[Martin Rowell]

I'm not sure I know enough to ask the question but here goes...

I have about 28 gigs of TIFFs on a HFS+ Firewire drive. These TIFFs are cataloged using an app called Cumulus. We'll be converting the Cumulus data base to Access and running the whole thing off of PCs.

Is there any issue when we copy the TIFFs to the NTFS drive that will prevent the new Access data base from pointing to the new drive?

thanks in advance for any help.

[tooki]

That depends on how Cumulus linked to the files.

That said, moving to an Access database is a harebrained idea, it being the lousiest, least reliable, most-proprietary database you could find!

tooki

[redJag]

Originally posted by Martin Rowell:
Is there any issue when we copy the TIFFs to the NTFS drive that will prevent the new Access data base from pointing to the new drive?

You'll probably have to re-add them to Cumulus. I agree with the no-access-sentiment, however.

[SMacTech]

What he ^^^ said. Take tooki's advice and stay away from Access. What a nightmare it was for us, when we had to use it years ago for an accounting system the new CFO brought with her to the company. She convinced the CEO that it was the bee's knees, but it wasn't and she left before we converted to an accounting program using mySQL database on Linux.

[CatOne]

Originally posted by Martin Rowell:
I'm not sure I know enough to ask the question but here goes...

I have about 28 gigs of TIFFs on a HFS+ Firewire drive. These TIFFs are cataloged using an app called Cumulus. We'll be converting the Cumulus data base to Access and running the whole thing off of PCs.

Is there any issue when we copy the TIFFs to the NTFS drive that will prevent the new Access data base from pointing to the new drive?

thanks in advance for any help.

You're going to be putting this info in Access?!

28 gigs?!

javascript:smilie('')

Really, that is an AWFUL idea. Access is NOT designed for that, what are your issues with Cumulus? Is this some PC IT guy's idea of a power grab? I would REALLY REALLY urge you to consider the solution -- what you're doing. It's the wrong way to go (even if you do want to go to PCs). It sounds like someone has a pet project, and wants to use you as a guinea pig.

[thePurpleGiant]

Agreed with the others. Has someone at your work (or even you) just completed a MSDN certification (aka Microsoft Marketing course) and now thinks Access is the top solution for all databases? Access would be a nightmare for 28GB of data. 28GB

[Martin Rowell]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by thePurpleGiant:
[B]Has someone at your work (or even you) just completed a MSDN certification (aka Microsoft Marketing course) and now thinks Access is the top solution for all databases? QUOTE]

AND..."Is this some PC IT guy's idea of a power grab?"

Bingo!

Look, I would much rather keep everything on Cumulus...not that Cumulus is a joy to work with. It has the capability to do everything we need.

But the IT folks first of all see it as a Mac application, (it isn't), and need a third-party software to make it work on the server. They say they can make it work if it's in any MS-friendly format, hence Access.

So maybe I should repost this as a Cumulus question? I've yet to find anyone on this board that's familiar with it.

[SMacTech]

Find another replacement, regardless of platform, but Access suXors bad. I don't know anything about and never heard of Cumulus, except the kind in the sky!

[alex_kac]

Tell them from this database administrator that Access will fall flat on its face with anything over a few tens of megs in size. Especially pictures. They are smoking crack if they think it will work...

[ChrisF]

Originally posted by Martin Rowell:
But the IT folks first of all see it as a Mac application, (it isn't), and need a third-party software to make it work on the server. They say they can make it work if it's in any MS-friendly format, hence Access.
So maybe I should repost this as a Cumulus question? I've yet to find anyone on this board that's familiar with it.

They're so uninformed it's scary. Cumulus server runs on OS X, Windows, Linux, or Solaris about equally well (Cumulus is about as far from a Mac-specific program as there is). If the goal is to get Cumulus server running on Windows, it should just be a matter of moving your database to the new server, but the details of that are difficult to address in this forum- asset management is quite a complex task.
Cumulus is the industry standard for digital asset management and it works in conjunction with a lot of other products to do a lot of things; it's very customizable. It would be beneficial for your IT people to just contact Canto if they need help figuring out what product they need if your organization has a specific need for Cumulus to do something other than basic image cataloging. There are several certified Canto partners listed on their website who can most certainly assist with this sort of a project.
If your Cumulus catalog has keywords and the like already done, someone needs to stop and figure out the costs of getting that data reestablished in a new database. That sort of work is not trivial.
Frankly, I can't think of a worse idea than to try to get 28GB of images cataloged in Access.
Chris

[CharlesS]

Just let them do it, for God's sake. If it crashes and burns, then so it does. It will be that IT idiot that will get fired for it, not you, since you've already advised against doing this and warned them about what will happen ahead of time. Getting in a fight with your bosses, though, could get YOU fired.

[Martin Rowell]

Thanks to all for the opinions...I share most of them.

But the question is can I move the media to NTFS and retain the pointers?

[tooki]

That depends entirely on how Cumulus links to files.

Besides, how would that help? If it's all going into Access anyway, all the Cumulus linkage will be lost anyway.

tooki