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patetc
Known Participant
September 7, 2020
Question

Multiple Catalog Info Problem

  • September 7, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 190 views

I am using Photoshop Elements 2018 primarily for the Organizer.
All of my pictures are in my "C" directory under My Pictures and that's where I add to Organizer. I backup the Organizer to Drive H under "My Catalog" The backup size is 8,332,296,599. In addition to creating My Catalog, it also makes a directory in H as "Catalog". This directory size is 5,641,658,368. Included in this "Catalog" is another "My Catalog" which is files for FaceAnalysis,WaldoData, etc. On addition there is a directory for Adobe on Drive H which contains most of the pictures (9,026,704,736). They are in the folders that I have in my C:\My Pictures directory except that the size of "My Pictures" is 15,715,044,756.

I realize this may be hard to follow but my question is would it be best to have the backup "My Catalog" on Drive C where all of the pictures are stored? If I want to backup the needed files to Drive H in case my computer fails, which files should I copy to Drive H?  

 

Pat

 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

MichelBParis
MichelBParis
Legend
September 8, 2020

You are right it's difficult to follow your steps by looking at folder sizes.

The general rule is that backups should be on different and external drives (theft? )

Each backup creates a special backup folder, you have to create them separately preferably including a date in the backup folder name for future identification.

About sizes:

- the catalog folder is found by the menu File > System information. Look at the folder size in the Explorer or Finder. The info dialog shows the size of the main database (catalog.pseXXdb) and the thumbnail cache.

- The calculated size of the backup folder (which includes both media and catalog) is shown in the backup dialog and you check it with the real size of the backup folder on your external drive.

- If you 'restore' to another drive on a 'custom' location, I recommend creating a new master subfolder like 'MyLibrary', just under the root drive as the destination and to ignore the 'Pictures' default folder. The restore will not only restore  all your folders hierarchy but also restore the catalog folder just under 'Mylibrary' instead of adding it to the default hidden location on your system drive. The catalog manager lets you move the catalog from that custom location to the default one if you want; however if you keep it on the destination drive, any computer with the same PSE version will work seamlessly with that catalog and library just by pluggin in the restored drive.

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