# Big trouble for me



## joev (Jul 22, 2011)

I am in big trouble.  I need someone to explain to me in "very simple step by step language" the right way to straighten out my LR3.  Here's the challenge:
I have added a new external hard drive to my system and thought that I was copying all of my info from my old external drive to the new one. (did this by drag and drop from one hard drive to the another) and it took a long, long time.  Now it seems that I am showing "?" on an awful lot of images in LR3.  LR3 just doesn't know where I've put the files. 

(You've heard people talk about someone with a little knowledge being dangerous - well I'm the one they were talking about) I keep doing things that I think will correct the situation and all I seem to be doing is making it worse.

In "VERY SIMPLE STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS" would someone please show me how to correct this problem.   Video tutorials that I can play over and over might help too!   THANK YOU


----------



## MarkNicholas (Jul 22, 2011)

First thing I would do would be to put a file of a known name into the location where your files were and then drag it as you did before. Then do a search for that file. Hopefully you will find it together with your missing photos.


----------



## clee01l (Jul 22, 2011)

Joey,  LR has a record of where the file were when you loaded them into the LR catalog. It still thinks they should be in that location.   If you copied the complete folder structure  from the old EHD to the new EHD it should be s simple task to reconnect. 
 Please answer the following questions:

Did the old EHD have a different Drive letter from the new one?  Does it still?
Do you know the location of the LR catalog?  Can you tell us what that is?
Can you find your master images on the new EHD?
Can you post an Expanded view of the Folders Panel from LR using SnipIt to create a JPEG of a portion of your screen?
Armed with a little information, we'll get you back on track.


----------



## joev (Jul 22, 2011)

MarkNicholas:    Thank you for the reply.  As you can see by my reply to Clee01, I'm really not sure what I'm doing.  I really do need simple answer with the understanding that I am not computer literate at all.


----------



## clee01l (Jul 22, 2011)

joev said:


> ...As you can see by my reply to Clee01...


 Was there a reply?


----------



## joev (Jul 22, 2011)

I thought I did a couple of hours ago but will do again.  As you will tell, I am not very computer literate.
1) Olde EHD is letter "F" and new EHD is lettered "H".
2) Not sure were to look for location of LR catalog.  Do I just open the "f" and "H" drive to see if it shows in there?
3)What do you mean by "master images"?  I created a folder on the "H" drive and called it PHOTOS GO HERE and there are now files in it that I dragged and dropped from the "F" drive. Then I got impatient and just dragged and dropped the entire "F" drive onto the "H" drive not using LR3.
4)I would be more than happy to post an Expanded view of the panels except I don't know how. Show me how and I'll do it.


----------



## clee01l (Jul 22, 2011)

joev said:


> I thought I did a couple of hours ago but will do again.  As you will tell, I am not very computer literate.
> 1) Olde EHD is letter "F" and new EHD is lettered "H".


This might be a simple fix  provided the folder tree on H:\ looks just like the Folder tree on F:\.  We are going to need to help LR find the folders in their new location.  Sometimes changeing the drive letter of the New EHD to be the Drive letter of the Old EHD is all that it takes.  I won't know that untill I have more information.





> 2) Not sure were to look for location of LR catalog.  Do I just open the "f" and "H" drive to see if it shows in there?


Following along in the Lightroom menu {Edit}{Catalog Settings...} On the General Tag  is the location of your catalog with a button {Show}. Clicking on the {Show} button will open the folder containing the folder that contains your *.lrcat file (which is the catalog file. Please provide that complete path  beginning with the Drive Letter





> 3)What do you mean by "master images"?


Your master images are the ones you copied to your HD when you imported them.  The folder panel shows the folder tree where LR thinks these master image are located. I'm asking you to find outside of LR the same images that LR wants to point to in the Folders panel.





> I created a folder on the "H" drive and called it PHOTOS GO HERE and there are now files in it that I dragged and dropped from the "F" drive. Then I got impatient and just dragged and dropped the entire "F" drive onto the "H" drive not using LR3.


Did you do any of this inside of Lightroom? It is real important that you explain exactly what you did when you "dragged and dropped from the "F" drive". Was this in LR using the LR folder panels or was this outside of LR?   After you are expert in using the Snipping Tool (below) I'd like you to Open Windows Explorer to the folder you named "PHOTOS GO HERE " and snip a section of the screen that shows the Navigation Pane with the folder "PHOTOS GO HERE " expanded so we can see the sub folders





> 4)I would be more than happy to post an Expanded view of the panels except I don't know how. Show me how and I'll do it.



With Lightroom Open in the Library
Click on the Windows Start button/
In the "Search for Programs and Files" Search for "Snipping Tool" (without the quotes)
This should bring up the program "Snipping Tool.exe"
If you Right Click on it. you have a context menu that will permit you to "Pin to the Taskbar", "Pin to the Start Menu", or "Send To"  (the Desktop as a shortcut)
Choosing any one of these options will put it in a place where you can easily find it the next time.

If you Left Click, the program will open and your cursor will change to a cross-hair
Using the 'cross-hair cursor', draw a box around the folder panel in the Lightroom window.
When you finish drawing the box, the "Snip" will appear as an image in your Snipping tool window.
You can then save this as a JPEG on your desktop to use in your reply to this topic.

When replying to a topic, click on the "image" icon
to bring up a dialog window to attach your newly created JPEG.


----------



## joev (Jul 22, 2011)

2)Location: H:\Lightroom 2 Catalog     File Name: Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat
3) I did a couple of things: [a] I clicked on the start button>click on computers>click on the "F" drive>click on open - then I clicked on the start button again>click on computers then I dragged and dropped a few folders onto the "H" drive and waited for them to copy to the "H" drive.  * I went into LR3 click on IMPORT then I would click on a folder showing in the "F" drive - followed the path showing on the top of the screen- to copy to the new location HHOTOS GO HERE and then let LR import to the new folder.  [c] I also opened LR3 clicked on IMPORT then I click on some folders in the"C" drive-followed the path showing on the top of the screen -to move to the new location HHOTOS GO HERE and then let LR inport to the new folder; then [d] I got impatient clicked on the start button.clicked on computers.click on the "F" drive dragged and dropped the entire "F" drive to the new "H" drive and waited for it to copy.  It took over 20 hours to do so.  At this time I was still showing the question marks on some folders - I then remembered th FORUM and decided to ask for some help.  So here we are. NOW I am going to try to SNIP the left side of the LR screen {folders} and attached it.  Let me know if it works*


----------



## joev (Jul 23, 2011)

Clee01:   Is this the SNIP that you requested?


----------



## clee01l (Jul 23, 2011)

As you can see it did not work. Want to try again?


> When replying to a topic, click on the "image" icon
> 
> 
> 
> ...


