# Lost Folders



## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

For some curious reason I have lost in LR the linkages to a number of my folders. For example, when I attempt to back up my LR catalog to an external drive the "choose" pull down menu in the catalogue backup routine does NOT display any of my external hard drives nor most of the seperate internal drives. All that is listed is a hierarchial list of my personal 'C' drive user folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music". Thus I cannot choose the external hard drive where I previously stored my catalog backups. Yet my computer itself recognizes these drives, when I clikc on the "Computer" or the "Windows Explorere" icons, all my internal and external drives are recognzied and listed.

Likewise, I only see the same folder structure as above, in LR when I run the import command and attempt to move or copy RAW images to an external hard drive. When I click on the "choose" pull down menu in the "copy to" listing for the "copy photos to a new location and add to catalog" command, none of my extrnal drives or internal drives are listed. All that is listed is the various 'user' folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music".

Any idea what has happened and how to fix the problem? I've tried rebooting the commputer and relaunching LR but to no avail in solving the problem. 

I'm runing LR2.6 on a 4G RAM board, using Windows 7. The computer system and LR worked fine two weeks ago when leaving on a photo trip to Jordon I shut everything down - depowered the computer and the external drives. When I returned this week and repowered the unit, LR could not recognize any of my external drives or most of the internal ones. The assigned drive letters for all my external drives had been altered for some reason by the boot-up and LR could not find the external drive with the catalog. I had to copy the catalog to the internal system drive and have LR load it from there. And with none of the external drives being reconized or even listed with their new drive letters I cannot direct LR as to what drives it should access.

Appreciate any advice on this issue.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi Potus5, welome to the forums.

Interesting issue....and a bit difficult to understand as LR gets its list of internal/external drives from the OS....so if WIn7 can see the drives, it should be possible to point LR at them also. It does sound as if something went awry after your trip if all the assigned drive letters were changed....these things don't really just happen, there has to be an underlying reason wheich we would do well to determine, I think. Have you checked that ALL of your drives are still listed/available using Windows Explorer....I'm thinking maybe one drive has a hardware issue (e.g. power adapter packed up) and didn't start which might explain some degress of reshuffling of drive letters if you hadn't previously 'fixed' them.

When you use the 'Choose' option when trying to do a catalog backup, the browser dialog box which pops up under Windows 7 has a list of expandable/collapsable high-level system storage 'entities'....in order they are named Libraries, Homegroup, *username*, Computer, and Network (may be one or two other things as well). It sounds like the entity identified with your username is expanded, which is why you see all the My Documents, My Music folders etc. Could you collapse that entity by clicking on the small arrow to the left of the name, and then expand the entity named 'Computer'. If you could then post a screenshot of the resulting display together with a screenshot of your Windows Explorer default startup window, we could start trying to pin down the issue (the drives you see listed under Computer in the Windows Explorer window *should* also be seen under Computer in the LR browser dialog box). If they are not it will at least give us a starting point....


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

TNG

here's the information you asked for. I'm sending the screen capture images material in two other sets as the capture sizes are too large for one posting. There are four screen catures.

1. the 1st is the capture of my computer. Drives C, D, E, and F are internals. Drives L, N, P, and Q are externals - all of which are Western Digitals. 

2. The 2nd capture is my external Q - orginally this was addressed as K and is where LR was saving the cataloge backup. In the recent restart as I mentioned earlier this got renamed as Q.

3. the 3rd is the cature of the LR backup opening screen.

The 4th is the capture of the LR backup 'Choose' listing. You'll note there is no displaying of the 'Computer' entity, merely only my personal user folders.

Apprecaite your assistance.

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

TNG

even one capture is too large to transmit - I'll resave them under another format and send under separate cover.

glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

the four as one set of attachments didn't work so am sending them as individual replies.

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

here's the 3rd


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

here's the 4th


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

here's the 2nd screen capture.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi Glenn, thanks for posting the screenshots.....but I'm sitting here scratching my head as I've never seen that situation before and am struggling to understand what's going on here!

Couple of questions:

Have you tried launching Lightroom by using the "Run as Administrator" option? Just in case it's a bizarre permissions problem.

When you originally had the catalog on one of the external drives, did you try to launch Lightroom by browsing to the catalog using Windows Explorer and double-clicking the catalog file? Again just trying to establish if Lightroom has permission on the external drives.

Are you actually running Lightroom OK, i.e. with the catalog on your internal drive and your raw images on an external....or are you saying that at the moment you just can't get Lightroom to function at all?


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi TNG

Highly appreciate you help on this. I answer your questions:
1. Yes, I can run LR ok without any problem. I have full access to my master catalog. What I did when the problem started was to tell LR not to create the catalog backup - directing it to "skip backup". And LR loaded my master catalog [which is NOT lodged on an external drive - its on my internal F drive under F:\Lightroom\Glenn's Master LR Catalog. It loaded without any problem - all my images were there. I then shut LR down and restarted it - and ran the backup, creating a new backup each time on my desktop under the internal C drive, for example the latest version is C:\Users\User\Desktop\2'1'--'4-21 '''6. My "only" problem with loading LR this was is that as you see there is no listing for changing the drive location of the backup nor for the "importing" new images onto my RAW drive "Q". I have to save them in LR to the "C" drive and then using the LR Library module I 'move' the folders with the new images to the Q drive. LR then has no problem understanding that the images are now located on the Q drive. Merely will not let me import them to that drive directly. 
2. I have full 'Admin' priviledges for my log in on the computer and thus, no, I have not tried launching LR by using the "Run as Administrator" start up option.
3. As you suggested I just attempted to launch LR by going to the old master backup copy on the new "Q" external drive. However, when I double clikc on the old backup catalog Windows Instalelr starts to run and then gives me an error message that it cannot locate "Adobe_Lightroom.msi" which it believes should be located as "C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{83BB4A4I" [There are more #s and letters in the file name than I'm showing you here]. Since I have my LR program loaded on my "Programs D" drive I browsed to that drive as "D:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp" - all there is under the D:\Users\User\AppData\Local" directory is a "Miscrosfot" sub-directory - there is not "Temp" sub-directory listed. 
5. When MS Instalelr fails to complete as above I get the follwoing error message: "Error 17'6: No valid source could be found for product Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.6. The Windows Installer cannot continue."
6. I ran a full search on all my drives for the file "Adobe_Lightroom.msi" but no listing appears anyway - I get a zero find.

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

TNG

here are the screen captures - 3 - for the running of Windows Installer. Excuse my typos - I'm typing too fast!!!


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

here's the 2nd


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

here's the 3rd in the Windows Installer series.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks Glenn for the info and the screen capture. Mysterious indeed....very odd that the installer tries to start up when you double-click on the old master catalog, sort of implies a corruption somewhere. Could you try to launch LR by double-clicking on the "current" master catalog on the internal drive (the catalog name ends with the .lrcat suffix, yes?) and see if the installer starts again. If it does it would suggest that Windows and Lightroom are having a major disconnect somewhere, and my inclinination would be to reinstall (although as LR2.7 is now out I'd actually properly uninstall LR2.6 and then download and install 2.7). 

Before we get that far it would be useful to try the above startup procedure first.....


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

TNG

Ran it as you suggested - doubled clicked on my master catalog file to run Windows Installer. Same error messages - am sending the screen captures attached.

Curious - 1. since when I click on the desktop icon for LR it opens fine [except for the backup and importing errors noted earlier; and 2. since my LR program is actually installed on my Program D drive I would have thought that the file Windows Installer is looking for would be on that drive BUT no can find!!!


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 21, 2010)

OK, I'm not worried that Windows can't find the installer file (YET!)....I'm more bothered that it's actually trying to do an install. As I said, sounds like a corruption somewhere.

Another thought and question: have you recently installed and removed, or tried an install which failed, either Lightroom2.7 RC or Lightroom 3 Beta? Am wondering if the .lrcat file/program association has been changed somehow....

How's your patience holding up....there are a couple more things we could try yet!


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

TNG

No problem - my past and current work experience has taught me well the virtue of 'loads of patience'. To answer your questions:
1. No, have not recently installed LR 2.7 or any other relevant updates [that I'm aware of]; and
2. No, have not downloaded any of the Beta versions of LR3.

I'm fully in your competent hands and appreciate highly the efforts you are directly to help me - I think I'll owe you at least a beer or two when I next get back to the UK.

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 21, 2010)

Well Glenn, I think you're going to need that patience! 

Your last set of screenshots when you tried to open LR by clicking on the master catalog....all 4 appear to be the same screenshot? Or is it me?

It would be good to just check a few things before we decide on a recovery plan...

I've assumed that prior to your recent trip everything was working OK, with no obvious problem?
When you first booted up after your trip, you say that some of your drive letter assignments had changed? Was it just the K/Q drive or did others change as well? I was a bit baffled by the first Windows Explorer screenshot of your drive list....I would have expected C,D,E,F for internals: G,H for your two DVD drives: I,J,K,L for your card reader: and M, N, O, P etc for your externals. So am a bit puzzled and wondered if your PC was setup that way or did something happen to change it all?
Was there ANY indication of a problem other than the changed drive letters and your subsequent LR problems? Are you experiencing problems with anything else, other than LR?
Could you check two things for me:
1. Control Panel, Programs and Features - please confirm that you see Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.6 in the list of installed programs (by the way, are you running 64 bit or 32 bit)?
2. Control Panel, Default Programs, Associate a File Type or Protocol With a Program....in the list that follows, just check what file-type .lrcat is associated with (if any).

If these instructions aren't clear, just holler....

And while I remember...is your PC shared by other people, i.e. are there other user accounts on the PC? Do you have any network drives? Looking at some of the error messages there appears to be a user called "User"...is that correct? 

At the moment I'm just trying to find a possible cause of the problem that you are encountering before I can suggest possible recovery options. From what you have described there seem to be three potential problem areas:
a) The operating system itself has a problem.
b) Your user profile has a problem.
c) Your Lightroom installation is corrupted.

b) and c) are the easier to deal with so they would be the first things I would try. But come back on the other questions first and we can take it from there....

And by the way, if there are any LR Gurus or Windows 7 experts out there with anything to add, please don't be shy! 

I'll be signing off soon as its getting late over here. If you manage to post an answer to all these questions I'll get back on the case first thing in the morning.


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

TNG

Sorry about the repeated screen captures for the Master catalog - I didn't notice I had not 'snipped' the different windows. Will run it again and send them to you under seperate response.

To answer your other questions:
1. Your assumption is right - prior to my trip everything seemed to be working fine - certainly the backup ran correctly to my external drive and the importing had no problems - LR would recognize all my drives and let me save to whichever I wanted to.
2. Yes - The only drive letter assignment that changed was the switch of my old K [where I store my RAWs and my LR catalog backup] to the new Q designation. 
3.Can't explain why the other drives were assigned the various letters - have always been like that. Could it be because some of my externals [my old K/new Q and the P] are two separate Western Digitals - the P is connected via a USB, while the old K/new Q is connected via a eSATA. The L and N drives are actually four 1Tb externals RAID configured as two separate drives and mounted in a Drobo unit.
4. There was no indication of a problem other than the changed drives letters and the subsequent backup/import problems in the LR operation.
5. Yes, in Control Panel/Programs & Features I can see Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.6 listed as an installed program - installed on 19/12/2''9, 1'1Mb size, version 2.6.1. BTW I'm running in 32bit.
6. In Control Panel\Default Programs\Associate a File Type or Protocol - the file type ".lrcat" is described as a "LRCAT File" and the current default reads "Unkown application." BTW the ".lrdb" file type has the same default - current default is listed as "Unkown Application"; the same for the .lrmodule file, the .lrtemplate file, the .lrtoolkit and the .lrweb file - all have their current default showing as "Unkown Application".
7. No my computer is not shared with anyone else. My personal log in is password protected. The computer has an inactive network connection [you see it listed in the Windows Explorer as "GBC-OFFICE-DESK"] to another desktop [my business computer located in another room in my house but I'm the only one with access to it also.
8. Yes, there is a user called 'user' listed in both the C [the system drive] and D [the programs drive]drives but that is me - for some reason my name 'Glenn' does not appear as a specific user even though the desktop log in icon has my name Glenn as its identifier. Has always been like that since I upgraded from VISTA to Windows 7 - no idea why.

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

TNG

here attached are the four Windows Installer screen captures of the actions and results when I attempt to double click on the LR Master Catalog file.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 22, 2010)

Good Morning!

