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K
Ket Watters
Participant
August 2, 2021
Question

Moving Elements to a new computer and external harddrive

  • August 2, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 651 views

Here is info about my current environment:

 

Elements Organizer 10.0.0.0
Core Version: 10.0 (20110831.m.17215)
Language Version: 10.0 (20110831.m.17215)

Current Catalog:
Catalog Name: External HD Catalog 10
Catalog Location: D:\Nostalgia & History\Family Photos and Videos\Watters Photo Album\External HD Catalog 10\
Catalog Size: 58.5MB
Catalog Cache Size: 469.9MB

System:
Operating System Name: 2000
Operating System Version: 6.2
System Architecture: Intel CPU Family:6 Model:12 Stepping:1 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP
Built-in Memory: 15.8GB
Free Memory: 8.5GB

Important Drivers / Plug-ins / Libraries:
Microsoft DirectX Version: 9.0
Apple QuickTime Version: 7.74
Adobe Reader Version: Not installed
Adobe Acrobat Version: Not installed

CD and DVD drives:

My situation is this: I have a new computer: HP Pavilion laptop running Windows 10. I have an "album" in Photoshop Elements comprising over 10,000 photos, all carefully tagged and annotated. I successfully moved the catalog to my new environment, installing it on my external D drive. The new catalog still points to the media files on an outdated external drive that I wish to replace. How can I move the media folders and files to a new external harddrive without losing my tags and annotations and other metadata in the catalog?

 

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1 reply

Greg_S.
Community Expert
Greg_S.Community Expert
Community Expert
August 2, 2021

The best way is to use the Elements Backup/Restore function.  In other words, back up the catalog on the old computer and store the backup files on an external drive - even the new one if that is all you have with enough room.  Then, on the new computer, restore the backup to the new external drive.  Of course, it would be better to backup to a third external drive, but if you only have two, then it is possible to restore a backup to the same drive.

K
Ket WattersAuthor
Participant
August 3, 2021

I'm pretty sure that's what I did. But when I restored the catalog to my new environment its metadata still points to the old media files. Apparently the backup and restore is only for the catalog, not the media folders and files. I copied the media and files to the new environment, and disconnected the outdated drive, but then the catalog cannot find them and wants to relink everything. (Even the menu option for backup/restore only refers to "Backup catalog".)

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