To this I'll add:

When this dialog pops up, Click on {Choose file}, Navigate to the file, select it 
And when the file name appears  in this dialog window click  {Upload File(s)}  Note that there are two tabs  in the dialog. One is for web locations, the other is for your computer. make sure you are in the tab for your computer. 


It sounds like your catalog (and I suspect all your master images ) may be intact on your new drive in the same relative locations as before.  This is a good thing.  I need to see the screen shot of your LR Folders panel and the Windows Explorer navigation pane for H: Then, I think we can begin to point LR in the right direction.


----------



## joev (Jul 23, 2011)

I noticed that the SNIP of the LR folders does not show EHD "F" ?


----------



## joev (Jul 23, 2011)

Here's a SNIP of the LR import right side panel.  You will notice that the files under PHOTOS GO HERE are quite extensive. This is the top of the folder 

This is the snip of the bottom of the same PHOTOS GO HERE


----------



## clee01l (Jul 23, 2011)

I'm having trouble understanding  what the problem is exactly. in your folder, I expected to see Folders with (?) showing


Do you have a backup copy of your catalog prior to moving files around?  Can you open it and take a screen shot of the folder panel?

In the current catalog , are there missing photos?   Can you describe this in more detail?


----------



## joev (Jul 23, 2011)

Cletus,
I would like to thank you very much for all of the effort that you are putting into this.  I only wish that I was more computer savy.

  Here's a SNIP of the entire LR3 Screen in Library mode.  All of the images are showing (?).  I'm not sure what else you want me to send.

As far as the backup catalog is concerned I'm not sure where I should be looking for this.  Is it something that was automatically done?  I don't remember prompting any commands to do a backup.  I have two automatic backups-one is a Seagate Replica EHD and the other is Carbonite (online) backup. Should I be looking in them?

The reason I was adding this new "H" EHD was to replace my "F" EHD because the "F" hard drive started making a lot of loud clicking sounds and I thought that it might crash.  Thought it was going to be a  simple job.  Probably would have been if I asked for help before I starting doing what I "thought" I should do.


----------



## clee01l (Jul 24, 2011)

Joe,  It might be possible to start over.  It is possible based on what you said an earlier post that your old catalog that pointed correctly to the files on F:\ may still be on F:\   It might be easiest to start with that catalog and the old images still on F:\

I want you to do two things in your current catalog and report back:

In the menu click the following {File}{Open Recent}
This displays a list of ALL the Catalogs that you have opened recently.
Report back with a list of All the catalogs shown.
This will let me see if you have a catalog listed on F:\

I would like a count of the missing files in your current catalog
In the menu click the following {Library}{Find Missing Photos}
This will produce a collection named "Missing Photographs" in the Catalog Panel  On the right side of the item "Missing Photographs" is a count
Report that count number  back to this thread.

Lightroom offers a facility on close to make a backup copy of your catalog AFTER all database operations are complete  You should be using this to make a periodic backup of your catalog. Are you running these catalog backups (copys really) when your exit LR? If LR is open when Carbonite or the Seagate Replica EHD runs the backup, the catalog file that gets backed up might be in an unstable state and be corrupt and unusable. We won't venture there unless we have to.  FWIW, Carbonite will not back up an EHD.  

It does sound like your F:\ Drive is on its last legs. You've done the right thing. (or are at least in the process).  Also, most computer savvy people are not savvy enough to back up critical data.   That you had an internal backup AND an external back up  puts you up a rung or two on my ladder.  FWIW I have Carbonite too and a home backup.


----------



## joev (Jul 24, 2011)

1) List of ALL catalogs recently opened:
-Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat-H:\Lightroom 2 Catalog
-Test-2.lrcat
-Test-3.lrcat
-Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat-C:\Users\Joe\Pictures\Lightroom (I alaready checked and the Lightroom is on the C drive were indicated)

2) Missing Photographs count: 9645


----------



## clee01l (Jul 24, 2011)

Now that you have a Missing Photographs collection, click on it to view it in Grid view.
All of the photos in this collection should show a (?) in the upper right part of the gray matte surrounding the thumbnail. Right click on any one image to bring up a context menu.
Choose {Show in Explorer} from the menu.
In the Pop up dialog is the "Previous Location"  where LR thinks the image should be.  Please report that location
Click {Cancel} to close the Popup dialog.
Hopefully this will provide enough information that we can begin recovering your lost images.


----------



## joev (Jul 24, 2011)

Show in Explorer

  Previous location.  All of these are showing  "folder is empty".  I check each one individually.


----------



## clee01l (Jul 25, 2011)

Joe,  For the image that you clicked, LR was expecting to find the master image associated with it in the C:\Users\Owner\Pictures\... folder.   This is the primary HD and not either of the EHDs.  In trying to replace F:\ with H:\ did you move any folders out of "C:\Users\Owner\Pictures\"?
I am going to ask you to create three text files that will show us a listing of the folders in your Picture folder, your F:\ drive and your H:\ drive. 
To do this, I'm going to ask you to run a Windows Command program called 'cmd.exe'  with different parameters to create these three files on your desktop.  They are plain text files so you can open them with notepad to review what you are sending if you like.   Unfortunately these files though small are larger than the permitted file size to send as attachments, so you will have to upload each of them to this website http://www.filedropper.com  where you will receive a weblink that you can provide to me for each file.  I will be able to download each and review to advise further. 

In the box below are three lines of text.  You will need to paste each one, one at a time into the command field of the Run function.  You get to the Run Function by clicking on {the windows {Start} button and then {Run...} menu on the right side of the Start Menu.  When completed there will be three text files sitting on your Desktop "PicturesFolderListing.txt", "Fdirs.txt", and "Hdirs.txt".  These are the file I want to see next. 


```
cmd /c DIR %USERPROFILE%\Pictures /AD /S > %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\PicturesFolderListing.txt
cmd /c DIR F:\ /AD /S > %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\Fdirs.txt
cmd /c DIR H:\ /AD /S > %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\Hdirs.txt
```

To review what is needed next:

A explanation as to why Photos in your "C:\Users\Owner\Pictures\..." folder  might be missing
Create the lists of folders for the C:\Users\Owner\Pictures\... folder, F:\ drive and H:\ drive
Upload those list files to http://www.filedropper.com
Share the FileDropper links to those uploads with me.


----------



## joev (Jul 25, 2011)

Yes.  I did MOVE (not copy) the entire C:\Users\Owner\Pictures to the "H" drive.  I did this by opening LR3 clicking on IMPORT and then highlighting the folder then change the "copy" to "MOVE" then made the destination to the "H" PHOTOS GO HERE.

I am now going to attempt to run the 'cmd.exe' and hopefully be able to follow the rest of your instructions.  Let me know if you get what you need.