Thanks for the very clear answers to my many questions! Unfortunately I'm still no nearer understanding what exactly happened to cause this problem! 

The username issue is probably because you may have renamed your User Account in the past from *User* to *Glenn*....although Windows changes all internal pointers to reflect this change, it *doesn't* change the name of the actual user sub-folder in the Users folder. Bit of a pain, really, the only way to fix it is to setup a new user account and then delete the old one....not worth the bother IMO, but see later.

OK, from all I've seen from all the data that you've given me I *think* that your Lightroom program installation has somehow become corrupted and needs to be fixed somehow. As I said in an earlier post the underlying problem could be either Windows itself, your User profile, or just the Lightroom installation. 

If this were my PC, this is what I would be doing next:

1. First I would want to check that my user profile isn't corrupt. I would simply add a new user account (as an administrator), then logon to the new account and launch Lightroom and check that I can 'see' all drives during a backup or import operation. If I can, then this would tend to point to my profile being corrupt and needs to be dealt with. If I still can't see all drives this would probably discount a corrupt profile, so I would log back on as Glenn and move on to step 2.
2. At this point I might consider trying to Repair the Lightroom installation, but as the OS seems confused about where the installation files are this could be a waste of time. So, making sure that I still have my Lightroom serial number(s) to hand I would next try to uninstall Lightroom then download and install Lightroom2.7. During this installation, the 64bit version should get installed automatically, and come to think of it I wonder why you are curently running 32bit on a 64bit OS. Odd, but not to worry about that now....finish the install, then launch and check that all your drives are available for backup and import.

If neither of those two actions fixes the problem I would be starting to get concerned about my Operating System and thinking about either a 'repair' or reinstallation.....but that's getting way ahead of ourselves. So have a read and think about these possible actions and let me know how you would like to proceed....


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

TNG

thanks for the help - its 7:53 am here in Ottawa and I'm rushing off to a breakfast meeting so it will be later this morning when I can run the steps you suggest - BTW like you I'm curious that my system is running as a 32 bit OS since when I do a system check via the Control Panel I see it states the Intel DG33TL - Quad CPU Q66'' processer is "64 bit capable"!! Should I reset it to 64 bit and if so how do I do that?

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 22, 2010)

Hi Glenn,

Re the 64/32 bit issue, my error....I had assumed that you were running 64bit Win7 with 32bit version of Lightroom, and it was that mismatch that I found curious. All explained by the fact you are 32 bit all round. Unfortunately there is no simple reset from one to the other....64 bit Win7 is a different OS and would have to be installed as an OS upgrade. Hopefully we won't end up doing that by default.  

Will wait to hear how you get on with the other things....


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

TNG

had a minute prior to departing so I created a new user account as an administrator via the Control Panel/User Accounts and Family Safety, and when I'm in the Control Panel I can see this new account listed, as well as the account 'Glenn' [which also has administrator priviledges] and another one termed 'ASP.Net Machine Account' which is noted as a 'standard user' and is 'password protected' [I have no idea what the password for this account is - doesn't show up on my screen when I boot up Windwos]. And there is 4th account called 'Margaret' [my wife's name although she does not use this machine - has her own MAC], which is a standard user. 

However when I rebotted the machine after creating the new Adminuser account - all that is displayed on the start up screen is my account "Glenn' and another icon called "Other User". There is no icon displayed for the new Administrator account I created. And when I go to the Windows start up menu in the bottom left corner of the desktop screen and go the the pull-down menu to 'switch users' all that is listed again is my Glenn account and the account 'Other User'. Where do I find the way to log in as the new Administrator account?


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 22, 2010)

Glenn, it sounds as if a bit of a clean-up is needed here! 

If you haven't already done it, I would hold off doing the LR uninstall/reinstall until we get a better handle on what's happening with these user accounts.

Actually got to go take some pictures right now, will get back to you later today with some further thoughts....


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

For some curious reason I have lost in LR the linkages to a number of my folders. For example, when I attempt to back up my LR catalog to an external drive the "choose" pull down menu in the catalogue backup routine does NOT display any of my external hard drives nor most of the seperate internal drives. All that is listed is a hierarchial list of my personal 'C' drive user folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music". Thus I cannot choose the external hard drive where I previously stored my catalog backups. Yet my computer itself recognizes these drives, when I clikc on the "Computer" or the "Windows Explorere" icons, all my internal and external drives are recognzied and listed.

Likewise, I only see the same folder structure as above, in LR when I run the import command and attempt to move or copy RAW images to an external hard drive. When I click on the "choose" pull down menu in the "copy to" listing for the "copy photos to a new location and add to catalog" command, none of my extrnal drives or internal drives are listed. All that is listed is the various 'user' folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music".

Any idea what has happened and how to fix the problem? I've tried rebooting the commputer and relaunching LR but to no avail in solving the problem. 

I'm runing LR2.6 on a 4G RAM board, using Windows 7. The computer system and LR worked fine two weeks ago when leaving on a photo trip to Jordon I shut everything down - depowered the computer and the external drives. When I returned this week and repowered the unit, LR could not recognize any of my external drives or most of the internal ones. The assigned drive letters for all my external drives had been altered for some reason by the boot-up and LR could not find the external drive with the catalog. I had to copy the catalog to the internal system drive and have LR load it from there. And with none of the external drives being reconized or even listed with their new drive letters I cannot direct LR as to what drives it should access.

Appreciate any advice on this issue.


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

TNG

Hi - just back from my meetings. Am holding off doing the LR uninstall/reinstall until we figure out what has happened with the profiles. BTW - I've call into my youngest daughter at university since I seem to vaguely recall her telling me at Christmas time that she had deleted her profile from the computer when she was back home for the holidays. I wonder if she went into Explorer to do the deletions rather than via the Account Management approach - am waiting on her return call.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 22, 2010)

Glenn,

Am guessing that your PC was originally running XP which was then upgraded to Vista which was then upgraded to Windows 7? The ASP.net Machine Account is an account created under XP by the .Net Framework 1.1, and so under Win7 it can safely be deleted. I would also suggest deleting the Margaret account, though this is probably disabled if you don’t see it as a Logon option. But don’t do anything yet...

Some of the funny things going on may be a legacy of the double-upgrade, far better with the benefit of my 2'/2' hindsight to maybe have done a clean install when going to Windows7. However, as we are where we are we need to try to clean things up a bit....but just in case there is a problem with your user profile I think it would be better to use the prime Administrator logon...if you can remember the password of course!

So first question of the day – do you remember the password of the Administrator account?

Second question: can I have another screenshot? Go to Control Panel&gt;Administrative Tools&gt;Double click on Computer Management. In the panel which opens, click on the arrow at the LH side of the Local Users and Groups entry in the LH column, this will expand the item to show two individual entries - Users and Groups. Click on Users and in the main panel the list of existing users will be displayed, Administrator should be at the top. Can I have a screenshot of this list of users please?

Thanks...


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

TNG

Thanks for the perservence on this !!!!! To answer your questions:
1. Yes, the upgrades ran from XP to Vista and then to Windows 7. 
2. When I go to Control Panel/User Accounts/Manage Other Accounts - the only 'Administrator' accounts are my 'Glenn' account and the new 'Administrator 2' account I created this morning - I have passwords for both of these. I don't see any other Admin accounts listed, such as the 'original Administrator [what I may have done is sometime ago renamed that Administrator account with my name Glenn] - all the other acccounts listed are 'standard user' accounts.
2. BTW - my daughter did phone and said she had deleted her profile information by using the Windows Explorer to access the "User" folder and "manually removed the contents"; she did not use the Control Panel/accounts management approach. She was very unclear in her memory if she did any other changes to the profiles - "I recall I deleted listings and folders for music and photos, etc".
3. When I go to Control Panel/System and Security/Administrative Tools and double click on the right hand column listing for "Computer Management" I get LH column titled 'Computer Managemetn (Local) and under it a listing but nowhere do I see a term "Local Users and Groups" entry. I've attachyed a screen capture of the window.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 22, 2010)

Oh Dear...this isn't easy, is it? Presumably you are running Home Premium? I forgot that Local Users and Groups is not available in that version (for some reason best known to the folks at Redmond).

OK, can you give me a screenshot of the Manage Other Accounts display....


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

Sorry - yes, Im running Windows Home Premium

There's the screen capture of the Control Panel/User Accounts/Manage Other Accounts display - attached.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 22, 2010)

OK, thanks for that.....I think some of my confusion is actually down to me forgetting the differences between Home Premium and Professional. May be things aren't as dire as I was beginning to think. There IS a way to logon as the Administrator account, but am a bit bothered by the fact you 'might have renamed it'....though I didn't think you could. Let's leave that for now.

Logged on as Glenn, suggest you go to Manage User Accounts and make the following changes:

1. Delete the ASP.net account
2. Delete the Margaret account if you don't think it will ever be used.
3. Delete the Administrator 2 account (am a bit bothered by the name, I don't want the OS getting confused).
4. Turn off the Guest Account (you should see this option when you select it under the Choose Account option).

At that point you should have two accounts, yours as the Administrator and Guest which will be disabled. 

Now create another Administrator account, call it something like TNG but don't bother giving it a password as it's only temporary.

When all that's done, try logging off and logging on as TNG. If that works OK, then you can try running Lightroom again under TNG and see what happens....

Let me know if any of that is unclear or doesn't work as intended....


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

Ugh!!!! Only partial success, as follows:
1. Logged on as Glenn, went to Control Panel/Manage User Accounts/Manage Other Account and saw the various accounts listed;
2. Successfully deleted the ASP.net account;
3. Successfully deleted the Margaret account;
4. Successfully deleted the Administrator 2 account;
5. Turned off the Guest Account.
6. Ended up with two accounts, Glenn as the Administrator and a Guest which indicated it was disabled. 
7. Created another Administrator account - "TNG" - did not give it a password. At this point my Windows Explorer crashed for some reason and went into a restart mode. System did not seem to restart but maybe it did since I quickly ended up with a temporary 'blue screen of death' desktop and then my desktop came back relatively quickly BUT I had to then reclick on the Control Panel and reenter the Manage Accounts section. At this point the system was showing I had three accounts. Screen Capture attached.
8. Loged off as Glenn and tried to log on as TNG - but the TNG account did NOT show up in the start up menu list. 
9. So I rebooted the computer. 
1'. However, all that showed up on the desktop when the reboot completed was an icon for "Glenn" and an icon labled "Other User"!!! There were no log in icons for "Guest" nor for "TNG".
11. Yet when I log in again as Glenn and go to Control Panel/Manage other Account I see the same three accounts listed per the screen captured attached earlier - 'Glenn' as an administrator, 'TNG' as an administrator, and 'Guest' with the account noted as turned off.

Back in your hands!!!

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 22, 2010)

No worries, probably me just being a bit dense. Have you tried clicking on "Other User" instead of Glenn when you logon. Probably what will happen is another box will pop out with the option to select "TNG".

Try it!


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

Ah!!! you're a genius - must be the air in West Sussex - it worked, at least in part:
1. you were right - click on the Othr User icon and got a fill-in-the-blans box asking for the name and password of the user. Typed in TNG and voila - got a MS screen stating "preparing desktop". When that completed there was a new desktop.
2. Clicked on the LR icon and LR started up. Went to 'File' and clicked on 'Open Catalog'. Sure enough it then gave me a choice to all my drives, went to my internal F drive and loaded up my Glenn's Master Catalog. When that finished it then asked me if I wanted to do a backup, and low and beyond in the 'Choices' pull down menu there were all of my drives - internal and external available as a choice for the location of the backup catalog. Backed it up to my Q drive with success. Then tested the import and it also worked - choice of any of my drives for the location of the imported images.
2. At this stage of course I could not use the MS Outlook to send you an e-mail since it was not configured for my server accounts.
3. So tried to 'switch users' and come back in as Glenn to give you the news. BUT, when I go to the 'switch users' pull down menue in the start menu corner of the desktop what is listed is TNG and 'Other User'. When I clikc on Other User I get a fill-in-the box asking for user name and password. When I enter 'Glenn' as the user and enter my password I get an error message "User name or password is incorrect."
4. Same thing when I log-off. I'm now given a screen with the log-in icons "TNG" and "Other User". With same results when I try to log in under the Other User as "Glenn". 
5. YET in TNG when I go to the Control Panel/User Accounts I can see three accounts listed - TNG as an administrator, Glenn as an administrator, and Guest with the account noted as 'off'.
6. Same when I reboot - am given the log in options of TNG or Other User.
7. Result - can't seem to find my way back to logging in as Glenn - so had to start up my laptop and log in with it to to the forum in order send you this message.

