Please note: The information in the original blog entry below is no longer relevant as the "Copy to Hard Drive" functionality is now activated from within the program.
- Make certain you have installed all recent updates.
- Go to Preferences>Installation Options and follow the instructions. You will be able to copy your DVDs to local or external hard drives.
- If you previously used the manual workaround(s) described below, you do not have to re-copy; however, should you decide to, you will need to uninstall the program and the files you copied manually prior to using the CNG application's functionality.This is an update to the copying instructions previously posted for Mac Tiger/Leopard users. Please note that these instructions do not work with the Snow Leopard operating system. If you are running Snow Leopard, please follow the Updated PC/Snow Leopard instructions instead.
REQUIREMENTS: First, be sure that you meet these requirements:
A Mac running 10.4.11 or higher
CNG application v1.12 or higher (check "Preferences" in your program to see if you have the latest version)
The 6 DVD The Complete National Geographic set (Note: This app will not copy from the external hard drive CNG product)
50 GB of free space in your home folder (usually /Users/yourUserName)
COPYING THE DVDs: To copy all the content from the 6 DVDs to your Mac's hard drive:
Close the CNG app if it is currently running by clicking "Exit".
Go to: www.nationalgeographic.com/updates/products/cng120/CNG_DVD_Installer_RC7.zip
(Users opening through Safari may have difficulty opening the link. If you experience problems, try using FireFox or Internet Explorer instead.
Download the file to anyplace on your hard drive and run the file.
Insert Disc 1 once the application requests it.
Wait for some indication that the DVD is being copied -- you'll either see the "percentage complete" increase, or the number of megabytes copied will increase. It may take anywhere from 30-90 seconds for the program to read each DVD and each disk will take between 30-45 minutes to copy.
When prompted to swap the next disc, do so.
Continue until all 6 DVDs have been copied.
Once the full-content installation is complete, you should be able the launch the The Complete National Geographic and browse to any issue without requiring any DVDs.
A few notes...
Hard Drive Space: Be sure that you have at least 50 GB of free space on your hard drive. If you don't, the application will will not proceed with the installation.
Cancellation: When the application starts again after being cancelled, it will not continue if you have less than 50GB of space free. If you have already copied 3 DVDs, it will not re-start unless you have room for 6 DVDs.
DVD Icon: Once the full content is installed, The Complete National Geographic DVD icon in the top menu bar may not change. The icon may still read "No DVD" (if none is inserted) or "DVD x" if a CNG DVD is in the drive.
Uninstall: Uninstalling The Complete National Geographic will NOT uninstall the DVDs you copied.
I have the DVD box of National Geographic Magazines. I would like to read them on my ipad. IS this possible?
THanks
I have a new iMac 27" computer with 850 GB of free space but I have not been able to install the complete set so that I do not have to switch disks...can you please advise....
My computer is running the latest Mac software system 10.6.3
Kira, we don't have enough information from you to help you based on this comment. Please use the "Ask The CNG Support Team" link in the left sidebar and one of us will be happy to reach out to you!
Hey,
So I'm not sure if I'm having the same problem as Pamela, but I just copied the discs onto my hard drive (also a Mac). Nothing shows up in my applications about it now though and when I put the actual discs in and double click it on the desktop, it shows two files: AUTORUN.INF and disc2. When I click on disc2 it shows: contents.cngDisc and images. Some more opening and I am lead to the dead-end message: "There is no default application specified to open the document: " I did have a minor problem installing at first and had to start over after the first disc was finished. Maybe I accidentally deleted something or that somehow lead to this issue, I'm not very tech-savvy...
Sergio,
Please use the "Ask the CNG Support Team" link in the left sidebar to make your request and someone will be in touch.
Hi guys,
I have received this beautiful gift for xmas but unfortunately when i go to DVD#5, my mac wont read it. I think there might be an error with this particular DVD. Since its was a gift from my parents i don't have the receipt to take it back t costco and even if i would, i know they are out of it. How should i proceed?
My copy procedure is stalled at 33MB on the first disc.
What the heck?
Please fix this!