When I went to www.filedropper.com it requested that I "sign up" and give credit card info making a payment to : Jitendra Agrawal.  Is this something that you are requesting me to do?  And if I sign up for the "free 7 day trial" how do I cancel the subscription if I choose?


----------



## joev (Jul 25, 2011)

joev said:


> Yes.  I did MOVE (not copy) the entire C:\Users\Owner\Pictures to the "H" drive.  I did this by opening LR3 clicking on IMPORT and then highlighting the folder then change the "copy" to "MOVE" then made the destination to the "H" PHOTOS GO HERE.
> 
> I am now going to attempt to run the 'cmd.exe' and hopefully be able to follow the rest of your instructions.  Let me know if you get what you need.
> 
> ...


----------



## clee01l (Jul 25, 2011)

joev said:


> When I went to www.filedropper.com it requested that I "sign up" and give credit card info making a payment to : Jitendra Agrawal.  Is this something that you are requesting me to do?  And if I sign up for the "free 7 day trial" how do I cancel the subscription if I choose?


You don't need to sign up or give credit card information unless you want the extra services  Just click on the upload button and find and up;load your file(s)


----------



## joev (Jul 25, 2011)

I have since been able to pullup the remaining two files that your requested, but now I cannot sign in to "filedropper" to send them to you.  Filedropper will not let me send anything without signing in first.  I sent filedropper an email explaining that I cannot get signed in.  Their response was: Your email was submitted now sit back and relax will get back to you in "a day or two".


----------



## joev (Jul 27, 2011)

cleeo1,
I noticed that you received the Fdirs and the Hdirs but I didn't see if you got the _picturefolderlisting_  Did you receive it?


----------



## clee01l (Jul 27, 2011)

joev said:


> cleeo1,
> I noticed that you received the Fdirs and the Hdirs but I didn't see if you got the _picturefolderlisting_  Did you receive it?


I received all folder listings. they are still incomplete even though they contain more. I am not sure why.   I am still tryinf to digest what you havev sent and will respond with some recommendations when I can collect my thoughts.  Stay tuned...


----------



## joev (Jul 22, 2011)

I am in big trouble.  I need someone to explain to me in "very simple step by step language" the right way to straighten out my LR3.  Here's the challenge:
I have added a new external hard drive to my system and thought that I was copying all of my info from my old external drive to the new one. (did this by drag and drop from one hard drive to the another) and it took a long, long time.  Now it seems that I am showing "?" on an awful lot of images in LR3.  LR3 just doesn't know where I've put the files. 

(You've heard people talk about someone with a little knowledge being dangerous - well I'm the one they were talking about) I keep doing things that I think will correct the situation and all I seem to be doing is making it worse.

In "VERY SIMPLE STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS" would someone please show me how to correct this problem.   Video tutorials that I can play over and over might help too!   THANK YOU


----------



## joev (Jul 28, 2011)

Thank you for letting me know that you did receive all of the folder listings.  I can only imagine the challenges that are now being presented and please take all of the time that you need.

Just to add another twist and I'm not sure if this really means anything-I just received this notification on my screen:   Backup Drive G:  Backup failed.  This is the Seagate Replica (not the "F" or "H" drive) and when I checked the last backup log for July 25,26 & 27th it shows that everything either failed or was showing error.


----------



## clee01l (Jul 28, 2011)

Joe, I've had a chance to review your folder listings.  For reasons that I can't explain, none of them actually gave a complete listing.  I have run this same command on my most extensive drive and it runs to completion showing over 344,000 directories and over 800,000 lines of text.   Still, I think I have enough to make some recommendations based upon my observations.

Earlier you gave me a list of your recently opened catalogs:

```
--H:\Lightroom 2 Catalog\Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat-
--C:\Users\Joe\Pictures\Lightroom Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat
```

This brings up another imponderable.  In one of the screen shots of missing image files LR referenced a location: "C:\Users\Owner\Pictures\08 15 08"
Id there another user on your PC named "Owner" with a separate Pictures folder  and perhaps a separate copy of the LR catalog?  User "Joe" will not normally have access you user "Owner's" files. Or anything else in that users 'home folders'.


From the folder listings it also appears that you probably have Catalogs in:

```
-- H:\Lightroom
-- H:\Lightroom 2 Catalog
```
and of course this repeats in

```
-- F:\Lightroom
-- F:\Lightroom 2 Catalog
```


Also on H:\ there are folders H:\PHOTOS GO HERE  and  H:\Pictures.  Since the folder listing are incomplete, I can only guess at the contents.  Quite possibly there are Catalogs and additioonal duplicate images there too.


As for regular catalog backups, it appears that you have not run the LR backup since 2010-04-19 2149 (over a year ago).


In browsing your folder tree, I cam across entries like these:



```
Directory of H:\06 23 08
07/21/2011  08:57 AM    <DIR>          2008 09 10
07/21/2011  08:57 AM    <DIR>          2008 09 10 - Copy
07/21/2011  08:58 AM    <DIR>          2008 09 12
07/21/2011  08:58 AM    <DIR>          2008 09 12 - Copy
```



```
Directory of F:\06 23 08
09/25/2010  04:14 PM    <DIR>          2008 09 10
06/07/2011  03:02 PM    <DIR>          2008 09 10 - Copy
07/03/2010  08:39 AM    <DIR>          2008 09 12
07/01/2010  08:18 PM    <DIR>          2008 09 12 - Copy
```


From this I can only surmise that you not only have partially duplicated F:\ to H:\ but also at some time in the past, you managed to duplicate folder contents too. .


Before you can go too much further, you will need to rectify this multitude of duplicate image files scattered over three HDs.  Now the question becomes, "What to do your your LR catalog(s)?"  With 0ver 9000 missing files, it might be difficult to make sense of the catalog.  If you start over, you will lose all your edits, keywords, collections, etc. If you do start over you can import into one of the default date named folder schemes and LR will not import duplicates if you have that checkbox checked and use copy to create a new folder structure so the the path/filename is always going to be unique.
If you want to recover your best catalog, then the only way I can think to do this would be for you to manually reconstruct and populate the folder structure that LR expects to use to find these master image files.  It will not be a trivial task.  With a copy of your catalog file "Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat" I can  provide a listing of the the folders that LR want to have and it will be up to you to find those folders and place them in the proper position (using Windows Explorer) to reconstruct the proper folder tree.   Even having done this, there will probably still be missing image files some may not be resolvable.


In Summary, you need to do the following:

Perhaps clear up the User Mystery : Lightroom wants paths for user "Joe\Pictures" (i presume) and "Owner\Pictures"
Choose which method you want to use to create a workable catalog for Lightroom
Undergo a massive effort to declutter your image files, identify duplicates, isolate them and eventually delete them.
Let me know how you want to proceed. 