But - nevertheless - we seem to be making progress!!!! At least LR itself appears to be OK when accessed via the computr's TNG user account!!!


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 22, 2010)

Well, maybe a case of one step forward and two steps back!!!

If I remember, user-names as well as passwords are case sensitive, so obvious question is are you sure that you've entered everything correctly? I assume you have, in which case we may have a problem getting you back....but as I'm pretty sure the Glenn account has been corrupted that may not be too much of a problem. The biggest problem will be getting access to all your settings, and of course your data, e.g. your Outlook PST file. Question: how comprehensive is your backup process? In other words if we can't get you back as Glenn how much of a disaster would that be? Too late now, but I should have told you to take a backup before we started this....sorry!!

You mentioned earlier that you may have renamed the Administrator account....can you think about that and let me know for sure?

You could try entering Administrator as the user-name when clicking on Other User. For password you could try either leaving blank or your Glenn password.

Check those few things out while I'm having a think.....


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

tried those various combiantions and none worked - HOWEVER I notice that under the TNG log-in when I go to Control Panel/Manage Usr Accounts that I can reset the password for Glenn, change the name of that account, etc. Of course - since TNG was set to have administrator priviledges. How about that approach - should I try resetting the Glenn password and/or its name?

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

TNG

forgot to respond to you question on backup - yes, I 'successfully' ran my Windows backup program on last Sunday and that backup is no my external P 'backup' drive. I quess I could run the 'restore' but can one do that under the TNG log in?


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 22, 2010)

Can't think that it would make matters any worse! But do it one step at a time, i.e. try resetting the password first (ideally leave the new password blank for the time being). Try that first and let me know how you get on....the thing I don't know if if you'll need to enter a valid OLD password before you can enter a new one.

Let's leave the backup restore for know, it's just good to know that you have a fairly recent one available.


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

OK here's the results:
1. I went in under the TNG log and via Control PAne/Manage Other Account rest the password for Glenn to a blank. Then tried via 'switch user' to log in using the "Glenn" name in the user name box and leaving the password box blank. It did not ask me for the old password. All I got was a error message that the user name or password is wrong. So then rebooted the computer and tried again to log in under "Other User" as Glenn with no password. Same results.
2. So then I reset the password for Glenn, with same result. Typing in the user name and the new password still did not get me log in when I tried the 'switch user' approach. BTW when I reset the new password under Manage Accounts the icon displayed in the Control Panel/Manage Other Accounts changed to read "Glenn" with "Administrator" and "Password Protected". The later phrase - "password protected" did not appear with the original icon. This suggests to me that the original Glenn log-in had no password protection and I recall that when I was originally logging in before all I was doing was clicking on the Glenn icon - the log in did not ask for a password. My mistake in thinking I had set one for it!!!!

3. So I then reset the icon via Manage User Accounts back to being blank, and tried logging in again via 'switch user'. Same result - get an error message that the "User name or password is wrong." This might suggest that dispite the icon for the account reading as "Glenn" and that name appearing in Manage Accounts menu that the name must be in error or is corrupted somehow/somewhere
4. I then tried logging in with the name "Administrator" and no password. Get an error message "Your account has been disabled. Please see your system administrator."

That's all I've tried so far - with the results noted above. I'm off to a dinner meeting tonight so when not get back to any nextg steps until later tonight - likely around 1' pm my time.

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 22, 2010)

TNG

the initial sentence in point 3 above should have read "I reset the user password to being a blank", not the icon being a blank.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 22, 2010)

OK, interesting....and somewhat confusing.

One thing you could try is changing the NAME of the Glenn account....suggest something simple like all upper-case GLENN, again with no password and see if that changes things at all.

I'll catch up with you in the morning....if this renaming doesn't get your account back we'll have to try enabling the apparently disabled Administrator account....instructions to follow.


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

OK - tried to change the name to GLENN [without any password] and got an error message that the change could not be completed because "there is an account with the same name". Then tried changing the account name to GLENN1 - system accepted the change BUT when I then tried to log in via 'switch users' I received another error message: "The user name or password is incorrect."

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 23, 2010)

OK, not so case sensitive as I thought! :-[

The fact that you can change the name and password, but still have it not recognised is sort of pointing to a corrupt profile....to be honest though I'm still concerned that there may be a bigger issue in your operating system, and so I'm a bit nervous about trying new things in case we are on a slippery slope and anything else we do may just make matters worse.

The biggest concern is getting access to your data that you had stored under the Glenn userid....Documents, Pictures, Music, etc...if we can get access to the main Administrator account that would put some of my concerns to rest, so perhaps we should try that first.

EDIT: before doing ANY of the below actions, could you just try one simple check? Logon as TNG and open the Windows Explorer, browse to Computer&gt;Local Disk (C)&gt;Users and click to expand the list. You should see a folder with the Glenn1 username, try clicking on that to see if you can open the folder (as an administrator you SHOULD be able to get access, though you may get a dialog box asking for you to "Continue" to get access permission). If this works and you can see all the Glenn1 folders then that would be great news and you can forget the rest below. Could you let me know what happens BEFORE we decide to use the following instructions? Thanks. (What I'm trying to do here is ensure we have acces to your data BEFORE we do something drastic - which I think we will end up doing anyway - such as deleting your original user account (because I think we agree it is corrupt in some way) and then rebuilding it....we need to copy the data/settings etc. to someplace where we can use it to rebuild a new account a step at a time).

DO NOT USE THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS UNTIL WE'VE DISCUSSED THE RESULTS OF THE ABOVE CHECK!

To enable the Administrator account, go to Start&gt;All Programs&gt;Accessories. Click on Accessories to expand the folder, then *right-click* on Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator. When the command prompt starts, you need to enter the following at the prompt:

*net use administrator /active:yes*

Enter that exactly as above, there are 3 spaces there, after _net_, after _use_ and after _administrator_. There is *not* a space between the '/' and the word _active_. Check and double-check that you've entered the command correctly then press the return key to execute the command.

You should get the response "The command completed successfully" followed by a new prompt. If that happens just close the window, and reboot the computer. 

IF at the logon screen you see the Administrator userid as an option, choose that and hopefully the system will build the account and we will be good to go sort out the problem.

IF on the other hand you get the choice between TNG and "Other User", select "Other User" and attempt to logon using the Administrator credentials (no password).

Any problems with any of the above, no doubt you'll let me know!!

BTW, not sure how much I'm going to be around during the day over here, will try to check in as and when I can, but definitely will be around from about 2''' my time (15'' yours)...


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

TNG

OK - I'm off to some meetings this morning so will carry out your instructions when I get back - likely around 1':3' am my time.

BTW - a thought I had - I notice that when I look via Windows Explorer into my destop C and D drives [the computer with the issues] and go to the 'User' sub-directories that nowhere in either drive do I see a directory called 'Glenn' - what I see are directories with the names like "User" etc - In contrast to my laptop [running on XP] where I can see a directory with the name "Glenn". I wonder if the profile icon "Glenn" is actually pointing to one of these.

glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 23, 2010)

Interesting.....and it probably means you won't be able to do the first thing I wanted you to do! 

First thing then....using Windows Explorer, browse to the C Drive, Users Folder, click to expand it so that we can see what user sub-folders are there and let me have a screenshot of the display? That would be a good starting point....


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

OK - attached are the screen shoots of the User directories in Drives C - System and Drive D - Programs. This is taken from what shows up being logged in as TNG with administrator priviledges using Windows Explorer.

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 23, 2010)

Thanks Glenn. Re the Users folder on the D drive....I don't know what that is (possibly a hangover from your Vista days) but with a modified date of May last year we can discount that for the time being.

Going back to the C drive, therefore, you have 3 sets of user folders: Public (what used to be the "shared" folders which would be available to all users and any homegroup members), TNG (your current logon) and User. Looking at the last modified date, it would seem likely that "User" is in fact your Glenn(1) account which you renamed from "User" sometime in the past (when you rename a user account, the actual folder name is NOT renamed - this can cause lots of confusion). So what we need to do is to click on that "User" entry in Explorer on your C drive to see if it will expand as per the Public and TNG folders. If it does, we are in business! :fi_lone_ranger: If it doesn't we have to try something else. :icon_frown:

Have a go and let me have a screenshot if you can....


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

Ureka!!! I tried my thought - while logged in as TNG I went to switch users and clicked on the icon labled "Other Users" - then in the fill in box for users name I typed in "User" without any password - and lo and behold was switched to my previous desktop for "Glenn".

So questions at this stage seem to be:
1. Why does the profile account "Glenn" not result in capacity to use in switch users the user name Glenn but instead requires the user name "User" to activite?
2. Why does the initial boot up desktop log in icons, when previous logged in as TNG only display two log in icons - a TNG one and a "Other Users" one?


Now that I have the GLENN desktop displayed am going to shut down the computer and restart - my theory is that this time the boot up display will show two icons only "Glenn" and "Other Users". If so then the 3rd question is:
3. Why does not the desktop display 3 log in icons - Glenn, TNG, and Other Users?


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

TNG

So - now logged in with the Glenn destop here are the screen shots for the C and D drives with the expanded "User" folders displayed.
Question - why do the user profiles show up under both the C - System and D - Programs drives and is one of these sets [C or D] irrelevant?


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 23, 2010)

Well done...that was one of the things I was going to suggest, but you beat me to it!!

Re your questions: I think the Logon screen only displaying the choice of "Last Logged On User" and "Other User" is possibly a 'feature' of Home Premium....on my Professional versions it doesn't work that way.

I really do not know why you need to enter "User" instead of Glenn when using the "Other User" option.....what happens now when you logon, does the logon screen give you "User" and "Other User" or do you get "Glenn" and "Other User"?

And as to why you have a Users folder on your D drive, sorry I really do not know....as I suggested it may be a legacy of Vista days.

Going forward, now that the panic to get access to the Glenn account is (for the moment) over, we can think about what to do next. Before making a final decision, however, it would be useful for you to conduct two further Lightroom tests:

1. Logged on as Glenn/User, try to launch Lightroom by double-clicking on your master catalog (i.e. repeating the test we did a couple of days ago). If the installer tries to start up, cancel it. If it doesn't, check to see if you have access to all your drives for import/backup purposes.

2. Log off (don't use Switch User), and logon as TNG and repeat the exercise.

I'm just wanting to make absolutely certain that there is still a difference in the way that Lightroom operates under the different user accounts.

Let me know what happens, and we can discuss what to do....


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

For some curious reason I have lost in LR the linkages to a number of my folders. For example, when I attempt to back up my LR catalog to an external drive the "choose" pull down menu in the catalogue backup routine does NOT display any of my external hard drives nor most of the seperate internal drives. All that is listed is a hierarchial list of my personal 'C' drive user folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music". Thus I cannot choose the external hard drive where I previously stored my catalog backups. Yet my computer itself recognizes these drives, when I clikc on the "Computer" or the "Windows Explorere" icons, all my internal and external drives are recognzied and listed.

Likewise, I only see the same folder structure as above, in LR when I run the import command and attempt to move or copy RAW images to an external hard drive. When I click on the "choose" pull down menu in the "copy to" listing for the "copy photos to a new location and add to catalog" command, none of my extrnal drives or internal drives are listed. All that is listed is the various 'user' folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music".

Any idea what has happened and how to fix the problem? I've tried rebooting the commputer and relaunching LR but to no avail in solving the problem. 

I'm runing LR2.6 on a 4G RAM board, using Windows 7. The computer system and LR worked fine two weeks ago when leaving on a photo trip to Jordon I shut everything down - depowered the computer and the external drives. When I returned this week and repowered the unit, LR could not recognize any of my external drives or most of the internal ones. The assigned drive letters for all my external drives had been altered for some reason by the boot-up and LR could not find the external drive with the catalog. I had to copy the catalog to the internal system drive and have LR load it from there. And with none of the external drives being reconized or even listed with their new drive letters I cannot direct LR as to what drives it should access.

Appreciate any advice on this issue.


