Brian

That's an old marketing trick to get people to spend more money. The are banking on the "Apple Tax" which is the amount of people that are willing to pay extra, just because they spent a lot of by buying a Macintosh to begin with. This practice was a HUGE thing back in the 1990's. People would pay $30-$50 more for the same exact damn Hardware, except one was labeled "For Macintosh," or some similar verbiage, and the other stated "Windows." What's the difference? Hardware-wise: Absolutely nothing. Software-wise: The Manufacture just partitioned and formatted the HD for you. So if the price was exactly the same between what you saw on Amazon vs B&H, you are fine. If the drive on Amazon was $399.99 and the one on B&H that was "For Macintosh" and retailed for $449.99...you wasted $50. Why? Because you could do the same exact thing that the Manufacture did with the "Windows" Drive (to turn it into a Macintosh Drive) yourself...FOR FREE. Takes like 5min your 1st time with Utility Tools already built into the macOS. Fortunately, this is not the case, as the prices are the same on both Amazon & B&H. *Phew!!* Anyways...back to your new HD. Yes, we will need to delete the existing Partition and create a new one. Why? Because the APFS is really for SSD Drives / Flash Media Based Drives and NOT a traditional spinning HD Platter Drive, which is what you have. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is what you want for a 7200 RPM Traditional HD. It's not a huge deal that you will kill your data, but from a performance perspective, it's not ideal. So here is what we are gonna do: Copy over any utility software that's currently on the Sandisk 12TB EHD and just put it somewhere temporarily, like on your Mac Desktop. Will we need this software? Probably not. Do you want the fancy HD Icon that Sandisk gives you? Absolutely. Head to your Applications Folder >> Utilities >> Disk Utillity. It should look something like this, or something very similar: From there, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SELECTED THE NEW SANDISK 12TB DRIVE THAT'S FORMATTED TO APFS. I can not stress this enough, you do NOT want to be working on the wrong drive!!! In fact, I recommend that you disconnect any other external drive, temporarily, until we finish this. Once you are ready to delete the existing partition, and have selected the correct HD, right-click and select: Delete APFS Volume. A Warning Message will appear. Click Delete: Another pop-up box with the results should appear, with the words "Operation successful." Click Done. Now select the Drive once again. It might have a weird name at this point, that's perfectly fine. Click the Erase Button at the top: Give the HD a name, like Sandisk 12TB (Or something obvious.) Choose MacOS Extended (Journaled) from the drop-down list next to the word Format: Another Pop-up Box will appear, confirming your choices: You want: Name: Your Choice Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID Partition Map Click the Erase Button, another pop-up box will appear, let it do its thing. There should be another box that says, "Operation Successful." Click Done. The Drive should appear on your Mac Desktop. Then right-click on the drive, select "Get Info."Drag the fancy Sandisk Icon from your Desktop to the little HD Icon in the "Get Info" Box, in the upper left corner. The default Icon should disappear and the Sandisk Icon should be visible. Start copying files over to it. You are done! Edit: Just think!!! Manufactures would charge about another $40 or so do to this exact thing that you can do for free!!

You need to get calibrated. Seriously. Mac screens are "cool" out of the box, which makes you edit photos a bit too warm to compensate. Also, do you have a physical set of test prints to hold while you look at your display(s)? Because it's important. Even though you might be a "Digital Files Only" Photographer, there is no way to fully check things unless you have several test prints, from different printing companies; yes, even if you calibrate. When you Calibrate, the Calibration Software will create its own profile (for both displays) and you ignore what Apple gives you by default. That being said, I'd try setting both to "Photography (P3-D65): Designed for typical digital photography workflows using the P3 color space with a D65 white point" and compare your test prints. Hopefully you will be close enough to get you through the time you are saving for a Calibrite Display Pro HL (CCDIS3HL) Calibration Tool. In reality, you are going to have to fiddle and figure out which one to use. D65 may work for you...or not. I'm at D55 which goes against everything Damien teaches, but it makes my screen match my prints, albums AND what I see on screen. See how the test prints come in handy? I like CPQ Professional Imaging. Color Inc Pro Lab & UnitPrints are also decent. Here are some reviews given by our members: Print Lab Reviews. I'd recommend getting test prints from at least 3 labs, just to see who matches the best. I would also AVOID MILLERS. Yes, I know their customer service is amazing...but the truth it, they are DAMN NEAR IMPOSSIBLE to get matching with the current Mac Displays!! Here is a quote from Damien about Millers: Source (opens Facebook.) You also have to take into consideration of things like the paint color on your walls, fabrics around your computer and what color temperature you edit in. My favorite Light to work in is between 4000K-4200K. 3000K is too warm for me and 6500K light bulbs are too blue to my eyes. I think Damien also edits around the 4000K-4200K bulbs as well. See The Light around your Computer for more information. I've also gone as far as to paint my walls a Neutral Gray to kill color casts. In fact, my paint color of choice is: Sherwin-Williams Color #7071 | Gray Screen Now, painting your walls and going to great lengths at this point is a bit overkill. Right now you should be saving for a Calibrator, and getting Test Prints to compare your screen against. For now, try the Photography D65 (if it's available for both screens) and fiddle.

Yep, doesn't surprise me.

That's the current version of the HD that I own, though I have heard mixed reviews about the current G-Drives since Sandisk bought them. Regardless, I'd still buy one. Give it a shot. Let me know when you get one, I want to make sure the partition is setup correctly.

