PSE Elements 2020 lost link to photos

Report · Dec 11, 2024

We had a power cut for about 30 seconds, and upon restarting and pressing the reconnect button to check all was ok, 8 photos have no link. All from the same day, taken within 1 minute and same subject - a sparrowhawk perched on the bird feeder. The photos are not in the catalog, and the folder has disappeared off the hard disk. I was not looking at these when the power went off. All I have now is 8 photos with the "no link" synbol in the corner. I did a backup last week thankfully but is it possible to just re-install these 8?

System is :- Dell Inspiron 3881 running Windows 11 ( updated this week to 24H2), photos on Seagate 5Tb hard disk (external), running PSE Elements 2020 plus updates.

The bit I find confusing is that only these 8 have gone AWOL. Reconnect only finds them missing, all others appear correct

Anybody got any ideas?

John

Report · Dec 11, 2024

Was the Organizer open at the time of the power outage?

Try looking in the Recycle Bin.

The photos will be found in your backup. They will have been renamed with a B00 prefix, so you will not be able to find them easily in the backup folder.

Were the photos downloaded recently? Have you deleted them from the memory card?

There are a number of utilities that may be able to recover the photos from your hard drive.

If all else fails, then the only solution would be to restore the backup and make sure the backup is restored to the original location.

Report · Dec 11, 2024

Answers in order

yes organiser was open, though not on these photos

Recycle bin is empty - thought of that

yes will look in backup but it may take some time

downloadfed on 25th November and card formatted since then

any suggestions for a restore utility?

catalog restore is last hope - was hoping for something quick and easy!

Can I move the current catalog to another HD* - I have a few, and then format and restore to the original location?

* In the last year I have put all my photos and backups on external Seagate/WD ssd`s, but still have the old HD around in its case. I think I`m going to make a copy of downloads from now on. Thank goodness the backup drive was not plugged in!!

thyanks for the helpful suggestions

john

PS maybe it is aWindows problem. It just intrigues me why only the 8 photos I took on that day were affected, (I store in Elements by Import Batch), surely if it was a random glitch it would be across a couple of days? Reconnect finds no other files"un-linked"

Report · Dec 11, 2024

I know it doesn't help now, but you may want to get a UPS:

https://www.google.com/search?q=uninterruptible+power+supply&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS776US776&oq=uninterup&a...

Report · Dec 11, 2024

A long time ago, I used Easus data recovery tools.

You could try to just recover files from your memory card. I have had success with that in the distant past. If that doesn't work and you are just trying to recover 8 files from your hard drive, it is probably faster and cheaper to restore your Elements backup. A full recovery search of your hard drive can take a very long time.

I'm not exactly sure what your plan is with respect to moving the catalog. Yes, you can move/copy the catalog folder to any drive simply using Windows File Explorer. But that isn't going to replace the missing files until you perform the restore of the backup.

If you are going to reformat the drive that had the missing files, you should also do a full chkdsk to see whether there are any/many sectors that may have been damaged by the power outage.

And I totally agree with @Peru Bob that a UPS is a good idea. I consider it a necessity, even though my power supply is generally reliable.