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

my theory vis the 3rd question was right - when logged in on the Glenn desktop and when I restart the computer I'm presented with two log in icons on the restart - one named "Glenn" and the other "Other Users". So result is:
1. when logged in on the Glenn desktop when I want to swithc to TNG account, I have to go to the "Other Users" and type in the user name "TNG"; but
2. when logged in on the TNG desktop when I want to go back to the Glenn desktop account I have to go to the "Other Users" and type in the user name "User" in order to bring up the Glenn account.

As for the further tests you requested:
1. Logged in as Glenn/User and launching LR - in the backup catalog location choice pull down menu all that appears is the word 'Desktop' and under it the folder "Glenn' - expanding that Glenn folder merely displays the various sub-folders for the profile. There is not "computer' folder to expand and no listing of the various other internal and external drives like D, E, F, L, N, P and Q - even though in Windows Explorer these drives are lsited and accessible.
2. Logged in as Glenn/User and double clicking via Explorer on the master catalog I get a message that Adobe LR is "trying to configure LR 2.6" and this then switches to a message "Feature ...is on a network resource that is unavailable" [and is using the 'use source' C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{83BB4A4I....". When I then click on the 'browse' to search for an alternative source I can get access to all my internal and external drives. Since my LR program is actually lodged on my drive D - Programs I went to that drive as D:\Users\User\AppData\local but all that is listed therein is a folder called 'Microsoft' - there is no folder 'Temp'. If I then clikc on the "OK" button I get another error message like the screen shot I sent the other day - to wit - "The path C:\Users\User\AppData\Temp ...." cannot be flund. Verify you have access to this location and try again or try to find the installation package 'Adobe_Lightroom.msi' in a folder from which you can installthe product Adobe PS LR 2.6."

Am now going to log off and reboot and logon as TNG and repeat the exercise.

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

OK - ran the second test. Logged off and logon on as TNG. Doubled clicked on my Master Catalog and GOT THE SAME RESULTS as the 1st test - get the message that Windows is trying to configure LR2.6, then the error messages that the "Feature ...is on a network resource that is unavailable" [and is using the 'use source' C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{83BB4A4I...."] and then the rest of the same set of error messages.

Then for curousity sake Im going to run another set of two tests - while logged on as TNG doubled clicked on the LR desktop icon and see what happens; and then comapre that result with the same test while logged in as Glenn/User. Will let you know the results asap.


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

Ran the second batch to two test, as follows:
1. Log in as Glenn/User, double click the LR desktop icon - LR backup catalog routine starts - can't change the backlog catalog directory locatio [under Choices pull down menu all that is listed is the 'Glenn' folder with no listing that would get me to any of the drives]. However, then told it to SKIP the backup - LR then loads my maste catalog, successfully, and clickling on 'Import' gives me access availability to ALL of the drives [internal and external].
2. Logged off and log in as TNG - double click on the desktop LR icon - lo and byhold the backup routine starts and under choices I've access to directing the backlog to any of my drives - all available. Likwise then the maste catalog loads and with the 'Import' routine all the drives are available.

So - there is a difference in the results for the two batches of tests:
A. When logged in as TNG between double clicking directly on the master catalog which results in an inability to start up LR - BUT I can start the LR program via the desktop icon with access to all drives for backup and importing. 
B. when logged in as User\Glenn when double clicking directly on the master catalog there's an inability to start up LR, - but I can start the LR program via the desktop icon but the backup routine will not let me change the directory location for the backup, while the import routine will give me access to all of my drives!!!!


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 23, 2010)

OK, it seems to me that we have two issues here:

1. There is a problem with the installation of Lightroom on your system, no matter which logon you are using, as launching by double-clicking on a catalog tries to install a missing feature which it thinks is/was on an unavailable network resource (was LR originally downloaded to a network drive and installed from there?). Regarding the missing file in the Temp directory, the fact that you had chosen to install on your D drive does NOT mean that the OS will use a User file on the same drive....it doesn't work that way, Windows will always put User data by default on the same drive as the main Windows installation (in your case the C drive). Those User files on your D drive haven't been updated since May last year and are just a distraction.

2. There is a further problem on your Glenn account which results in your drives not being available to the backup process.

Conclusion from all of this? Difficult to say with certainty....I have an uncomfortable feeling that there's an underlying problem in your operating system which may come back to bite you in the future....for sure I would be thinking about doing a clean fresh install of Win7 if this were my system - though I do understand that you may not be to enamoured with that idea! 

I had certainly thought we were headed down a route of trashing your Glenn account and rebuilding a new profile, but if you are game we could just try to fix the definite problem in front of us (i.e. Lightroom) and go on from there. If you are happy with that approach, then suggest you logon as Glenn and leave the TNG account dormant for the time being (but don't delete it yet).

To fix Lightroom will almost certainly involve an uninstall/reinstall, but before that we could I guess try trashing the preferences file (seems to be a bit of a miracle cure in many cases).

If you are happy to proceed down this path, let me know and I'll get the instructions ready.....


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

TNG

I'm comfortable being in your hands and certainly willing go with your advice, including reinstalling Win 7 if that's your conclusion. In preapring the instructions for me one thing we should do I believe is back up the various LR preesets, etc. While I have some on the original disks most are ones I have downloaded from various LR forums and I have collected from others - not looking forward to having to find them on the internet and have to download them again - so I'd apprecaite the steps on how to do a backup save of these to we can subsequently reinstall them.


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

Forgot to answer you other question - vis the original installation. 
I installed LR 2.1 via an Adobe LR CD that I still have. This was as an upgrade from an earlier LR1 installation, for which I no longer have the CD [least can't readily find it]. Subsequent upgrades to the LR 2.1 version were done via 'upgrade' procedure over the internet from the Adobe LR site.


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 23, 2010)

Jim's doing a great job, so I won't interfere and confuse things. With regard to your installation CD's, that won't matter at all as long as you have the LR1 and LR2 serial numbers. You'll just download the latest 2.7 update and enter the serial numbers into that.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 23, 2010)

[quote author=Potus5 link=topic=9619.msg65224#msg65224 date=1272'51426]
TNG

I'm comfortable being in your hands and certainly willing go with your advice, including reinstalling Win 7 if that's your conclusion. In preapring the instructions for me one thing we should do I believe is back up the various LR preesets, etc. While I have some on the original disks most are ones I have downloaded from various LR forums and I have collected from others - not looking forward to having to find them on the internet and have to download them again - so I'd apprecaite the steps on how to do a backup save of these to we can subsequently reinstall them.
[/quote]

Preserving your Lightroom settings was going to be the first step in the instructions.  

At this stage possibly a full Win7 re-install may be a step too far....the only reason I'd be thinking about it on one of my own machines would largely because I'm very comfortable with doing rebuilds and have learnt over the years which settings I need to backup and where they are, so the whole exercise becomes almost enjoyable....like starting over. 

But for now, let's just try to fix Lightroom and see how we go, we have lots of options should things not work out. Let's start with simply trashing the preferences file and see if that has any effect. First question is: where do you keep your settings? There's a setting in LR's preferences which allows you to store your settings in the same folder as the catalog, though by default this is NOT checked in which case your settings would be stored in your User account AppData. 

Do you know for sure if you've set that switch? If you can't recall, simply start Lightroom as normal (remember you should now be logged on as Glenn again) and go to Edit&gt;Preferences&gt;Presets and see if that setting is checked or unchecked. 

If it IS checked, then in Windows Explorer, browse to the folder where you keep your main catalog and there should be a folder called Lightroom Settings there. Expand it and take a screenshot.

If it is NOT checked, then in Explorer browse to C:/users/user/appdata/roaming/adobe/lightroom. Open this folder and again take a screenshot.

Question: do you have any plug-ins installed in Lightroom? If so, do you know where you store them (as this is user-definable I believe).

Talk to you later....


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

TNG

Progress  Answers to your questions/direction:
1. Yes, the switch was checked for the saved settings - in Edit&gt;Preferences&gt;Presets the box was checked on for "Store presets with catalog".
2. For curiousity I also clicked on the adjacent dialog box "Show LR Presets Folder" - this showed the folder location as C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom and under it were a host of folders for my presets, plugins, etc.
3. Using Explorer I then checked on the drive where my maste catalog is maintained - my internal F drive - F:\Lightroom\Glenn's Master LR Catalog\Lightroom Settings - attached is a screen capture of the folder.
4. Yes, I have plug in installed - they appear to be lodged in C:\Users\User\AppData\Adobe\Lightroom. A screen capture of the folder is attached. 

If I'm missing anything you need let me know.

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 23, 2010)

Thanks Glenn, that's very useful....at least now we know where everything is should we need it.

No need for taking copies yet, we'll just trash the preferences file first to see if it has any effect (probably unlikely, but worth a shot). Browse back to C:\users\user\appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom....expand to reveal the sub-folders and find the Preferences folder. Right-click on it and select Rename, which makes the name editable. Rename to something like OldPreferences and enter. Now you have no preferences file, so start Lightroom by using the desktop icon and it will start up as if it were a new installation (creating a new Preferences folder in doing so) with a new empty catalog. When it's started, choose File&gt;open Catalog and see if in the ensuing browser window you can browse to and select your master catalog.

If you can't browse there we still have a problem.....

Hope that's all clear?


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

Yes that worked. Renamed the Preferences folder as "Old Preferences", started LR via desktop icon, LR loaded with new empty catalog, went to File&gt;Open New - browser window that came up gave a pull down menu list of all my drives, I cycled through to the MAster Catalog and could see it BUT I didn't load it yet - not certain you wnated me to actually load it or merely see that the browser window in LR was working.

BTW - when LR started it asked me if I wanted to update to version 2.7 - I declined at this stage.

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 23, 2010)

OK....well that's a bit of progress!

Now do the other test....close down Lightroom then try the launch by double-clicking on the master catalog on your F drive...


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

OK - am doing that. It relaunched, I opened File&gt;Open Catalog and selected my Master Catalog in the F drive. Backup routine came up - this time it automatically set the backup directory as F:\Lightroom\Glenn's Master LR Catalog\Backups BUT in the Choose pull down menu to change the direcctory location all I still get is the "Glenn" option without any access to the other internal and external drives. I'll attach under a separate e-mail note a screen capture of this dialogue before I tell the routine to 'Skip' the backup for now [I've already got three copies backed up with today's date and there have been no changes to the catalog content. Master catalog seems to have loaded fine and the 'import' gives me full access to all of my drives.


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

here's the screen capture


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 23, 2010)

Sorry, I'm a little confused....which catalog did you double-click on to launch Lightroom?

And to try to summarise the current position....the only (at the moment) issue is that Lightroom will not let you choose a different location for storing your catalog backups? You can import from any of your drives, you can launch by double-clicking on a catalog, you can chage catalogs by selecting from any of your drives?


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## Potus5 (Apr 23, 2010)

Sorry - quess I was unclear. I doubled clicked on the LR desktop icon to launch LR after I ha renamed the "Prefeences" folder. LR then came up and I went to File&gt;Open Catalog and then browsed to the master catalog on my F drive to load it.I have NOT tried to launch LR by double-clicking on a catalog - do you want me to try that again - we did prior to renaming the Preferences folder but not since then?

In terms of issues - yes, you're right, the only (at the moment) issue is that LR will not let me choose a different location for storing the catalog backups. I can import from any of my drives.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 23, 2010)

Yes, we do need to try that launch by double-clicking on a catalog file. If that is still not working (and I can't think that it will) then we still have a significant issue to resolve....if you could quickly try that we might be ready to move to the next step....


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 24, 2010)

Glenn, I'm going to have to shut down for the night now....if you could just run that test and post the results I'll be able to think about the next steps and can post them in the morning..

Talk later.


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## Potus5 (Apr 24, 2010)

Ran the test of double clicking on the Master Catalog file while logged on as Glenn/User - same result - get an error messages - "function unavailable" and that Windows can't find the install file.

Saturday I'm out early in the morning but should be back at the computer by around 1':3' am my time.

Have a good rest!!!!!


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 24, 2010)

Good Morning! 

So, a brief summary....after a few days of effort we are still left with two basic problems:

1. You cannot choose where to create your backups using the "Browse for files and folders" dialog box. And this problem only started a few weeks ago? This is when logged on as Glenn, though when you are logged on as TNG this problem does not exist, YES?