Yeah, Windows 11 does suck, and we are stuck with it. As far as PS, going from 14.5 to 14.6 usually isn't THAT big of a deal, it's when it goes from 14.xx to 15.0 is where the biggest problems occur. From what Adobe has released about the changes to Lightroom 14.5 from 14.4...the one you are most affected is "Generate Previews using GPU." It seems with each and every update Adobe does, relies more and more on having a current (and beefy) Video Card; in fact, I feel it's more important now than the choice of CPU! Which is why you were having such grief with LR. A 3070 can still hold its own with many video games...but Adobe's products? Notsomuch... *Sigh* It's only money, right?

You aren't gonna like the price of switching over to a Mac, keep that in mind. Looks like you got the latest and greatest with NVIDIA. That's what I would have gotten if I were in your shoes. Keep in mind, Adobe pushes out crap now that often is buggy. So it might take an update or two for things to settle down. That's why I recommend to turn off any auto-updates from the Adobe Mothership App; this way you can wait a little to see if any issues are reported or patches (update to the update) are released. While I feel it's important to be conservative, you also don't want to get so far out of date that it causes you problems. It's all a balancing act, IMHO. Keep me posted.

So what did you end up getting? I'm curious. If it is a NVIDIA Card, definitely use the NVIDIA Studio Drivers that I linked to above and NOT the default ones that come with the Card; those are meant for Video Games and General Computing. The Studio Drivers were created for Adobe's Products like Photoshop & Lightroom.

Yeah, firmware updates are done with the Lenovo Update Software. Microsoft’s updates for stuff like that is questionable at best.

There is software that's Linux-based, and free, that will write to all the sectors on a HD, which zeros out the data. I have used a program called DBAN. The trick is that you need access to the HD for it to work. WD External Drives are notorious for having the worst cases/USB interface. The Drive itself might be fine; you just can't get to it and it will require you removing the HD, hooking up a USB to SATA Cable (or installing it into another computer,) booting off the DBAN CD and telling it to Nuke the drive. It's a process, and is fairly "Geeky." If you are looking for easy / wizard based, you are likely gonna have to pay for that software.

I HATE FUCKING HP LAPTOPS!!! Once upon a time, like 20 years ago, they used to be really good. Then HP switched to Eco-Friendly Solder, meaning it's not Lead Based. Which causes so many weird electrical issues, like the power connector developing cold solder joints so the damn thing won't charge. In today's world, I'd never use one. My clients always seem to complain about them and the built-in trackpads just sporadically cause the cursor to jump. It's such a PITA. Personally...I've had the best luck with Lenovo Laptops consistently, that's why I'm telling you to wait. Trust me - I hate wasting money on this shit.

If you have an access panel, and can get to the HD, you can pull the HD and smack it with a hammer. Or get a USB to SATA Cable (They run about $20 or so) and Nuke the HD. Other than that, you will likely need to take it to a place that does electronic recycling.

Well, maybe not a 5070, but since the 4070 cards are tough to find...so the short answer is: Yes. Or quit upgrading each and every time when Adobe releases a new version. Remember, Adobe Photoshop is a Professional Program. Lightroom is to a degree. In either case, all the stupid AI Crap they keep adding to add "Value" so you keep your Subscription active, compounds the problem. Adobe expects you to have a current computer, with current hardware...and that is usually on a 2-3 year cycle. This is why I recommend such expensive and powerful computer setups, for both Mac & Windows; I'm not only building a computer that will run the current version of PS/LR, but one 3-5 years from now...maybe even around the 7 year mark. You also have to keep in mind, the NVIDIA RTX 3070 was released at the end of October in 2020. That's almost 5 years! Video Cards are now "Computers within Computers," so you have a 5 year old Computer, that identifies as a Video Card, and the current version of PS / LR is killing it. Same difference if we were talking about a 5 year old CPU. Make sense? At this point you have two options: Upgrade your Video Card to at least a NVIDIA RTX 4080 with 8-12GB of Dedicated Video RAM. (That's if you can find one.) Also use the NVIDIA Studio Drivers, which are meant for Adobe's Products. Downgrade your LR / Photoshop to the last version that worked well AND STAY THERE UNTIL YOU GET BETTER HARDWARE. Remember, Adobe's Products have changed; it's not CS6 any longer...where you can run it for almost a DECADE without worrying about Hardware. Now with each and every major release, your Hardware becomes obsolete quicker. Years ago, PS would do a Major Update every 4 years or so, with a incremental update around 2 years. Now you'll get a whole new version every year and things just move so much faster. For example, Adobe could release a major update in October, come out with the mid-version around Feb/March and then release the next version in that August (or whatever.) Instead of 4-5 years, you are getting whole version upgrades within 10 months or so, instead of 4 years. See how things are now? At the end of the day, it's all about money. Whether it's Adobe or Hardware Manufacturers, Hell...even Microsoft with Windows 11 is forcing people to buy new Hardware for it to run well. It never ends. It's only money, right?

Looks good. IPS Screens are more expensive and are tough to find on laptops. This is why we have "IPS-Like;" they are cheaper to manufacture and with the Tariffs on China, many manufactures are looking to make as much profit as possible. I'd get that Lenovo as soon as you can.

There's your answer. Especially the Graphics Card. Adobe's products are using GPU for a performance boost, especially if you keep upgrading every time it's offered. I'm still on PS 2023!! I won't dare upgrade because my 2017 iMac won't be able to handle it and PS CC 2023 pushes things as it is. This problem you are facing is only going to get worse each and every time you upgrade.

Damien is correct. Not to mention the stupid LED Rainbow Keyboard causing color casts when editing photos. I'd wait until Sept. Buy it Right-Buy it Once!