# External Hard drive not showing up in Library



## Kim Black (Mar 11, 2018)

Operating System: Windows 10
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): Lightroom 6.14  (recently updated from Lightroom 6)

Hello.  My PC recently had some problems.  The hard drive was corrupted for an unknown reason.  (The repair shop thought maybe it was Windows 10).  I have been working on putting Lightroom back on my computer.  I put Lightroom 6 back on it and began adding my presets.  I tried to get to my files on my external HD and they don't show up in the Library mode.  I have files on the hard drive that were previously imported and they are just not showing up in the Library. I tried clicking the + button to add a folder and choose the hard drive, but when I choose it it goes to the import window.  The hard drive shows up in imports and the images are "chosen" and unchecked.  I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.


----------



## Roelof Moorlag (Mar 11, 2018)

Some questions first:


Kim Black said:


> The hard drive was corrupted for an unknown reason


Did the repair shop carry out work on this hard disk (like formatting it)?
When you attach the hard disk to your computer, can you see your images on it when you browse it with windows explorer?
Do you have backups from your images and catalog(s)?
With the + you add new locations/images to the catalog but that is not what you want in this case. You want to approach earlier added images. What do you see when in folder view? You can fold out to an higher level by rightclicking/show parent folder


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Mar 11, 2018)

Kim Black said:


> Operating System: Windows 10
> Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): Lightroom 6.14  (recently updated from Lightroom 6)
> 
> Hello.  My PC recently had some problems.  The hard drive was corrupted for an unknown reason.  (The repair shop thought maybe it was Windows 10).  I have been working on putting Lightroom back on my computer.  I put Lightroom 6 back on it and began adding my presets.  I tried to get to my files on my external HD and they don't show up in the Library mode.  I have files on the hard drive that were previously imported and they are just not showing up in the Library. I tried clicking the + button to add a folder and choose the hard drive, but when I choose it it goes to the import window.  The hard drive shows up in imports and the images are "chosen" and unchecked.  I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.


You say “I put Lightroom 6 back on it”, but does that include the Lightroom catalog folder (in your Pictures folder)? It sounds like you may have started with a new catalog.


----------



## Kim Black (Mar 11, 2018)

Roelof Moorlag said:


> Some questions first:
> 
> Did the repair shop carry out work on this hard disk (like formatting it)?
> When you attach the hard disk to your computer, can you see your images on it when you browse it with windows explorer?
> ...


Thank you for responding!  The repair shop reformatted my computer.  They didn't do anything to the external HD.  
When I attach my hard drive to my computer I can see the pictures.
Lightroom would back up about once every week or two.


----------



## Kim Black (Mar 11, 2018)

JohanElzenga said:


> You say “I put Lightroom 6 back on it”, but does that include the Lightroom catalog folder (in your Pictures folder)? It sounds like you may have started with a new catalog.


I installed Lightroom 6. And then it called for an update and I installed 6.14.  This may be my problem but I'm not sure how to  to go to the old catalog.


----------



## Roelof Moorlag (Mar 11, 2018)

Kim Black said:


> I installed Lightroom 6. And then it called for an update and I installed 6.14. This may be my problem but I'm not sure how to to go to the old catalog


No, this is no problem if you had an earlier 6.x version. The most easy way to open an existing catalog is to doubleclick the most recent .lrcat file
Did you back-up them?

The back-up that lightroom is making when you exit the program is:
a) only a back-up of the present catalog. You have to be sure to put it on a place where you can retrieve it later
b) does NOT contain your images. You said "When I attach my hard drive to my computer I can see the pictures" so they look to be safe but i'm not certain your catag is.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Mar 11, 2018)

Kim Black said:


> I installed Lightroom 6. And then it called for an update and I installed 6.14.  This may be my problem but I'm not sure how to  to go to the old catalog.


Assuming that your catalog was in the default location, it was in your Pictures folder on the hard disk that was reformatted. That means you have to place it back there from a backup.


----------



## Kim Black (Mar 11, 2018)

When Lightroom backs up, doesn't it back up everything?


----------



## Kim Black (Mar 11, 2018)

JohanElzenga said:


> Assuming that your catalog was in the default location, it was in your Pictures folder on the hard disk that was reformatted. That means you have to place it back there from a backup.