On your last note, I don't know what is happening with your Drive G:\ Seagate Replica.. Some suggestions though.  I don;t know how Seagate replica manages back ups or what you are attempting to back up. The Target Drive (G:\) might be full, Because of moves etc, Source folders might be exooected that are no longer there.


----------



## joev (Jul 28, 2011)

Cletus,
I thought that all of my troubles were connected to my trying to add the new "H" drive and therefore I didn't talk about anything that happened prior to my trying to add the drive but, based on your comments, it may be neccessary for me to explain some things that happened before I added the drive.  Maybe that will clear up some of the mystery.

I have had occasion to contact Adobe (in a land other than the US) for a few issues in the past and it seems that among other things all these "technicians" wanted to do was create new users on my system for some reason that I have yet to discover.  If you've ever had to deal with them than I'm sure you know what I mean.  Because of that there are actually 3 users on my computer and they are:  Administrator1; Owner; and Joe so that may be the cause of some of these problems.  The user that comes up when I sign on now is JOE.

I have a few horror stories that kept me in contact with over 19 different "techs" over a period of 3 and a half weeks and up to and including a full system recovery (twice)

Do we need to do the folder listings for each user? Would that help?  If there are things happening that you cannot explain you can imagine how confused I am.  If you need me to try to recall all of the things that happened with the "techs" let me know and I'll try to do so.

It doesn't look like there will be any simple solutions and I am not sure how I want to proceed to correct the situation.  I guess that I'm looking to your direction for me.

Do we need to clear up the "users" situation before we attempt anythng else?


----------



## clee01l (Jul 28, 2011)

Let's just address one issue.  Do you want to start over with a clean fresh catalog and lose all prior edits, keywords and collections or do you want to try reconstructing the folder structure that LR needs to find most of the files?   The answer to that will dictate how we approach the multiple windows users and LR.


----------



## joev (Jul 28, 2011)

clee01l said:


> Let's just address one issue.  Do you want to start over with a clean fresh catalog and lose all prior edits, keywords and collections or do you want to try reconstructing the folder structure that LR needs to find most of the files?   The answer to that will dictate how we approach the multiple windows users and LR.


 
I believe that I would rather try to reconstruct the folder structure.


----------



## clee01l (Jul 28, 2011)

joev said:


> I believe that I would rather try to reconstruct the folder structure.




I'll need a copy of your catalog.  It will be a few hundred megabytes. So tell me its size and we can determine the most feasible way toget it to me.  From it I can construct a listing of all the folders that LR knows about.
When I provide you with the listing, I can describe in more details what issues I think you might encounter.
You will need to recreate those folders manually. I think this will all happen in "C:\Users\Joe\Pictures\" but the Catalog contents will tell us for sure.  It will also tell us how serious the C:\Users\Owner\Pictures\ problem might be.
Once created, you will need to repopulate them with image files in the folders with the same name located in H:\ (or F:\ if  H:\ does not produce what you need.)
When you complete this portion of the recovery, you will need to run the "Find Missing Photos" routine described in Reply #15.
After reporting the second "Find Missing Photos" results, I can suggest things you can try to determine if these images are available anywhere on your system.
Good Luck.


----------



## joev (Jul 29, 2011)

(1)Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat-C:\Users\Joe\Pictures\Lightroom
TYPE: LRCAT file
SIZE: 69.2 MB

(2) Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat-H:\Lightoom 2 Catalog
TYPE: LRCAT  file
SIZE: 784 KB

Which one do you want and how do I copy it so that you can see the contents?


----------



## clee01l (Jul 29, 2011)

I've sent you a PM containing this message and additional info on your other PM question. 



> I've uploaded a text file listing all the folders that LR need to see. As I suspected, almost all the folders are in  "C:\Users\Joe\Pictures\"  Exceptions to that are:
> C:/Users/Owner/AppData/Local/VirtualStore/Program Files/Portrait Professional 8/​C:/Users/Owner/SHUTTERBUG  FILES/​C:/Users/Public/Pictures/​C:/Users/Public/Pictures/SAMPLE~1/​K:/​And there are a series of sub-folders in K:\ (about  110).  These show up at the bottom of the list.  All together there are about 350 unique folders. About 250 of these are in your "C:\Users\Joe\Pictures\"  and it looks like they all probably exist somewhere on H:\
> 
> You can retrieve the Folder Listing file from
> ...


----------



## joev (Jul 30, 2011)

clee01l said:


> I've sent you a PM containing this message and additional info on your other PM question.


 
Thought I'd send these SNIPS just to show you the "RUN" I was using


----------



## clee01l (Jul 30, 2011)

In stead of using the "Run Command from the windows Start button, I'm going to have you open a command window  (that little black box) so that ir will stay open.  If you ever used DOS, this is where e are going now. 

To open the commandline, Click on the {Start} button, then {All Programs}  In the next screen find the folder {Accessories}. Click to open it and Roght Click on {Command Prompt} to choose {Run as Administrator}.

Your Screen should look like this:


From the text file that I sent you, copy one line.
On the left top of the command prompt window is a small icon that shows the "C:\prompt" 
Click in it, then in the menu that opens, {Edit}
then {Paste}
Your command prompt window then should resemble the one in the first image above.
Click enter to run the MD command to make the Directory (folder).
The Command prompt window will return to the command prompt  ready for you to paste the next command


----------



## joev (Jul 30, 2011)

Seems to be working.  Here's a SNIP

I believe that I should continue this procedure until all 350 are entered.  Is this correct?

If this is correct, then do I have to continue until all 350 are entered without shuting down the computer or can I shut down the computer (let's say after entering 100) and the reopen and continue where I left off? And then what do I do after I have entered the 350th?


----------



## clee01l (Jul 30, 2011)

joev said:


> Seems to be working.  Here's a SNIPView attachment 860
> 
> I believe that I should continue this procedure until all 350 are entered.  Is this correct?
> 
> If this is correct then what do I do after I have entered the 350th?


Continue until each Directory has been entered at the command prompt. then:


> Once created, you will need to repopulate them with image files in the folders with the same name located in H:\ (or F:\ if H:\ does not produce what you need.)
> When you complete this portion of the recovery, you will need to run the "Find Missing Photos" routine described in Reply #15.
> After reporting the second "Find Missing Photos" results, I can suggest things you can try to determine if these images are available anywhere on your system.


----------



## joev (Jul 30, 2011)

What do you mean by "repopulate them with image files with image files in the folders with the same name located in H:\ (orF;\ if H:\ does not produce what is needed?

I know I'll be busy for awhile before I get all 350 entered but I certainly don't want to do anything wrong now.


----------



## clee01l (Jul 30, 2011)

joev said:


> What do you mean by "repopulate them with image files with image files in the folders with the same name located in H:\ (orF;\ if H:\ does not produce what is needed?
> 
> I know I'll be busy for awhile before I get all 350 entered but I certainly don't want to do anything wrong now.