Holding down the Option key while clicking OK does NOT work like you think it is. All this is doing is telling the application to go get the information it needs from the Internet via Nat Geo's server. It is not accessing the information on your external drive. All of the information posted on these various blogs about copying the DVDs to the local drive (either external or in the cache folder) are INCORRECT. Yes, you are copying the information, but NO, the application is NOT going to read the information there. You can test this for yourself by just cutting off the Internet for a minute and then trying to browse an issue. So far, the ONLY way to copy the DVDs to the hard drive and actually have the application read them is to use either Disk Utility or Toast to make disc images of the DVDs, save these images wherever you want them, and then mount them whenever you are wanting to browse a magazine issue. The application will see these disc image files as the DVDs it is looking for and will not ask you to insert any discs. This is a kludgy workaround, but it is the only method that really does work. Everything else posted here about saving the discs' data to the cache folder and so on is INCORRECT, as the application will NOT make use of this copied data, so you're just wasting 50GB of hard drive space.
Here's a procedure that worked for me to install the DVD material on an external hard drive.
1. Copy the "discx" (disc1, disc2, etc) folder from each DVD to a folder on your external drive.
2. Use the Finder to navigate to /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.nationalgeographic.products.
cng120.68B1CC4249876152EBE333BD4B7514ADB4D94062.1
/Local Store/cache
3. Copy the "thumbs" folder and any other files in the cache folder to the folder on your external drive where you saved the DVD content in step 1.
4. Rename the cache folder to something like "oldcache".
5. Open the terminal app and navigate to /Users/username/Library
/Preferences/com.nationalgeographic.products.
cng120.68B1CC4249876152EBE333BD4B7514ADB4D94062.1
/Local Store
6. Type in the following command: "ln -s /Volumes/[ext drive]/[cng folder] cache" where "[ext drive]" is the name of your external drive and "[cng folder]" is the folder where you saved the dvd content in Step 1. For example, my external drive is called "Media" and the folder I used was "CNG" so the command I typed was "ln -s /Volumes/Media/CNG cache". Note that you must be in the "Local Store" folder referred to in the previous step when you execute this command.
This creates a symbolic link from the cache folder where the CNG application looks for content to the folder on your external drive where you saved the dvd content. Seemed to work for me! However, when I start the app, it still asks to insert the first dvd, but holding down the option key when you click ok seems to get around this.
Dear Natgeo support team,
I am trying to install the DVD collection on an external drive.
I suppose this is possible without installing the operating system on this drive.
Could you indicate the procedure to follow, since you indicate the the of a cache.
Kind Regards and happy New Year.
Michel
The program you provide for copying the DVD material to a hard drive is essentially useless for me - I wish to put the material on an external hard drive since my internal drive is full. The copy program has no options for choosing the installation location. Swapping DVDs is a nuisance and increases the risk of damage to the disks. This functionality can't be very hard to provide. Will this be an option in an upcoming revision?
I am a mac user and obviously having some problems...I went through the process of downloading the installation from the website but now for some reason I am unable to read any of the articles on disc one and disc one only.
will this install on a mac G4? it is a 1.8ghz (upgraded processor) or is it strickly for intel machines??
Thanks
Dear CNG Support Team - My only complaint was that no where on the packaging did it mention that 50Gb !!! free space was required to run the program . . thank goodness my new iMac came with a 2Terabyte hard drive. I was wondering . . is there an option to install the whole thing to a separate ext. hard drive? So far I have enjoyed the reading experience . . but will there be future opportunities to purchase add. digitized copies?? to complete each decade of reading. I also really enjoyed the bonus disc as well. Thanks so much for this opportunity . . .
Thanks! That would do it. Seems to work now. For other readers, I have the same configuration as Pamela above. I too had an install problem initially, but I READ the FAQ, downloaded the new installer, and the package works GREAT! Looking forward to the addition of a page rotation capability.
Is there a way to install this to my external Hard Drive?
Lee, our apologies. When we compared the link to the one provided in the FAQ document, we found a typo in the one we posted here. Thanks for letting us know.
Pamela, first, we're so sorry you had so many issues. We're writing to you directly via email, but want to post a reply here in case you see this first. Did you read the FAQ documents related to Mac systems with 10.4.11? There is a special installer. We're sending that to you via email. If necessary, we'll be happy to call you.
Dear National Geographic,
I have gone back to Costco in Warrenton Oregon to get new packages of the Complete National Geographic twice. At first I thought I had a faulty disc. The second time I realized something larger was wrong. I have the required operating system, Mac X 10.4.11 with an Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz processor. I also happen to have Adobe Air on my computer already. I have lots of free space.
I am returning the DVD's to Costco and warning other Mac users that your Complete Nat. Geographic doesn't work on Macintoshes.
Nothing happens when I click on the application following the directions.
This has happened on three packages and on three different macbooks.
Dissapointed at the quality in a NG Product
Pamela
Above url yields "File not found"