2. When trying to launch Lightroom by double-clicking on a catalog file, an install process tries to start but fails. And this occurs when logged on as either user, YES? Although we haven't discussed this, I'm assuming that you do NOT normally start Lightroom this way? And if so, we really don't know how long that problem may have been lurking around, YES? 

Are you able to confirm all these YES questions?

Of these 2 issues, the first may be the most irritating to you so we should definitely try to fix that. The second MAY be a total non-issue if you never need to start LR that way, BUT it may be indicative of a deeper problem....so I think we should try to fix that also. 

We COULD simply do the LR2.7 upgrade and see if that works, but to be honest I'd much rather try to fix the problems we can see just in case we make things worse by trying that install. So IF you are happy to 'give it a go', lets start with the first problem and proceed as follows:

1. Ensure you are logged on as Glenn, and Lightroom is NOT active.
2. Using Windows Explorer, create a new folder in the root directory of your *D* drive, name it something like MyDesktop.
3. Browse to C:\Users\User\, expand this folder and right-click on the Desktop folder, and select Properties (right at the bottom).
4. In the Properties dialog box, click on the Location tab and select Move.
5. Another browser window opens, browse to that MyDesktop folder you previously created on the D drive, click on it to ensure it is selected and choose Select Folder at the bottom of the window.
6. You will then get a message asking if you want to move all the items in the folder, choose OK.
7. Windows will then quickly move your Desktop items to the new folder, and this will be transparent to you. It will leave an empty Desktop sub-folder in your User folder, please do NOT delete this!
8. If all of the above has worked OK, you can now start Lightroom as normal and check out the catalog backup option to see if anything has changed. I hope it will have (though if not you MAY need to reboot first). You may also need to 'force' this routine to wake up to the fact that other drives exist by selecting the new Desktop location and doing a backup. Then close and restart Lightroom to see what display you then get on a catalog backup....

Please let me know how you get on with that, and if you are curious about what this was all about, check out this:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/2652239

Basically it sounds like this is not a unique problem so we are just trying the workaround as documented here. If it works we could consider moving the desktop entries back and see if the problem recurs or stays fixed. The fact that the problem doesn't happen on the TNG account still makes me feel you have a problem with the Glenn user profile, but if this is the only problem and we have a workaround it will save you the hassle of rebuilding your profile for now.

Let me know how you get on, and if it works I'll send you the next set of instructions for the second problem.

Cheers!


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## Potus5 (Apr 24, 2010)

Hi - Good morning - am at my computer now.

Yes, in response to your questions:
1. Yes, I cannot choose where to create my backups using the "Browse for files and folders" dialog box. And this problem only started a few weeks ago? This is when logged on as Glenn, though when I am logged on as TNG this problem does not exist.

2. Yes, when trying to launch Lightroom, whether logged in as Glenn or as TNG, by double-clicking on a Mastre catalog file, an install process tries to start but fails. 

3. You are right - I normally do NOT start LR by double clicking on the catalog file - 1''% of the time I commence LR by double clikcing on the program's desktop icon. As such, yes, we don't know how long the problem has been occuring.

 BTW - I tried a couple of other cataloges I have - one from a trip to India in 2''9 [catalog dated '3/'6/2''9 and another an old test catalog I created in learning about catalogs - this had had called Glenn's Merged Overall Catalog created 14/1'/2''9. Double clicking on either of these other cataloges to launch Windows Installer as a way to start up LR results in the identical error messages - Windows Installer is unable to find a feature to launch LR.

I fully agree with you - I'd prefer to spend the time to fix the problem rather than risk making things worse by doing a LR2.7 upgrade - let's save that option as a 'final solution'!.

I'm now going to run the proceedure you set out in your note and will get back to on the results. 

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 24, 2010)

TNG

No luck - here's what happened.
1. Logged on as Glenn, and Lightroom was NOT active; using Windows Explorer successfully created a new folder in the root directory of my *D* drive, callled MyDesktop.
2. Browsed to C:\Users\User\, expand this folder and right-click on the Desktop folder, and selected Properties - in the Properties dialog box clicked on the Location tab and selected Move.
3. New browser window opened, went to the new MyDesktop folder on D, clicked on it and choose Select Folder at the bottom of the window. Got a message asking if I wanted to move all the items in the folder, choosed OK.
4. Windows moved my Desktop items to the new folder; leaving an empty Desktop sub-folder in my C:\Users\User folder - did NOT delete this.
5. Started LR via the program's desktop icon, backup routine started and asked if I wanted to save the backup catalog to my F drive [as before] - went to the Choose box to see if the other drives were available so I could save it to my Q drive [perr my old routine before this problem started]. No luck. No drives or access was to the drives was evidient.
6. So, I rebooted the computer to see if that would make a difference. Nothiong changed - attached is a screen capture of the resultant backup cataloge choose options. 

Not certain I understood what you meant when you said "You may also need to 'force' this routine to wake up to the fact that other drives exist by selecting the new Desktop location and doing a backup". Could see not way to force the backup location - how do you suggest I force it?

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 24, 2010)

TNG

forgot the screen catpture attachment - here it is.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 24, 2010)

[quote author=Potus5 link=topic=9619.msg65288#msg65288 date=1272124494]


Not certain I understood what you meant when you said "You may also need to 'force' this routine to wake up to the fact that other drives exist by selecting the new Desktop location and doing a backup". Could see not way to force the backup location - how do you suggest I force it?

Glenn
[/quote]

Thanks for that....what I basically meant was actually do a backup, but choosing the MyDesktop location. Try that, then restart to see if it makes a difference.


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## Potus5 (Apr 24, 2010)

TNG

I read the linked post you has sent me and for curiousity going to properties//security/advanced/owner, did check the 'ownership' of my various drives. VERY INTERESTING - they read differently as follows:
1. C drive owneer is set as "Glenn(RECROOM\User), with change options to Adminsitrators (RECROOM\Administrator)
2. Drives D through to N [my other internals E and F, and my 4 external drives Raided as two in the DROBO - drives L and N - have owner as "Administrator" with change option to Glenn (RECROOM\User);
3. My other two externals - P and Q - the owners are set as SYSTEM with change options to Glenn or Administrators.

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

For some curious reason I have lost in LR the linkages to a number of my folders. For example, when I attempt to back up my LR catalog to an external drive the "choose" pull down menu in the catalogue backup routine does NOT display any of my external hard drives nor most of the seperate internal drives. All that is listed is a hierarchial list of my personal 'C' drive user folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music". Thus I cannot choose the external hard drive where I previously stored my catalog backups. Yet my computer itself recognizes these drives, when I clikc on the "Computer" or the "Windows Explorere" icons, all my internal and external drives are recognzied and listed.

Likewise, I only see the same folder structure as above, in LR when I run the import command and attempt to move or copy RAW images to an external hard drive. When I click on the "choose" pull down menu in the "copy to" listing for the "copy photos to a new location and add to catalog" command, none of my extrnal drives or internal drives are listed. All that is listed is the various 'user' folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music".

Any idea what has happened and how to fix the problem? I've tried rebooting the commputer and relaunching LR but to no avail in solving the problem. 

I'm runing LR2.6 on a 4G RAM board, using Windows 7. The computer system and LR worked fine two weeks ago when leaving on a photo trip to Jordon I shut everything down - depowered the computer and the external drives. When I returned this week and repowered the unit, LR could not recognize any of my external drives or most of the internal ones. The assigned drive letters for all my external drives had been altered for some reason by the boot-up and LR could not find the external drive with the catalog. I had to copy the catalog to the internal system drive and have LR load it from there. And with none of the external drives being reconized or even listed with their new drive letters I cannot direct LR as to what drives it should access.

Appreciate any advice on this issue.


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## Potus5 (Apr 24, 2010)

TNG

Just started up LR to do the forced backup to MyDesktop as you suggested AND this time under Choose int he backup routine All OF THE DRIVES now appear???? Yet I have done nothing different or more than the the tests I just ran and reported to you. Very confusing development!!!!


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## Potus5 (Apr 24, 2010)

TNG

actually I forgt - I did do something since the test - I had started up LR and ran the backup routine to the F drive that was showing, shut LR done and then when you told me how to do the 'forced backup' to My Desktop I restarted LR and when the backup routine ran and I went to Choose to pick the My Desktop location that is when I found out all the other drives were now displayed.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 24, 2010)

Well on the whole I would say this sounds like good news.

Just to check....shutdown the computer, reboot, login as Glenn and start Lightroom and check to see if you take a backup to your Q drive.

If that works, we can maybe tick that box (though not forgetting we have to reset your preferences!), then move on to problem 2!

Let me know how the restart goes.


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## Potus5 (Apr 24, 2010)

Yes that worked fine - I shutdown the computer, reboot, login as Glenn and started Lightroom and checked to see that in the backup routine it would let me choose any of the drives - everything showed and I backed up to Q.

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 24, 2010)

Fantastic! Maybe that's one down and one to go!

Couple of things....

1. You now have your users Desktop folder on the D drive. We COULD switch it back, but that may or may not bring the problem back. My advice at the moment would be to leave it where it is....just remember that it's there and don't try to delete it!

2. Lightroom Preferences....on reflection I think it best that we DON'T put your old Preferences file back into play....resetting may have helped fix the problem so better safe than sorry. You just now need to spend a few minutes going through the Preferences settings as everything is now back to default and you may want to make some changes. For one thing you need to check the "Store presets with Catalog" box.

3. The TNG user account....might be a good idea to keep that for the time being until you are 1''% sure that your Glenn account is working as it should do.

4. Permissions on your drives....I didn't see anything there to be worried about. I am no expert by any means, but they seemed OK to me (I have a mix of System and Administrators ownerships as well).

Why don't you spend a few minutes having a poke around inside Lightroom, just checking that everything looks fine (no missing files/folders, all presets and plugins still available, etc), while I prepare the instructions for trying to deal with problem 2 (which I think you are misunderstanding....double-clicking a catalog shouldn't be trying to INSTALL Lightroom, it should just simply be another way to START Lightroom). No matter, it shouldn't be doing what it's doing so let's try to fix that!

Be back soon....


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 24, 2010)

OK....assuming everything is still OK, here are the instructions for trying to fix the “trying to install when launching a catalog directly” problem:

This may simply be a broken or corrupted file-type/program association, so let’s try changing that. Proceed as follows:

1. Control Panel&gt;Default Programs&gt;Associate a file type or protocol with a program.
2. Scroll down to find the .lrcat extension, click to select it then click on Change Program (top right).
3. An “Open With” dialog box opens which may have a list of various programs in it, and which may include Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.6
4. If you see it, click on it to select it and click OK to confirm the selection.
5. If you do NOT see it, click on “Browse” and browse to the location where Lightroom is installed (probably D:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.6). Click to open the folder and select the file “lightroom.exe”, and click on “Open”. 
6. This will return you to the “Open With” dialog box, but now with Lightroom selected. Click OK to confirm and you are done.

It MAY be necessary to also change the associations for the other Lightroom file types (.lrdb, lrmodule, lrtoolkit and lrweb), but don’t do that yet. Having made the change, try to launch your catalog by double-clicking on it and keeping your fingers crossed!

Let me know what happens!


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## Potus5 (Apr 24, 2010)

TNG

Yes, that worked. I can open LR via double clicking on the master catalog


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 24, 2010)

Excellent.....sounds like my work is done!  

Have that poke around Lightroom, and stay on the lookout for any more unusual happenings. Don't forget that we never got to the bottom of whatever kicked this whole situation off.

Enjoy getting back to Lightroom....

Cheers,
TNG


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## Potus5 (Apr 24, 2010)

TNG

Thanks for you time and perserverence - I'm in your debt. I've reset the associations for the other LR files like lrweb, etc. And I agree to hold off on the TNG account, etc until I see how things work for awhile.

What about upgrading to LR2.7 - should I also hold off for now, or should I soon upgrade and if so how do I do a 'clean upgrade'?

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 24, 2010)

Re the upgrade.....just give everything a few days to make sure there are no lurking gremlins, especially a few days use of Lightroom. If no problems have cropped up, I would think you could upgrade at your leisure. Regarding a 'clean install', I would think now that we have sorted out the issues you were having then a standard upgrade process should be OK. Doing a 'full uninstall' first, rather than let the Lightroom upgrade process do it for you, risks losing some of your settings (though I could easily be wrong about that!).

My best advice therefore is to choose the 'upgrade' option which pops up every time you start LR at a time to suit you. No doubt if things go wrong we can chat some more! Don't forget, as Victoria mentioned, to make sure you have your serial number(s) handy before you start.