As an example 
One of the folders that you are recreating for LR is *"C:\Users\Joe\Desktop\pictures\06 13 08\"*  If you look in H:\ , you will find a folder "*H:\06 13 08\"  *copy all the files from that folder into* "C:\Users\Joe\Desktop\pictures\06 13 08\"  *There also might be the same images in the folder* "H:\pictures\06 13 08\" *and again in*"H:\PHOTOS GO HERE\06 13 08\"   *It is possible the some of these folders don't have all the files but if you were thorough with the initial copy, then all of them will have the same contents.   What you are doing is rebuilding your file/folder structure to match what LR had at one time.   When that is done, then LR will be intact again and you can proceed to do what you initially set out to do before you made your first post.


----------



## joev (Jul 30, 2011)

Looks like I've still got a lot of work ahead of me.  Thank you for sticking with me.

Here's another SNIP.  As you can see I just started to paste the  MD "K":\" and it shows that the device is not ready. In checking computer "K" is a removeable drive and I'm not sure what we are looking for.  I think it might be the portable drive that I use when I shoot tethered.  Do I need to hook it up and copy the Strings to it?


ALSO- 75 of the "C";\ files showed that they already existed.


----------



## clee01l (Jul 30, 2011)

joev said:


> Looks like I've still got a lot of work ahead of me.  Thank you for sticking with me.
> 
> Here's another SNIPView attachment 861.  As you can see I just started to paste the  MD "K":\" and it shows that the device is not ready. In checking computer "K" is a removeable drive and I'm not sure what we are looking for.  I think it might be the portable drive that I use when I shoot tethered.  Do I need to hook it up and copy the Strings to it?
> 
> ...


Drives that might be given the letter K:\ are probably removable drives like "the portable drive that I use when I shoot tethered". it might mean that Drive K:\ folders are only available to LR when the drive is attached.  The rest of the time they come up missing.  While this is not a bad thing, it is probably considered a bad workflow practice.  If you plug in the drive, does it get registered as K:\ and is LR able to show it in the folder panel without (?)s by each folder?  If that is true, then this represents about 7250 of your ~9600 missing images.  If you have recovered ~7250 missing images by just plugging in Drive K:\ then you are probably done recreating folders for LR and just need to populate them from H:\ or wherever you need to go to find them.

It does not surprise me that some of the folders you tried to recreate were already in existance. At this point I would not worry about them. 

Plug in your portable drive and re-run the {Library}{Find Missing Photos}  and see what the missing file count turns out to be.  Then set about repopulating the folders that you just created.


----------



## joev (Jul 31, 2011)

In order for me to plug in the portable drive (K) I think, I will have to unplug both the "F" and "H" drive. I only have 6 USB connections and they are all full. (Plus some as I am using a multiple USB outlet adapter).  In addition to the Seagate Replica and the "F" and "H" hard drives I also have three different printers a scanner and a digital turntable connected.   I'm pretty sure that the last time I plug in the Portable I imported photos throught LR and had their destination as "H"PHOTOS GO HERE.  

I need two USB outlets for the portable so if I unplug both the "F" and "H" drives and then plug in the "K" portable will I still proceed as requested above and will that really answer the (?) question?

I will not proceed until I hear from you.


----------



## clee01l (Jul 31, 2011)

None of the paths currently in your LR catalog refer to drives F:\ or H:\  So, you can unplug those to see if Plugging in K:\ will find ~7250 missing files.  I think that is the answer we need next before we go further.


----------



## joev (Aug 1, 2011)

I unplugged F:\ and H:\ and then plugged in "K". I then {Library}{Find Missing files} and this is what I got:.  It appears that I have more missing files now.

Now what is the next step?


----------



## clee01l (Aug 1, 2011)

In windows when you click on 'My Computer", does the drive that you just attached show up as Drive K:\ or some other letter?   If it is some other letter, then  we will need to tell windows to assign K:\ to that drive. In your reply, can you include a screen shot of the Explorer window showing all the drives letters?


----------



## joev (Aug 1, 2011)

Portable Hard drive  See SNIP   As you can see it shows up as "F" .  The "K" drive show up as an SD card.   See SNIP   .    Compact flash shows up as "I"  See SNIP     Both (all)  of which have been reformatted in camera.


----------



## clee01l (Aug 1, 2011)

OK you will need to change the drive letter on the Free Agent Drive.  Follow along with the bouncing ball...

If there are cards in the SD and CF card slots, remove them.
Exit Lightroom (if it is running)
Click on the Start button in Windows 7
Type the following command in the text box and then hit the Enter key: *diskmgmt.msc*
You should see a window like this


On the right-hand side of the screen, locate and right-click on the drive that you wish to change the drive letter of and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths...
In the Change Drive Letter and Paths window, click on the Change... button.
The Change Drive Letter or Path dialog box will appear.
Choose the drive letter you wish to assign (K:\) to this drive by clicking the letter from the drop-down box on the right.
Click {OK}.
The Disk Management window that appears advises you that "Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Do you want to continue?".
Click {Yes}
Unless there is something already claiming Drive K:\ (Like an SD or CF card) your Free Agent  will always reconnect as K:\

Restart Lightroom  and re-run {Find Missing Photos...}
Report the results of the {Find Missing Photos...}


----------



## joev (Aug 1, 2011)

If you look at my previous post - check out the SNIP.  The "K" drive shows that it is assigned to my SD card reader drive.  The drive number we are trying to change is for the portable which shows as the "F" drive after I removed the EHD "F" and "H" to make room to plug in the portable HD.

So here's the disk management SNIP.  When I clicked on Change Drive Letter and Paths this came up .  When I click on the tab showing F it opened up to show all letters of the alphabet EXCEPT the ones that were already being used (i.e. "F" "H"  and "K").  So if I understand your last instructions correctly I was supposed to click on the "K" but it wasn't there and besides if it was there wouldn't that do something to the drive for the SD card reader.

By the way, how do you make your SNIPs so clean?


----------



## clee01l (Aug 1, 2011)

joev said:


> If you look at my previous post - check out the SNIP.  The "K" drive shows that it is assigned to my SD card reader drive...
> 
> By the way, how do you make your SNIPs so clean?


If K\is assigned to a Card Reader that is detachable, unplug it and see if that frees up K:\  If it is not detachable (i.e. you have an HP Desktop with a built in Card Reader), then you need to re-assign the drive at K: to some other letter before you can re-assign the Free Agent Drive to K:\.


In the Snipping tool, the {New} button has a dropdownlistbox to select type The choices are:
Freeform Snip (which you are using)
Rectangular (hich I use most of the time)
Window (used to produce the Disk Manager window)
Full-Screen
The snip it tools remembers your last choice.