They said they backed everything up and that I didn't lose anything


----------



## Roelof Moorlag (Mar 11, 2018)

Kim Black said:


> When Lightroom backs up, doesn't it back up everything?


No, sorry, the catalog only.
So the pictures you have to back-up seperately.
And some other stuff like presets and plug-ins you have to back-up seperately also...


----------



## Roelof Moorlag (Mar 11, 2018)

Kim Black said:


> They said they backed everything up and that I didn't lose anything


"They" is the repair shop?
Where did they put that backup?


----------



## Kim Black (Mar 12, 2018)

Yes.  "They" are the repair shop.  I'm not sure where they backed it up but they said they did and then restored everything.  I go to User/Pictures/Lightroom/backups...
And when I double click it to add it to Lightroom I get this message.  Please see my screenshot.


----------



## John Little (Mar 12, 2018)

Some of the pitfalls to avoid in Lightroom are described in The Basics - Quick Start Essentials and   The Top 10 Gotchas. You might also cruise around other links in this Tips, Tricks etc link.


----------



## Kim Black (Mar 12, 2018)

More info that may be relevant.  I have photos on my computer and on the external hard drive.  I can get to the pictures on my computer with not problem. It's the hard drive that I can't get to and nothing was done to that.


----------



## John Little (Mar 12, 2018)

"I can get to the pictures on my computer" -- what do you mean by "get to"? It might mean that you can see/edit them in Lightroom, or that you can find them in File Explorer. Assuming that you mean that Lightroom can't find them, can you look at the external HD with File Explorer to verify that the photos are still present? Also, it's possible that LR is confused about the drive name; take a look at How to Re-assign a Drive Letter on Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7 and 8), which also works for Windows 10.


----------



## Roelof Moorlag (Mar 12, 2018)

Kim Black said:


> I go to User/Pictures/Lightroom/backups...
> And when I double click it to add it to Lightroom I get this message


Ok, i can reproduce this one. This is what happens when you want to open a catalog that is unzipped first (from the backup location). When you realy want to use a backup catalog (lrcat) than go to the Pictures/Lightroom/Backups/2018-02-04 2131 folder. Don't double click the lrcat.zip but rightclick and choose 'unpack' first. 
My advice is to put this unpacked catalog on another location (not in the backup folder) and than double click it to open.


----------



## Kim Black (Mar 12, 2018)

John Little said:


> "I can get to the pictures on my computer" -- what do you mean by "get to"? It might mean that you can see/edit them in Lightroom, or that you can find them in File Explorer. Assuming that you mean that Lightroom can't find them, can you look at the external HD with File Explorer to verify that the photos are still present? Also, it's possible that LR is confused about the drive name; take a look at How to Re-assign a Drive Letter on Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7 and 8), which also works for Windows 10.



What I mean by "get to" is that I can edit my pictures that are on my "Local Disk (C) on my computer.  
My external hard drive used to be visible on the left also.  Now it isn't.  My pictures are on my external hard drive, but I can't get to them from Lightroom.  I think it was Drive/Disk (D) but now (D) isn't visible in the "Folders" section.  I will post a screen shot.


----------



## Kim Black (Mar 12, 2018)

Sorry the screen shot didn't post.  I'll try again.


----------



## Kim Black (Mar 12, 2018)

Roelof Moorlag said:


> Ok, i can reproduce this one. This is what happens when you want to open a catalog that is unzipped first (from the backup location). When you realy want to use a backup catalog (lrcat) than go to the Pictures/Lightroom/Backups/2018-02-04 2131 folder. Don't double click the lrcat.zip but rightclick and choose 'unpack' first.
> My advice is to put this unpacked catalog on another location (not in the backup folder) and than double click it to open.



Ok....this may be working...but now ALL of them have ? by them.  Could you remind me how to fix this, I don't want to try to go by my memory and mess something up.  I will post a screenshot of what it looks like now.  And does this mean that it is my external hard drive is on "Disk (F) now?


----------



## Kim Black (Mar 12, 2018)

Thank you all so much!!!  I was able to restore everything to the way it was.  I'm not really sure what I did but just follow your suggestions.  And it helped so much.  I could not have done it without you!


----------