Good luck, Glenn....it's been fun! 

EDIT: the settings issue is really no big deal, we can easily save those out before an uninstall and copy them back in again after installing 2.7....so don't let that put you off. If you want a 'clean install' we can do that.


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## Brad Snyder (Apr 25, 2010)

Whew, how 'bout a round of applause for TNG!


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 25, 2010)

Hip hip hooray! Well done TNG! And Glenn for sticking with it too!


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## Jddolbee (Apr 25, 2010)

That kind of support is what makes this forum so great!

jim


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## Potus5 (Apr 25, 2010)

TNG

AW - nuts - Its doing it partially again :'( . 

Yesterday when I told you LR seemed to be working fine while I had actually done a backup to the 'correctly desired' drive and folder I had not done an actual import of images - I had merely clicked on the import command box and examine what drives/foldrs where listed as available - all my drives were displayed.

However, last night I tried to do an image import from an Epson P-3''' Multimedia Storage Viewer which I had connected to my computer for the occassion via a USB cable. However on loading LR and then attempting to import the images from the Storage Viewer [the location of the storage viewer showed up with no problem and I selected the images I wanted to copy and add to the catalog and selected my Q-RAW external hardrive as the location for the save, BUT the import process then froze - no import occured and eventually LR 'unfroze' but returned me to the LR Library module screen without doing the import. I decided to shout LR down as well as the computer since I did not have time available to redo anything - was on my way out to a musical show with my wife.

So, today I rebooted my computer and started up LR - it ran the backup routine with no problem - choice of backup location for the catalog listed every drive and I saved a backup of the catalog to my prefered external drive/folder - Q. Thinking that perhaps the import freezing problem of the previous day might have been related to the fact that my Epson Storage Viewer had almost 4'G of RAW images on it that I had selected was was trying to copy and save to the maste catalog I decided to attempt an import from only one compact flash card that had just over 1G of images [6 RAWS]. 

So I inserted the CF card into the built in card reader in the computer. Computer reconized it with no problem and in Windows Explorer I could see the details of the images on the card. I started LR and it loaded no problem; the back up routine ran with no problem [aatached is a copy of the browser sceen for that routine] and the LR desktop open. I clicked on the import command box and it let me select the six images on the card for importing. HOWEVER, the 'copy' to location was showing up as my C:\\Users\User\My Pictures folder and when I then went to the choose browser box to select another location all that displayed in the pull downh menu this time was my desktop user folders. None of my drives displayed. Attached is a screen capture for the browser's listing. 

So - the problem line is that while the backup routine is fine, the LR import routine seems is not. I'm back in your hands - unfortunately for you : ; I'm sorry for being such a pain.

Glenn

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 25, 2010)

TNG

forgot to mention that after this problem reappeared today I did run the test of attempting to do the double click on the LR master catalog as the vehicle to launch LR - to see if that method would allow me to run import and select the drive/folder I wanted for my image save. However, while the double click method did launch LR [ so that problem from yesterday seems OK now] and LR again ran the backup catalog routine fine - allowing me to save the backup to the desired drive/folder; I had the same problem [as per what happened launching LR from the desktop icon] with the import routine - no ability to select the desired drive/folder.

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 25, 2010)

OK Glenn, no worries. Got a few jobs on the go at the minute, but I'll be back to you in an hour or so with some suggestions to try.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 25, 2010)

Sorry, one very quick thing you could try which we discussed a few days ago but never actually tried....start Lightroom by *right-clicking* on the desktop icon and selecting "Run as Administrator". When LR starts, repeat the test of importing from CF card and let me know if there is anything different when you try to change the 'copy to' location. Thanks


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## Potus5 (Apr 25, 2010)

OK - will do. One other thing I've just noticed - the "Identify Plate" showing up on my LR 2.6 is the standard one, not the custom "Glenn Bloodworth Photography" that I had activated some time ago. I can't tell you for certain it that custom ID plate was or was not displaying over the past several days - didn't notice. But it certainly was displayying correctly a month ago!! 

AND one thing that was activated yesterday for certain in my preferences was that the "save presets with catalog" box was checked for certain!!!. You has asked me yesterday to see if it was checked and I examined it to see. And it was checked on at that point Now, this afternoon, when I checked the Preferences/Presets tab the save with catalog WAS NOT CHECKED. So some "small" things seem to have gotten altered in my preferences settings - I've checked the rest of the tabs and nothing else seems to have been altered. I've rerun my backup catalog to ensure the latest backup copy has the presets saved. I've also saved a copy of my plug-ins to an external backup folder. 

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 25, 2010)

TNG

ran the 'right click' on the desktop icon and run LR as an adminstrator. Same results - no drives appear listed as an location to select under the choose browser pull down menu.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 25, 2010)

OK, sounds like we're not done yet! A few issues there, let's tackle them one by one....starting with the missing drives when trying to use the "copy to" function.

What I'd like you to do is insert a CF card into your card reader and start LR as normal. Does the import routine launch automatically or only when you select "Import"? Whatever, let's get the import function running and as you're loading from a card you'll want to be using "copy to a location and add to catalog". So that we don't end up with individual images and part folders all over the place, suggest you just select a couple of images from the card and *choose MyDesktop* as the copy to location (it IS available in the drop-down list after you hit the Choose button.

Import the picture and check it imports OK. If is does, close down Lightroom and restart it. Start the Import dialog again, choosing the card reader as the import source, then in the Copy To location hit the Choose button to see if all your drives are available. If not, cancel the import, close down LR, reboot the PC and try again....

Let me know what happens.


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## Potus5 (Apr 25, 2010)

TNG

Ok - 
1. I inserted the CF card into the card reader and started LR as normal - import routine didi NOT launch automatically - only when I selected "Import" - when I clicked on the import box it identiifed that the images where on an "I" drive [my card reader].
2. I selected the images then used "copy to a location and add to catalog" and saved seven images to my Desktop - that location option was available in the pull down menu under Choose. 
3. Looks to have imported correctly 
4. Closed down Lightroom and relaunched it - let the backup catalog routine run. 
5. Started the Import dialog again, card reader was shown as the import source, then in the Copy To location I hit the Choose button - none of my drives were available - only locations showing were "Desktop" and under it the folder "Glenn".
6. Canceled the import, closed down LR, and am now rebooting the PC and trying again.... will let you know the result.


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## Potus5 (Apr 25, 2010)

OK - shut down the computer and rebooted. Interesting:
1. Computer booted up - with the CF card left in the card reader.
2. However, my Drobo hardrive did not load up - received an error message that Windows could not load the "device driver". Ran the MS recommended procedure to let Windows update the driver but all I then got was a message that there were no updates required. I unplugged the power to the device and unhocked the USB cable from the computer and then after a 2' second delay reconnected everything. Drobo ran its start check sequence but then shut down and did not connect. 
3. At this stage LR then started automatically - the backup routine came on asking me if I wanted to make a backup. I clicked on 'Skip' and LR immediately launched into the import procedure to copy the images from the CF card. I checked the location browser - and no drives were listed, only the same "Desktop" and "Glenn" folders. So I canceled the import and shut LR down.
4. I unloaded the CF card from the card reader and my Drobo unit restarted its start up sequence and completed it - coming on. The unit stayed on for around 1 minute then clicked itself off.
5. It's almost as if the Drobo unit is conflicting with the card reader so I'm now going to reboot the computer without the CF in the card reader. Will let you know the results.
3.


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## Potus5 (Apr 25, 2010)

TNG

OK - rebooted and the Drobo unit seems fine - least it seems to be staying on and I can read the two drives in it and the Drobo diagnositic says "unit is healthy!".

So - relaunched LR, ran the backup routine and then clicked on the import box to see if I could import the images from the MyDesktop folder. Sure enough - the import photos or Lightroom Catalog window the browser now displays - in the "Look in" box it shows "Desktop", in the left hand column it has highlighted the 'Desktop' icon.. In the large area of the browser window it shows icons for 'Computer' et and when I click on the Computer icon the window displays all of my drives, and I can drill down to the respective sub-floders. I did not run an import again since the images from MYDesktop are already listed in the catalog. I have not closed down LR and anything else - waiting on your instruction as to the next step. Presumably we want to verify again that LR on import can display all of the drives.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 25, 2010)

Sorry Glenn, when it comes to problems with your Drobo unit we'll need to call in support....I have no experience with these devices at all. I DO know that in some circumstances trying to reboot with a CF card still in the card reader CAN be unpredictable, at least it certainly was with my last desktop although my current one is fine.

OK, back to the import problem. It sounds as if we are making progress. Could you now try another import from the card reader and see if you can choose your usual "copy to" location (Q drive?). You'll need to use a different image from the first attempt of course (and at some point you'll need to remember to delete that first one from your catalog AND computer and reimport to the proper location).


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## Potus5 (Apr 26, 2010)

Ok - understand about the Drobo unit.

On the LR issue:
1. I insert the CF into the card reader AND LR's backup routine *automatically* came up. I ran the backup.
2. Once backup completed LR automatically swithced to display the import photos window BUT the copy to is showing as "D:\MyDesktop", and when I go to the choose pull down menu all that is displayed is the Desktop with the Glenn folder. No drives are listed, no 'computer' icon, etc.

Interesting that the previous relaunch with all the drives displayed has not held in LR. 
3. So I attempted to copy the images to MYDesktop - got an error message that the "files already exist in the catalog". Went to the D:\MyDesktop folder in the LR library module and deleted them from the catalog. Closed LR. 
4. Relaunched LR, backup routine started, LR library module came up [but not the automatic launch of the Import command]. Went back to the import box in LR, manually choose 1 image from the CF card in the card reader, clicked on the choose location box to set the location and all the browser displayed again was the Desktop with the "Glenn" folder. Imported the image to MyDesktop.

That's it - have closed LR but have not rebooted the computer again. Is that what I should do no?

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 21, 2010)

For some curious reason I have lost in LR the linkages to a number of my folders. For example, when I attempt to back up my LR catalog to an external drive the "choose" pull down menu in the catalogue backup routine does NOT display any of my external hard drives nor most of the seperate internal drives. All that is listed is a hierarchial list of my personal 'C' drive user folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music". Thus I cannot choose the external hard drive where I previously stored my catalog backups. Yet my computer itself recognizes these drives, when I clikc on the "Computer" or the "Windows Explorere" icons, all my internal and external drives are recognzied and listed.

Likewise, I only see the same folder structure as above, in LR when I run the import command and attempt to move or copy RAW images to an external hard drive. When I click on the "choose" pull down menu in the "copy to" listing for the "copy photos to a new location and add to catalog" command, none of my extrnal drives or internal drives are listed. All that is listed is the various 'user' folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music".

Any idea what has happened and how to fix the problem? I've tried rebooting the commputer and relaunching LR but to no avail in solving the problem. 

I'm runing LR2.6 on a 4G RAM board, using Windows 7. The computer system and LR worked fine two weeks ago when leaving on a photo trip to Jordon I shut everything down - depowered the computer and the external drives. When I returned this week and repowered the unit, LR could not recognize any of my external drives or most of the internal ones. The assigned drive letters for all my external drives had been altered for some reason by the boot-up and LR could not find the external drive with the catalog. I had to copy the catalog to the internal system drive and have LR load it from there. And with none of the external drives being reconized or even listed with their new drive letters I cannot direct LR as to what drives it should access.

Appreciate any advice on this issue.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 26, 2010)

Glenn,

A couple of thoughts.....on re-reading your first post today you mentioned first of all the problem you had last night trying to import from the Epson Storage device (which presumably is a USB connection?). I think what you were saying is that when you tried the import *all of your drives, or at least the Q drive was available at the time.* However, after the aborted import attempt, subsequent import attempts using CF card only failed as your drives were no longer available? If this is correct I wonder if the Epson device has somehow caused these missing drive problems. Question: were you trying to use this device after your trip when the problems first started?

The other issue, your missing Identity Plate: although I have no experience of using these, I strongly suspect that they are stored in the Preferences file (no doubt Queen Victoria or one of the other Gurus will quickly correct me is that assumption is wrong). In which case the very simple explanation for the missing plate is because we effectively "reset" your preferences yesterday. The remedy is either restore your original preferences file, OR you recreate the identity plate....if the latter is difficult we'll go with the former....but lets sort the import problem first.