----------



## joev (Aug 2, 2011)

I have an HP desktop and when I pulled up the *diskmgmt.msc * and if no SD card is in the slot then "K" does not appear. So it seems that in order for me to try to assign another letter I have to have a SD card in the slot.  So here's my question: Is there any danger of damaging the SD card if I leave it in the slot when trying to change the letter?  So I get the cheapest SD card possible to leave in the slot just in case is does do some damage to the SD card?


----------



## joev (Jul 22, 2011)

I am in big trouble.  I need someone to explain to me in "very simple step by step language" the right way to straighten out my LR3.  Here's the challenge:
I have added a new external hard drive to my system and thought that I was copying all of my info from my old external drive to the new one. (did this by drag and drop from one hard drive to the another) and it took a long, long time.  Now it seems that I am showing "?" on an awful lot of images in LR3.  LR3 just doesn't know where I've put the files. 

(You've heard people talk about someone with a little knowledge being dangerous - well I'm the one they were talking about) I keep doing things that I think will correct the situation and all I seem to be doing is making it worse.

In "VERY SIMPLE STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS" would someone please show me how to correct this problem.   Video tutorials that I can play over and over might help too!   THANK YOU


----------



## clee01l (Aug 2, 2011)

If the drive is not active, it will not appear in your list of drives to manage
You your Drive Listing: 


you need to: 

Right-click on the drive that you wish to change the drive letter of (*"The one with the Volume Label FreeAgent Dirve (F"* ) and choose {Change Drive Letter and Paths...}
In the Change Drive Letter and Paths window, click on the Change... button.
The Change Drive Letter or Path dialog box will appear.
.
Choose the drive letter you wish to assign (K:\) to this drive by clicking the letter from the drop-down box on the right.
Click {OK}.
The Disk Management window that appears advises you that "Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Do you want to continue?".
Click {Yes}
*If there is no K: showing in the dropdownlist:
*

You will need to insert an SD disk in Drive K:
On the Disk Management menu {Action}{Refresh}
Right-click on the drive SD disk in Drive K: and choose {Change Drive Letter and Paths...}
In the Change Drive Letter and Paths window, click on the Change... button.

The Change Drive Letter or Path dialog box will appear.
.

Choose the drive letter you wish to assign (Any available Letter *but* K to this drive by clicking the letter from the drop-down box on the right.

Click {OK}.
The Disk Management window that appears advises you that "Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Do you want to continue?".
Click {Yes} None of the contents of the disk in the drive will be affected.
Now you are ready to Assigne letter K:

Right-click on the drive that you wish to change the drive letter of (*"The one with the Volume Label FreeAgent Dirve (F"* ) and choose {Change Drive Letter and Paths...}
In the Change Drive Letter and Paths window, click on the Change... button.
The Change Drive Letter or Path dialog box will appear.

.
Choose the drive letter you wish to assign (K:\) to this drive by clicking the letter from the drop-down box on the right.
Click {OK}.
The Disk Management window that appears advises you that "Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Do you want to continue?".
Click {Yes}


----------



## joev (Aug 2, 2011)

Ok.  I completed your last instructions and here is a SNIP of LR3 after I clicked on the "K" drive and then did {Find missing photos} 


And here is a SNIP of the portable "K" drive contents.  It shows no folders.  I usually delete my assignments once I imported them into LR.  I wasn't sure if I did it this time or not but apparently I did.


----------



## clee01l (Aug 2, 2011)

Joe, the catalog that was open in LR in the first instance (back in  Message #9) is not the same catalog that you sent me to determine the LR missing folders from. 
 and 

It looks like the catalog that you are working on now is the catalog that you sent.  And it in no way relates to the contents of what is currently on the FreeAgent Drive (K  I never saw the folder listing of the contents that is currently on the FreeAgent Drive.  At this point I'm not sure it is important.  

We've been working at this for almost two weeks and it does not seem that you are any closer to getting your files organised than you were two weeks ago.

I really think you should seriously consider starting a  new fresh catalog and importing images from each location into a new common location (import with Move) And don't import duplicates  so that there will be only one image copy in the catalog as there should.  Also Importing by capture date will simplify your new folder structure.


----------



## joev (Aug 3, 2011)

Again I want to thank you for taking all this time with me.  I have learned a great deal and I'm sure that it has been very frustrating for you but I feel we are making progress. I've tried to follow your instructions to the letter without totally understanding what we are trying to accomplish.  I thought that I made such a mess of it that we were first trying to correct my mistakes and then set up the new EHD properly.

 You are correct - the catalogs are not the same.  As I mentioned in a previous post, in order for me to connect the portable drive (now know as the ""K" drive), I had to disconnect both the "F" drive and the "H" drive.  The last SNIP that I sent was of LR with only the "K" connected.  The catalog sent back in Message #9 was with both the "F" drive and the "H" drive connected and the "K" drive disconnected.  I cannot connect all three drives at the same time.

Perhaps I misunderstood your message (#47).  Should I now disconnect the portable "K" drive and reconnect both the "F" EHD and the "H" EHD?  I hesitate in doing anything now until I ask you first.

I thought that I asked if I should delete everything on the new "H" EHD and start all over when I first posted but maybe I just thought it and didn't actually ask.  As you can see, I am still confused as to what we are doing.  So let me ask you another question:  If I didn't want to change anything about how my LR was operating but I thought that my EHD "F" was going bad and that I wanted to replace it so I just purchased a new EHD (H) and  wanted to connect it ("H") and copy everything from my existing EHD ("F") to ("H") so that I could now disconnect the "F" drive and rely strictly on the new "H" drive, what steps would I take?


----------



## boneywhitefoot (Aug 3, 2011)

if ever there was a strong argument for a robust folder structure this is it.


----------



## joev (Aug 3, 2011)

boneywhitefoot said:


> if ever there was a strong argument for a robust folder structure this is it.



You are definately right.  I sure hope whoever needs it can learn too.


----------



## clee01l (Aug 3, 2011)

Joe,  I think because of the disorder in your master image folders and an inconsistent place to store the imports,  the best approach might be to  start with a clean fresh catalog and import everything into it.  This would consolidate up the disordered folders and duplicate files that now exist in "C:\Users\Joe\Pictures\", F:\ H:\ and K:\  This would place one copy of every image on your assortment of HDs into one simplified folder structrure.   Any image that would not import because of duplication could be eventually deleted from the other locations on the HDs. 



> I am still confused as to what we are doing. So let me ask you another question: If I didn't want to change anything about how my LR was operating but I thought that my EHD "F" was going bad and that I wanted to replace it so I just purchased a new EHD (H) and wanted to connect it ("H") and copy everything from my existing EHD ("F") to ("H") so that I could now disconnect the "F" drive and rely strictly on the new "H" drive, what steps would I take?


