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Pqtrths
Pqtrths
Known Participant
September 20, 2017
Question

Catalog Back-up - Protecting Catalog on Primary Drive

  • September 20, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 747 views

Hello:

My entire photo catalog is stored on a 4tB Western Digital (WD) external drive designated as My Book (H:) by Windows 10.  I used the Back-Up procedure of Photoshop Elements 15 to back-up the entire catalog to a second, 4tb WD external drive designated as My Book (I:).  When the backup completed, instead of folders and the .NEF, .JPEG, and .PSD files, the files on My Book (I:) were changed to .JSON files, the number of files didn't match the primary drive, and the file sizes significantly did not match the 15mb to 75mb files and were reduced to 1mb to 8mb sizes.  For example, Mendocino 2011-024.NEF is B0000026.JSON.

Reading Adobe's instructions to back-up and restore photos, it looks like I still have to do go through a Restore operation on the My Book (I:) drive to return the photos to their original form.  Questions I have:  1) Will this also restore the folder trees, folders, and files to the original .NEF, .JPEG, and .PSD files; 2) How do I protect the files on the primary My Book (H:) external drive from being changed.  I could detach the primary drive when working on the second drive; and, 3) Should I rename the back-up catalog to something like My Book Backup (I:)?  All assistance is appreciated.

Mp

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    1 reply

    rahulj78388123
    Adobe Employee
    rahulj78388123
    Adobe Employee
    September 20, 2017

    Hi Pqtrths,

    Please find below the solutions of the questions:

    1) Will this also restore the folder trees, folders, and files to the original .NEF, .JPEG, and .PSD files

      Ans: Yes. if you Select "Original location" option and restore, it simply restore all files and folders with same tree structure, in original form(.NEF,.JPEG,.PSD) to the original location where the files were present at the time of backup. The restored

      2) How do I protect the files on the primary My Book (H:) external drive from being changed.  I could detach the primary drive when working on the second drive

      Ans: Once you restore the catalog to primary drive (H) and make some changes in catalog. Then the changes will be     applied on the restored catalog i.e on (H) drive. Changes will not be applied on the backup drive i.e (I). So if you keep     on working with the drive (I) attached, your backup data remains safe.

      3) Should I rename the back-up catalog to something like My Book Backup (I:)?

       Ans: There is no need of doing that. Once restore is done, you can eject your external drive, you can rename the catalog of your restored catalog from "Manage catalog" option to differentiate.

    Your feedback is really appreciated. kindly revert if in case of any doubt.

    Thanks,

    Rahul

    Pqtrths
    PqtrthsAuthor
    Known Participant
    September 20, 2017

    Rahul:

    Thank you for the reply.  However, it didn't quite answer my question.  The folder tree, folders, and original photos on the primary (H:) drive were not affected; it is does not need to be restored.  My question pertained to correcting or restoring the back-up files on the secondary (I:) drive as well as protecting the originals on the primary (H:) drive.  Hope this clarifies my question.

    Mp (Pqtrths)

    rahulj78388123
    Adobe Employee
    rahulj78388123
    Adobe Employee
    September 20, 2017

    Hi Mp,

    Following are two ways of doing it:

    1st Way:

    1. Create a new folder in external drive.

    2. Restore the backup to the folder created above in external drive with "Restore original folder structure" option checked.

    3. Switch to some other catalog because if you eject the drive EO will not be able to find the restored catalog.

    With this, catalog get restored to the custom location. All files get restored in original form in the folder. This folder will contain the similar folder structure as of original folder structure and also the catalog folder.

    2nd way:

    - Better and easy way of protecting your original files and backing up the same. If you

    - If you dont want similar folder structure

    - You can simply use Copy/Move to removable drive feature(cntrl+shift+o).

    - With this you can copy all your catalog data to your external drive in original form. But doing this, only files will be copied but not the folder tree structure

    Please revert if something is still unanswered. Your feedback is really appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Rahul

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