OK, have just seen your last post, disappointing. Please clarify something for me....when I start start LR *with a CF card inserted* and then I hit Import I get a small dialog box with the option to use the card reader, or to choose files from elsewhere. *Depending on which option I choose, I get a different browser window, one having the "copy to location and add to catalog" option, the other having the "add files to catalog from current location" option*, is this the case with you. What I'm trying to establish is if BOTH dialogs exhibit the same "missing drives" problem, or is it only the import from card routine which causes the problem?

So, can you run another test: with the card removed, use import and see if you can import a file from your Q drive (you don't need to complete the import, just let me know if you can browse to that volume).

Shutting down now. After the above test, could you do one more thing: please logoff as Glenn and logon as TNG ((don't use the switch user option, do a proper logoff/logon) and try the import from CF card test to see if you are able to choose your Q drive as the 'copy to' location.

Post the results and I'll catch up with you tomorrow.


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## Potus5 (Apr 26, 2010)

TNG

To answer your questions:

1. Yes, the Epson P-3''' Storage Viewer is a USB connection.
2. Yes, last night when I tried the import from my Epson device all of your drives were available at the time. However, after the aborted import attempt, subsequent import attempts using CF card 'failed' in that I could only mport to my D:\MyDeskTop folder, all my drives were no longer available.
3. Yes, I was trying to use that device after my trip when the problems started - HOWEVER I had used the device on numerous occassions before the trip without any problems. 
4. The other issue, my missing Identity Plate - when I went to Edit&gt;Identify Plate Setup the "Glenn Bloodworth Photogrpahy" custom plate was there - what had happened was that the box was no longer checked to "Enable Identify Plate: Custom". So when I chekced that box the identify plate then changed from the LR 2.6 default back to my custom plate. Somehow the enabling of the custom had been turned off - it was not missing or distroyed, merely not active. 

5. Vis my last post, sorry for the confusion. disappointing. When I start LR with a CF card inserted and I hit Import I get a small dialog box with the option to use the card reader as the source or to choose source from files elsewhere. If I choose to use the CF reader source then in the "Import Photos from I:\(EOS_Digitial) window the 'copy to" shows as "D:\MyDesktop". If I click on Choose to change the location all that shows is the "Glenn" folder - ther's no listing for my drives and I can't change the copy to location.
6. If on the Import source box I choose another location for the source of the images - like F:\My Near to Finished Edited Photos, and select an image, - then when the Import Photos dialog window comes up the 'copy to" is set as D:\MyDestop, and when I select Choose to change the save location LIKEWISE all that is display is the folder "Glenn" - no other locations are shown, none of my drives, etc. 

I will run the two tests you requested and let you kow the results. Have a good rest. 

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 26, 2010)

TNG

On thingking about my earlier answer to your question on the previous use of the Epson Multimedia Viewer storage device post my trip I should clarify - on my return fromt he trip I connected the device to the computer and launced LR. At that point LR's backup routine would not let me choose the location for the backup, all I could do was backup the catalog to the C:\Users\User\My pictures folder. Post that backup LR's Library module came up. I clicked on the Import box and LR recognized the Epson storage device and the several picture folders [organzied by date of image loading onto the device] BUT it would not let me choose the location for the "copy images and add to catalog." The only copy location it would display was to the C:\Users\User\My Pictures folders. LR copied the images without any other problem - the images were copies to that folder and LR did NOT freeze at any time during the process. 

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 26, 2010)

TNG

Ran the first test - removed the CF card. started up LR, went to import and it immediately brought up the "Import Photos or Lightroom Catalog" window and gave me the choice of any of my drives as the source location for the image to import. I went to the Q drive and drilled down into one of my image folders there and click on an image to import. Got the message "The following photos will not be imported because they are already present in the catalog." Clicked on cancel. 

So - this test seems successful - with CF card out I can access any of my drives for importing of images. 

So - I reinsert the CF card into the reader - and LR launched. In "choose a source from which to import photos" it gave me two boxes - one the I:\(EOS_Digital) card reader; the other marked 'Choose Files' - clicking on this brought up the "Import Photos or Kightroom Catalog" window and by default displayed the image folder from which I had attempted to import the image folder on my Q drive that I had referenced in that import action. Further, clicking on the arrows in this dialog window I could change the location of the images to import to any of my drives and folders. 

Am going to now run the second test you requested.


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## Potus5 (Apr 26, 2010)

TNG

Ran the 2nd test. Post the shut down of the computer and reboot I logged on as TNG. With CF card inserted in reader Launched LR, and on Import choose the box:
A. I:\(EOS_Digital) as the source. This brought up the window "Import Photos from I:\(EOS_Digital). Dafault 'copy to' was shwoing D:\MyDesktop. BUT clicked onthe 'choose' pull down menu and all of my drives and fodlers were lsited as import sources. 
2. Then canceled and went back to Import, This time slected the box "Choose Fiels". This listed all of my drives and folders as sources for imports, including the card reader, Q, F, etc.

Then logged off as TNG and logged on as User (Glenn). Decided to rerun parts of the 1st test again to ensure I had covered your question on the potnetial differnces in treatment between the Imports two source boxes. Launched LR with the CF still in the reader. Went to Import and:
3. The "Import" window appeared. Here, clicking on the I:(EOS_Digital) box brought up the "Import Photos from I:\(EOS_Digital) window. Here the file handling was shown as "copy photos to a new location and add to catalog". The default 'copy to' was listed as D:\MyDesktop, and going to the 'Choose' pul down menu only displayed the 'Glenn' folder - none of the drives were being listed.
4. Canceling out and back at the LR library module I clicked on Import, and when the Import dialog window opened this time I choose the "Choose Files" box. This brough up the Import Photos or Lightoom Catalog dialog window and here in the 'Look in' the image folder listed by default was the one on my Q drive from the earlier import dialog with the Q drive. Clicking on the arrow adjacent to the look in box gave me access to all of my drives and folders as sources of images to import. For interest I selected one from a new drive rather than the desktop folder or my CF card reader or my Q drive. This selction then brought up thje window "Import Photos" with the file handling set at "Copy photos ot a new location and add to catalog". The default for the 'copy to' was D:\MyDesktop and in selecting the Choose dialog ONLY the 'Glenn' fodler was listed. There was no availability for any of the drives or other folders as places to where the photo could be copied. 

I hope I've covered off each of the tests correctly, and have answered your questions earlier. If not let me know and I can redo anything.

Glenn


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 26, 2010)

[quote author=TNG link=topic=9619.msg65376#msg65376 date=1272238357]your missing Identity Plate: although I have no experience of using these, I strongly suspect that they are stored in the Preferences file (no doubt Queen Victoria or one of the other Gurus will quickly correct me is that assumption is wrong
[/quote]

It's stored in the catalog, so I'd nip up to the ID plate dialog and just double check it's still there, just in case it's opened the wrong catalog.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 26, 2010)

Thanks Victoria, I knew we'd be able to rely on you! You can't also tell us why Glenn's 'copy to' function isn't working properly, can you?  

Glenn, thanks for doing all those tests. The conclusion would seem to be that the only thing which is definitely not working the way it should is the "copy to location and add to catalog" option during an import (from any source, HD or CF card).....*and only on the Glenn user account.* Despite our best efforts we remain symied on that, the workaround which worked for the "backup catalog" function doesn't seem to be working here.

I'm happy to spend a bit more time doing some googling around trying to find a cure, but in the meantime you need to get on with your photography business. So....options:

1. By far the simplest option would seem to be to copy the images from CF Card or Epson Viewer to the preferred location *outside* Lightroom, i.e. using Explorer. Then in LR you simply do the "add to catalog from current location" import process. Until fairly recently that's the way I operated anyway, and it really doesn't take much longer. In fact, before comitting to this (hopefully) temporary approach, suggest you try it with either a CF card's worth of images, or a couple of hundred pictures from the Epson, *but not ALL of them yet until we know everything's OK.* Do the Explorer copy, do the LR import, then spend a bit of time checking that LR is OK with them....do some keywording, developing, maybe try a rename or two to make sure Lightroom's write permissions to the hard drive are still OK. Only when you are totally satisfied that LR is working OK in respect of the images would I try importing the rest of the pictures from the hard drive. Make sense?

Assuming you go with the above option for the time being, and it works OK, that will buy you some time to consider the implications of the following:

2. Upgrade to LR2.7....may be a very simple fix, may make no difference whatsoever. We've alraedy established by running LR under the TNG account that LR itself is working fine....the problems seem specific to your user account. But certainly worth trying, but after you get youself 'up straight' in your photography work maybe?

3. Create a new user account, e.g. NewGlenn, and migrate your settings from the Glenn account. How much work is involved in this largely depends on what other applications and settings would need to be migrated. You've already mentioned Outlook, presumably there would be other stuff as well. Not necessarily a difficult job by any means, but certainly not a trivial exercise. *Before settling on this option, however, you would be well advised to attempt, on the TNG logon, a direct import from the Epson Viewer device, using "copy and add" just to ensure that it's not this device which is causing the corruption.*

4. The final "sledgehammer/nut" option would be new install of Windows7. Would almost certainly clean up the problems you are having, but how difficult this would be for you I don't know....it depends on your own experience and expertise. Presumably you did the XP&gt;Vista and Vista&gt;Win7 upgrades yourself, in which case you know full well what is involved in resetting everything after the upgrade?

Anybody else got any suggestions?

Have a think about these options, Glenn, and get back to us. 

Sorry we haven't been able to find a complete cure yet....


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## Potus5 (Apr 26, 2010)

TNG

Thanks for the advice on the options  and let me think on them.

Overall I'm inclined : towards a clean Win 7 install and a clean upgrade to LR2.7 install. If nothing else over the other options it would let me also fix the Windows "User" versus "Glenn" profle confusion and to clean up some of the 'unused' programs I have on my system [like redundant virsus protection and ad-ware programs] :icon_mrgreen: , and in the long run it might even be the 'shorter' overall time consuming approach. :icon_biggrin: 

I'm certain I've hard copies of all my Outlook settings etc so I'm not too fearful of that option. But for certainty sake would make copies again of the respective settings so I can reenter them if I go with the option. If I go with this approach would appreciate your advice on what [e.g. Outlook and Internet settings, PS and LR plug-ins, etc] to make certain I've the correct backups or hard copies of. I've got the original installtion disks for most of my programs - and those that were installed via downloads I have hard copies of the website and installation passwords, etc. 

I've a couple of things to do this morning anyway so it would be later today - early afternoon - before I cold get to anything. Certainly today I'll run the test you suggest in your #1 to see how that works, and will try the TNG logon and import from the Epson device using 'copy and add' as you suggest in the later part of your point #3.  

Will let you know those results of those two tests later today.

Glenn


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 26, 2010)

[quote author=TNG link=topic=9619.msg654'6#msg654'6 date=1272267559]
Thanks Victoria, I knew we'd be able to rely on you! You can't also tell us why Glenn's 'copy to' function isn't working properly, can you?  
[/quote]
Give me a few days to re-read this marathon thread!


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## Potus5 (Apr 27, 2010)

TNG

ran two of the tests today and will do the lof on as TNG test tomorow - ended up being quite occupied today so am running late on getting back to you on the results. Will write up the results of all three tomorrow for you.

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 27, 2010)

OK Glenn, no worries.

Just let us know in your own time how they went, then we can think about some prep work if you are still keen to go ahead with a clean WIn7 install.

TNG


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## Potus5 (Apr 27, 2010)

TNG

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - I've been quite busy on other matters over the past two days. There are the result of the tests I ran:

I: Yesterday:

A. Logged in as User/Glenn and copied via Explorer several images from a CF card in my reader [and left it inserted in the reader] to a test folder on an external HR - Q:\Import Test Folder. Then launched LR, and backup routine came up, offering me access to all of my internal and external drives as the location for the backup. Then opened the Import dialog window and it offered as source for the importing photos two options - "my CF card as "I:\(EOS_Digital)" and "Choose Files". Clicked on Choose Files and went to the Q:\Import Test Folder. Dialog window then offered four choices for File Handling and I selected "Add photos to catalog without moving". This was accomplished and I then flagged one of the photos as a 'reject', and clicked on a 2nd to which I added some keywords and in Develop module adjsuted the WB, cropped the photo, and renamed ot "Test Image 1". Then exited LR. Then relaunched LR. Ran the backup routine and then viewed the photos in the folder Q:\Import Test Folder. The image I had renamed and developed was there with the new name and the develop adjustments had all held. 