 Like you, I am confused too.  Every time I think I have all the information, a new wrinkle comes up.  Initially all I wanted to help with was to re-point your LR folders to the new locations after you moved them to H:\.  After discovering that your catalog was showing over 7000 missing images and that the folder structures did not match with anything in LR, it no longer was a simple exercise in re-locating the missing images in LR.  To achieve this goal you really need to create a folder structure that matches the one in LR and repopulate it with the correct images. This is what I tried to help you do only to discover that the catalog that you sent was not the catalog that you first introduced.  

If you want to replace F:\ with H:\  You first need a catalog that shows F:\ in the folder panel.  I have not seen that catalog yet.  That catalog can not be showing any missing photos or folders either. 
Clone the contents of F:\ onto another HD duplicating the folder structure and files on F:.
Then it becomes a simple drive letter change to a) remove the old F: from the system. b) change the drive letter of the new cloned drive to F: and restart LR. 

This is the same target that I have been working toward all along.  If you are able to get a catalog that has all of your images on "C:\Users\Joe\Pictures\" and "F:\", I can work with you to replace F:\ with a different piece of hardware with all of the data from F:\ on it

*boneywhitefoo*t has suggested this is "a strong argument for a robust folder structure".  Actually, a robust folder structure  needs to be one that is easily understood and has organisation to it and is consistent throughout. I have always been a proponent of using one of LRs default date-named folder schemes instead of complicating the import process with folder names that are in reality keywords or at best defined as collections inside of LR.  I'm certain that Adobe spent a lot of time determining that the date-named folder schemes were the best folder naming convention that could be employed by LR.  After working woth your folder structure, I am even more convinced that  ordinary casual LR users should not try to out-think the LR developers when it comes to naming folders.


----------



## joev (Aug 4, 2011)

Ok-here's what I've done.  I disconnected (K) and reconnected (F) and (H).  I then opened LR, clicked on the (now showing) (F) and there was nothing there, so (I hope I didn't screw up again) I clicked on import then clicked on 'source' in the upper left hand corner of screen and then click on (F). I then changed the command from "MOVE" to "ADD" and set the destination to LR catalog. Rendered previews to Standard and then checked Don't Import Suspected Duplicates.  Next I clicked on IMPORT and, after a bit of time, I was now showing 3548 files..   I then went to {Library}{Find Missing folders} let the computer do it's thing and the the number of missing files did not change..  I haven't done anything else.


----------



## boneywhitefoot (Aug 4, 2011)

I have a robust folder structure.
 I have one folder that has everything in it, the cat, previews, presents stored with the cat. I have one master folder for the images themselves from which I have about 20 sub folders. I have 40,000 images taken from one end of my country to the other, over 7 years’ worth. 
My folder structure is well thought out simple and logical. All subfolders are date related

FAMILY
Family functions= Chrissie ,birthdays etc. all the members have separate folders but are key worded and that would have sufficed.

Family adventures in dated folders they are as follows.

Coastal= 10 locations 

Local=1 folder (around my city) 

Rural= 8 subfolders

Mountains and camping= 8 subfolders

City (other cities) bohoooo only 3 sub folders, I must be depriving my kids of city culture.

HUNTING and TRAMPING

Hunting  North Island =five different forest parks that I hunt

Hunting South Island=4 different parks

Tramping almost identical to the hunting sub folders.

Now the biggies are road tours
Each Island, North and South has a single folder master folder each.
Inside each folder are the major regions of each Island.
Inside each region are date related folders.

I can find any image from any region, from any date or more importantly for me by name as I name each adventure, often from some funny thing that happened on the road.
So and here’s the big part, I know physically where all my images live, I don’t need Lightroom to find them for me and besides how the heck in times of great grief can you tell lightroom where the images are if you don’t really know my self.
Inside ligthroom all my folders sit winking at me down the left hand side , I can access most any single image whithin 3 clicks which put me inside a folder that has all the other images taken from that location on that day.
click click click is plenty fast for finding a particular image out of thousands.
Another bonus is that image will be in a folder with all its mates taken on that day regardless of all our flagging key wording or ranking, just the whole shooting box in its entirety.
My last folder is my import folder which is one single stand alone.

I do not see the lightroom ethos of it doesn’t matter where you put them, just tag-em them and bag-em coming back to bite many on the bum in the future. There is no excuse for a untidy computer, show me a man’s comp and I can tell you much about him personally.
If everyone learnt to put the whole shooting box in one master folder their wouldn’t be so much confusion, in fact I wish that Lightroom did this by default and then let the more experienced users customize their set up for speed etc.


Maybe I’m just old fashioned.
I await my flaming…


----------



## Kiwigeoff (Aug 4, 2011)

Boneywhitefoot, you really are a kiwi aren't you !! I'll do it the way I want and that is that........:surprised:
I'm pleased you don't run the library when I'm trying to find books:mrgreen:
Flaming over!!!:tape:

My image count is 45k, this year and is about average for the past few so a kiwi structure like yours just doesn't work. I have clients to find work for as well as my own stuff. After much looking around, experimenting and gleaning from the experts in DAM I have arrived at this practical and easy to use structure. It works with Lightroom, OS and anything I've been able to throw at it.

which is of course a reflection of what is on the HD.

This type of structure I would highly recommend and if you need a hand I can show you how to get from where you are to a structure like this very easily.


----------



## clee01l (Aug 4, 2011)

joev said:


> Ok-here's what I've done.... I clicked on import ...I haven't done anything else.


Thank God for small favors.  I'm afraid you have made things worse instead of better.  I never gave you any instructions to re-import anything.  You can check topic after topic in this forum for folks with missing files.  The main advice is *Do Not Re-Import.  *Noe that you have done that at least this time and perhaps others, you only succeed in making your catalog a confused mess. 

On several earlier replies, I've suggested you best remedy would be to start fresh with a new catalog and import to consolidate the disordered folders and duplicate files into a well ordered folder structure. I'll help you start over, but I'm afraid that your existing catalog(s) require an inordinate amount of effort on this end to sort out the confusion.


----------



## boneywhitefoot (Aug 4, 2011)

Kiwigeoff said:


> Boneywhitefoot, you really are a kiwi aren't you !! I'll do it the way I want and that is that........:surprised:
> I'm pleased you don't run the library when I'm trying to find books:mrgreen:
> Flaming over!!!:tape:
> 
> ...



Thanks for that Geoff, Kiwi by birth , Kiwi by nature , I will take you up on that kind offer one day, meantime just one question......are you obsessed with the big balloon parade..
I think just so long as we know where our files are is the most important.
I look forward to meeting up one day even if you live so close to bogenvile....


