

I'm just thinking of safety, versus expertise, versus expense.

digi

PooMan and Artsie,

Okay, this makes it sound as if installing the trial version of Photoshop CS5 and setting the cache setting there, then opening Photoshop 7 up successfully is the scenario that would work.

How would one want to set the memory cache settings then in PS CS5 ?... would it still be the same way that you showed in your previous post picture of the memory cache settings in Photoshop 7 ?

Also, this is all outside of what Artsieladie feels comfortable doing, but it does seem this trial PS CS5 route would be the safest, cheapest and easiest way of doing it.

PS: PooMan, what app do you use to get the nifty magified detail of the desired area of your screen shots... is that a newer feature within PS CS5 ?

digi

Zikes! Corel Draw?!... in a world of Photoshop discussions, you're using Corel Draw?

Just kidding, it's good to have as many tools at one's disposal as possible... is that an automatic feature in CD or did you just do it manually?

digi