 B. While still logged in as Glenn I removed the CF card from the reader and relaunched LR. Backup routine ran [with all drives available as a location choice for the backuped catalog. In Import the dialog window immediately displayed in the "Look in" box my Q: "Import Test Folder" as the source for the images, BUT all my other drives and folders were available also to select if desired. Selected a couple of images to import. The Import Photos window came up, in File Handling had four options and choose 'Copy photos to new location and add to catalog'. In the 'Copy to' the default was shown as "D:\MyDesktop" and the *only* folder available in the Choose pull down menu was the Desktop\Glenn. Canceled the import and shut LR down.

C. while logged in as Glenn I connected the Epson Viewer device. LR launched automatically - I canceled the LR program. Then in Explorer I attempted to copy 133 images [@ 1.64G] from the device to Q:\Import Test Folder. Explorer started to copy but soon gave me a messge that the copying would take 1 hour to complete so I canceled that operation and selected 5 images [@65Mb]. This copying took some time - Explorer message stated it would be 3' minutes and I beleive it took somewhere around 2' minutes. BUT SEE BELOW UNDER TODAY ON THIS MATTER!!! I then launched LR and did the backup routine and then Import. In the dialog box my Viewer device was listed as an option source, as was the box "Choose Files". I clicked on that and all my image location choices were available, and I choose some of the images from the Q:\Import Test Folder. In the File Handling I choose add photos to catalog without moving. LR did so and then I selected an image in the Library and renamed it, and selected another which I flagged as reject, and a 3rd to which I added keywords and adjusted the WB, cropped, and increased the contrast. I then shut down LR and relauched it. Viewed the images and the renamed one was there, the one with the reject flag was marked as such, and the one I had adjusted in Develop had retained all the adjustments including the keywords I had added. I then closed LR. 

II. Today:

I was concerned and curious as to why in the previous day the copying of images from viewer had taken so long. And today I found that when I conencted my Viewer device the computer was not always recognizing it. So I thought that perhaps its driver needed to be updates, for Windows 7. Went up on the Epsons site and found that my driver was 3 editions old. So I updated the firmware on the Viewer to the current driver. I attempted to the connect the device to the computer and it would not take, tried again and still not, tried a 3rd time and it did connect. So I got more curious about this and decided to test using another USB cable AND this worked on the 1st attempt. I disconencted and reconnected it four times and each time it worked. CONCLUSION - My bet is that my other USB cable has a short in it so I've set it aside to test with other devices later. 

Then I ran the following tests:

A. Log on as TNG with the viewer connected. LR launched automatically, backup location ran fine, and in the Import dialog the device was available as a source as were all the other drives. In the copy to box all my drives were listed as available. I copied some images and made adjsutments without any problems. Clsoed LR.

B. Logged on as User/Glenn, with the viewer still connected. Device was reconized and LR launched automatically. As above everything seemed to run fine - all the drives were available as sources and as places to which the images could be copied to. 

Have to go out tonight now for a meeting but tomorrow I think I should retry some of the tests - especially the I/B above that I did yesterday to see if the same cipy to location limit continues to exist.

Glenn


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## Potus5 (Apr 27, 2010)

TNG

In thnking further on my note I realize that the developments only really seem to be a possble answer as to why the Viewer Device was not always being recognzied by LR and the computer. Doesn't necessarily address the reason why LR does not always recognize/list the other internal and external drives as places to which images can be copied.

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 27, 2010)

Glenn, 

Thanks for your very comprehensive report! And most interesting!

Tests IA and IB went very much as expected, everything works as it should except the "copy to" function. Test IC was very interesting, though it seems that you have isolated the cause of your intermittent problems with the Viewer. Just for information, I just ran a copy test on my desktop, 8''Mb of images copied from media card reader onto one of my internal hard drives took about 45 seconds!! Definitely a problem with that Viewer somewhere!

Regarding today's tests, the first when logged on as TNG went very much as hoped/anticipated. However, your second test, logged back on as Glenn, is the most interesting one of all....if I am interpreting what you say correctly, using the Viewer you are *able to use the "copy to" function as it should be used, i.e. all drives are available.*

If I have understood that correctly, then I agree you should repeat test IB when logged on as Glenn....i.e. attempt a direct import from CF card, selecting "copy to....and add to catalog" and see if your drives are available.


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## Potus5 (Apr 27, 2010)

TNG

When I changed the driver and the cable and ran the tests today with the device attached the image import was like your experience - almost instanceous for some 4' images @ 68'Mb!!

Yes, you're right - in both of today's tests I was able to use the copy to function as it should - all drives are available. 

I'll run the test # 1:B later tonight when I get back home.

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 27, 2010)

Thanks Glenn....I'll look forward to the results of that.


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## Potus5 (Apr 28, 2010)

TNG

Ran the tests as follows; results very interesting  and NOT CERTAIN ??? what the results are now saying/indicating:

Logged in as Glenn and ran four tests:

1. with Epson device disonnected, inserted CF card in reader &gt; LR started automatically&gt;backup routine came up with correct location for the save [and I verified that all my drives were listed in the choices]. Shut down LR. Using Explorer I copied images from the CF card to my Q:\Import Test Folder. Then launched LR&gt;ran backup. Then in Library module&gt;Import&gt;Choose Files&gt;selected images from the Q:\Import Test Folder, and verified that all my drives were available as image sources. In Import dialog window&gt;File Handling selected 'add to catalog without copying'. Images were all added. Undertook renaming of images via LR, as well as image keywording and adjustments [WB, cropping, contrast, explosure, etc]. Closed LR. Relaunched LR. Examined the previously imported images - all the adjustments, renaming, keywording had held. Closed LR.

2. Inserted CF card into reader - LR launched automatically. Closed LR, and in Explorer - renamed the images on the card&gt;then extracted the CF card. Reinserted the card. LR launched automatically&gt;back up routine ran correctly [and all drives were listed as available]. In Import selected source as the card reader [i.e., I:\(EOS_Digital)]. In Import window dialog&gt;File Handling selected 'copy to new location and add to catalog.' In 'Copy To:' found all drives available. Selected Q:\Import Test Folder and imported the images. Selected several images and renamed them. Selected some of these plus others and made keyword additions, develop adjustments [WB, cropping, contrast, saturation, etc]. Shut down LR. Relaunched LR and examined the images - all adjustments etc had held. Shut down LR.

3. Removed CF card from reader. Connected Epson Viewer Device to computer. LR launched automatically. Backup ran correctly - all drives were listed as available image sources. In Import selected File Handling as 'copy to new location and add to catalog'. And in Copy To noted that all my drives were available including Q:\Import Test Folder. Did *not* import the images and shut LR down.

4. With Viewer Device still connected used Explorer to copy some images from the Viewer Device to folder Q:\Import Test Folder. Opened LR. Verified that all drives were available for the Back up catalog save location. Backed up catalog. The in Import saw that all drives were listed, and selected images from Q:\Import Test Folder. Verified that for Copy To all drives were available. Changed File Handling to 'add to catalog without moving' and images added to catalog. Renamed some, and made keyword changes to some, and image adjustments to others. Shut down LR. Relaunched LR and examined the previously imported images. All renaming, keywording, and image adjustment had held. Shut down LR. 

So now - if I follow correctly what I've tested, it would seem all the import save options are correctly showing the full range of save locations. If this is true it looks like LR is now running correctly! Yet this is a difference from yesterday's test results, and without any profile changes etc in LR. The only difference between today and yesterday is that I managed to 'correct' the Multimedia Viewer Device interface with the computer BUT that should not have done anything about the image importing from the CF card - which is the test yesterday where the drives were not being listed!!! Very curious change. : 

What do you make of this?

Glenn


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 28, 2010)

Good Morning Glenn,

Interesting indeed, but it was what I was hoping would happen after you told me about that successful test at on the Glenn logon after you changed the USB cable on the Viewer. Until yesterday, all the testing and checking and changing things all ended up pointing at one significant problem, i.e. a corruption in your user profile, which we had been unable to fix.

Based on the recent testing it would seem logical to assume that the curruption was initially caused by the fault in the Viewer's cable, which may have been responsible for the drive letter assignments being messed up, and which also corrupted some part of your user profile. Fixing the cable would appear to have reset that corruption, clearing the way for restoration of your full drive list under all circumstances. Now I have absolutely no idea WHAT the corruption was, WHY it cleared, or indeed if there was a way we could have been able to pin it down. I will certainly ask a few of my far more technical friends to see if they can shed a light on it, or maybe some of the experts here might be able to explain it better.

Out of curiosity, what drive letter is now being assigned to the Viewer when you connect it?

As to what to do next, well it looks like there is now no NEED to do anything (one caveat: you probably need to try to do that large import from the Viewer that you tried and abandoned a few days ago). If you still fancy the idea of doing a clean Windows 7 installation, am happy to act as a sounding board for advice on saving settings etc., though as your Lightroom issue now seems resolved we probably ought to close this thread and take any further chat about re-installation offline. PM or email me if you decide to go ahead and I'll help as much as I can.

Cheers
TNG


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## Potus5 (Apr 28, 2010)

TNG

Good day  
Attached is a screen capture showing my computer's drive assignments - the old external "K" is still now identified as "Q". Also interestingly, none of my DVD reader/writers are now listed as drives. One is an internal and the other an external. However, if I insert a DVD into either, they seem to respectively work fine - my internal comes up in Auto Play as "DVD RW Drive (M and I can read the files on the disk; and my external comes up in AutoPlay as "DVD RW Drive (O" andI can read the files on it. In both cases the drive also becomes listed in the left hand column of Explorer but only for the period of the drive being active. If I remove the DVD disk and close the drives the respective listing of the now non-active drive disappears. The other thing is that my DROBO drives have now been readdressed by the system - being shown as T: and U: respectively. I forget what their earlier addresses were specifically but certainly they were not identifed that far down the alpha address chain.

I thank you for all your help -  you're a real steward of the forum and appreciate your offer to check around with friends for advice on what might be the underlying problem(s). Certainly this event is inclining me towards a clean reinstall of Windows 7 and of LR. However as you suggest vis what to do next, I agree - I think what I'll do is work with LR2.6 for a few days - including a large import from the Viewer device [I've got just over 38Gs of images from my Jordon-Petra on it to download onto the computer. 

But I do still fancy the idea of doing a clean Windows 7 installation, and appreciate your offer to act as a sounding board for advice on saving settings etc. I'm busy right now so likely earlier next week before I will have sufficient time to go through that stage. I will e-mail you then - what's your e-mail address to connect with you - you can send it to me at [email protected]


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 28, 2010)

Glenn, have sent an email....


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## Denis Pagé (Apr 29, 2010)

Hocus Potus! Solved like magic TNG! Well... almost...

Sent PM to you...


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## Tinez (Jun 4, 2011)

Hi, I was working on my lightroom 3 and had the same problem of disappearing drives from the Backup dialog. 

Googled and found your thread, which I found a bit scary. But noone is using my pc other than me, so I excluded messing around with profiles or multiple users. My pc is also quite clean , so couldn't figure out what happened. Tried to login, logout, restart, open, close lightroom and so on with no apparent solution. The only thing I made some days ago was to replace an external drive for backup, but no other internal drive was listed (not the main drive C:, indeed: the folder list form the dialog backup just lists my Desktop and my user profile folder (documents, pictures, etc). All my drives, internal and external, being fully and normally accessible via Windows explorer. 

Then I tried this: in the backup dialog there's the list of folders, but under the list there's a free text box. 
I typed the full path to my external drive (eg M:\Lightroom backup), and the backup was successful.

Then I reopened Lightroom, closed it again to verify:
1) if the predefined path was changed (and YES, it was changed)
2) if the disappearing drives problem was solved (and YES, now I see back all of my drives in the backup dialog)

So I think the solution was quite simple, without getting mad with windows users, profiles and so on.

As regards the reason why the drives disappeared, I have no idea.

Cheers.


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## Jim Wilde (Jun 4, 2011)

Hi Tinez, welcome to the forum!

Thanks for that information. Yes I now realise that we could have avoided some of that saga by using this procedure, but if my memory serves me right there were quite a few other issues as well which caused endless confusion at the time. But thanks anyway, it's always good to have fresh input on these types of problems.


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