----------



## Kiwigeoff (Aug 4, 2011)

boneywhitefoot said:


> Thanks for that Geoff, Kiwi by birth , Kiwi by nature , I will take you up on that kind offer one day, meantime just one question......are you obsessed with the big balloon parade..
> I think just so long as we know where our files are is the most important.
> I look forward to meeting up one day even if you live so close to bogenvile....



No, not obsessed, I just take a lot of pictures of hot air ballooning!! And go up sometimes as well:razz:


----------



## boneywhitefoot (Aug 4, 2011)

I must go next year it sounds like a lot of fun.


----------



## joev (Aug 4, 2011)

clee01l said:


> Thank God for small favors.  I'm afraid you have made things worse instead of better.  I never gave you any instructions to re-import anything.  You can check topic after topic in this forum for folks with missing files.  The main advice is *Do Not Re-Import.  *Noe that you have done that at least this time and perhaps others, you only succeed in making your catalog a confused mess.
> 
> On several earlier replies, I've suggested you best remedy would be to start fresh with a new catalog and import to consolidate the disordered folders and duplicate files into a well ordered folder structure. I'll help you start over, but I'm afraid that your existing catalog(s) require an inordinate amount of effort on this end to sort out the confusion.


 
I apologize.  I thought I was getting you the catalog for "F". As of this moment I will do nothing unless instructed to do so.


----------



## clee01l (Aug 4, 2011)

The only instruction I can give at this point is:





> start fresh with a new catalog and import to consolidate the disordered folders and duplicate files into a well ordered folder structure.


  Do you need help with that?


----------



## joev (Aug 4, 2011)

clee01l said:


> The only instruction I can give at this point is:  Do you need help with that?



Apparently I do


----------



## clee01l (Aug 4, 2011)

*Creating a New Catalog and consolidation an unorganized folder structure*

I'll take this step by step 

You are going to create a folder in your "C:\Users\Joe\Pictures\"  called Master.
Your new Master catalog will be there and it will be named Master.lrcat
You are going to create a folder on your Drive H:\ that will hold original copies of all of your original images.
These images will be in sub-folder arranged by year and then in subfolders in each year arranged by date.
You will first copy every image that is in your Documents folder
Then every image that is in your pictures folder
After the C:\ drive images have been copied and collected on to the new location on H:, youe will repeat the process with drive F:\
After Drive F:\, you can import from from the old image copies on K:\ and finally H:\
You will need to do some work to prepare H: to make LR's task simpler. You will do that in the first step (below)
During the import, LR will determine that some of the images are duplicates and will not import them. This is expected and exactly what we want to happen

Move all the folders on Drive H:\ to a parent folder
In explorer, Open Drive H:\
 Right click in the white space of the detaile pane where all of your top level folders are listed to open a context menu.
 From that context menu choose {New}{Folder}
Name this new Folder "Unconsolidated"
Now select this new (empty) folder with one mouse click.
On the Explorer window menu bar choose {Edit}{Invert Selection} All of the folders except "Unconsolidated" will be selected.
With your mouse, drag these selected folders as a group to "unconsolidated" and drop them.
This will move all of the folders and files under the new parent folder called "Unconsolidated"
Now Along side the folder Consolidated, create another new folder named "MasterImages"

Open Lightroom.
From the menu select {File}{New Catalog...}


In the dialog that opens, you will need supply the Folder name that will contain the new catalog
Navigate to your "my Pictures Folder
In the "File name:" field, name the folder "Master"  and click {Save}


This will create the new catalog in "C:\Users\Joe\Pictures\Master" With the message"Click the "Import" button to begin."
Click the {Import} button to open the Import dialog.

There are 5 things that need attention in this dialog
The From Location need to be "C:\Users\Joe\My Documents\".  In subsequent Imports, you will change this to "C:\Users\Joe\My Pictures\", "F:\", "H:\Unconsolidated" and "K:\"
The Import Process is going to be "Copy"
The Import thumbnail view is going to be by "Destination Folders"
The checkbox "Don't Import Suspected Duplicates" must be checked.
Finally, the destination is going to be organized into folders by Date in the Date Format YYYY/MM-DD and these folders will be created in the parent folder "H:\MasterImages"


When all of the above is in place, click the {Import} button and wait until the process has finished.
Repeat the Step 8 changing only the Source (FROM) to
"C:\Users\Joe\My Pictures\",
then "F:\",
then "H:\Unconsolidated"
and  Finally K:\"

You will probably need to  unplug  the F:\ USB drives and plug K:\ to get that drive copied.  The H:\ drive can not be detached while LR is running since this will now exclusively house all of your Master Original image copies.
I haven't forgotten those image files that showed up  under "C:\Users\Owner\My Pictures\".  These will require a little Windows administrative work before you can import these.   Why don't you get this new catalog built and populated with images  and then send me a PM about "C:\Users\Owner\My Pictures\" and we can followup. 

After your images are in the new catalog, post a new topic about how you might organize with keywords and how you might create collections IN Lightroom to represent your old folders like "Shutterbug Storefront", Bandit" and "Portraits"


----------



## joev (Aug 5, 2011)

When I click on Attachment 898 or 899 I get this message:  "Invalid attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator".  I usually print out SNIPs but will not be able to print attachments.  I cannot see what they are either.  Are they neccessary for me to see and if so can they be sent as SNIPs?


----------



## clee01l (Aug 5, 2011)

joev said:


> When I click on Attachment 898 or 899 I get this message:  "Invalid attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator".  I usually print out SNIPs but will not be able to print attachments.  I cannot see what they are either.  Are they neccessary for me to see and if so can they be sent as SNIPs?


Sorry, the links got broken somewhere in the edit/re-edit  of the post.  It is fixed now.  Revisit that post and you should be able to click and expand each.


----------



## joev (Aug 5, 2011)

clee01l said:


> Sorry, the links got broken somewhere in the edit/re-edit  of the post.  It is fixed now.  Revisit that post and you should be able to click and expand each.


 
Got them.  Thanks.

I begin your instructions today.  Will be in touch.


----------



## joev (Aug 5, 2011)

RE:  #68 number 4. "In the dialog that opens, you will need supply the Folder name that will contain the new catalog"   Could you explain this a little more.  What Folder name that will contain what new catalog?


----------



## clee01l (Aug 5, 2011)

joev said:


> RE:  #68 number 4. "In the dialog that opens, you will need supply the Folder name that will contain the new catalog"   Could you explain this a little more.  What Folder name that will contain what new catalog?


For new catalogs,Lightroom creates a folder and puts the bare bones catalog file in it.  Both the folder and the catalog have the same name In my example, the catalog name is "Master.lrcat"  it is located in the folder "C:\Users\Joe\My Pictures\Master\" which was created by following these instructions:


> In the dialog that opens, you will need supply the Folder name that will contain the new catalog
> Navigate to your "my Pictures Folder
> In the "File name:" field, name the folder "Master" and click {Save}


----------

