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T
The Phantom Idiot
Participant
November 6, 2016
Question

How can I get my old catalogue from a backup onto my new computer which has two drives rather than one?

  • November 6, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 1223 views

I have just changed computers. On my old computer I had in excess of 13,000 images contained on Drive C: also installed on Drive C: I had Photoshop Elements 11. I used the Elements Organizer catalogue to manage my 13,000 plus images. I backed up this old computer regularly to an external hard drive.

I purchased my new computer from a local firm and I had them move all my data over to my new computer. I also got them to install several of my old programs onto the new computer Photoshop Elements being one of them. When I first opened up Elements Organiser there were no images shown in the Organiser, so I got the program to build the new catalogue. I was expecting, (wrongly it now seems) for the catalogue to have all the tags, rating and album information that I had added on my old computer, shown within the Organiser catalogue, it didn’t, it just showed all my images contained within their Windows Folders location.

In addition where my old computer had all my data, system and program files contained on the one Drive, Drive C: my new computer now has the system and program files stored on a SSD Drive C: and all my data files, (this includes my 13,000 plus images), stored on a separate drive, Drive F:. Now this makes my new computer very fast but I appear to have lost the Organiser catalogue information that I built up over several years. Now I would imagine this old catalogue information would be backed up somewhere on my backup drive that I used with my old computer and am still using with my new computer, this is Drive E:

So could you please tell me is there any way I can retrieve from my backup drive the catalogue that was made on my old computer and reinstate it on my new computer, bearing in mind that all file references in the old catalogue will I assume, be in the form of, C:\Pictures\folder name\file name, these very same images, (which are now stored on Drive F: ), will now be referred to on my new computer as F:\Pictures\folder name\file name?

Also with this new version of the catalogue I have built on the new computer, although the catalogue gives the correct location of the image file, (ie. F:\Pictures\folder name\file name) and shows the correct thumbnail of the images. When you right click on the image and select ‘Edit with Photoshop Elements Editor’, it does open the Editor but not with the selected image open within it. But if I the right click the image within a ‘Windows Explorer’ folder window, it will then open the Editor with the image in it…!! How can I rectify this?

Now I wish to get this all sorted out so that I can then safely upgrade to the latest versions of Photoshop Elements 15 and Premier Elements 15. But I’m reluctant to take this step until I can ensure that I have successfully retrieved all my information from the old catalogue. I would also like to be reassured that if I do upgrade from versions 11 to versions 15, I won’t encounter similar problems to those I’m currently having, bearing in mind that my program files will be on the SSD Drive C: and my images will be on the data storage drive, Drive F:.

System Details

OS System:      Windows 10 Home, Version 1607

Processor:       AMD FX(tm) -6300 Six Core Processor 3.50 GHz

RAM:               16.0 GB

    

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    1 reply

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    November 6, 2016

    Very detailed description of your problems indeed.

    To make it short, your solution is to use your backup and from your Elements organizer on your new computer, you do a custom restore to recover your catalog (which contains tags, albums etc) AND your photo files folders at the same time. You simply indicate the new location, drive and master folder.

    Move Elements Organizer catalog | Elements 6 or later

    The other advantage of this process is that even if you restore from a newer organizer version, after the restore, the catalog is automatically 'converted' to the new format.

    Forget the copy you have already done of your media files folders. You would have to 'reconnect' all files even if you also restored the catalog folder. Changing the drive letter or the master folder automaticlly makes all paths stored in the catalog 'disconnected'.

    After the restore on 'custom' location, both your images files and your catalog folder are on the new destination. You can choose to 'move' the catalog folder to the default location (a 'hidden' folder') on your SSD. Perhaps the best option for speed.

    T
    The Phantom IdiotAuthor
    Participant
    November 6, 2016

    Hello Michel, thanks for your very quick reply, that’s very good of you.

    I have tried what you kindly suggested but I’m having trouble accessing the backup of the catalogue file through Elements organiser. I notice it’s looking to restore from files with the suffix .tly which I have checked on the net and found to be files created by ‘Elements organiser backup’. I afraid I have to, rather embarrassingly, admit that I did not backup my catalogue through the ‘Elements Organiser backup’ function of Elements, so I assume the .tly file it wants will not be there?

    The backups I was referring to are a general overall system backup which included my data and image files. I was assuming I would be able to find a file on my backup drive with all this information in, I really hope I can and that I haven’t lost all this information due to what is a rather silly oversight on my behalf…!!

    I wonder do you think I might be able to retrieve this information from a general Windows backup and if so have you any idea where I might find it and what file name to look for and how I might retrieve and utilise the information contained within?

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    November 6, 2016

    Since you have no organizer backup, you understand that you need also the catalog folder of your old computer.

    Only that catalog holds the information you are missing, tags etc.

    So, the first thing is to do a search on the original drive for that catalog folder. If that drive is in good state, you may use it as a another internal or external drive (for instance putting it in a USB external casing).

    Then you'll have to search for a file named 'catalog.pse11db'. By default it's in a hidden folder; you'll have to set the explorer settings to show hidden files and folders. Once you have found it, the catalog is the whole folder containing this database file; you can copy the folder where you want on your new computer.

    Then, in the PSE version of your new computer, you'll have to use the catalog manager (menu File >> manage catalogs) to press the 'convert' button. That will create a new folder with the right format.

    You can open the organizer with the converted catalog by double clicking on the 'catalog.psexxdb' file.

    All files should be shown as 'missing' or 'disconnected'.

    You should now try the 'reconnect' function by navigating to your restored master folder.

    Photoshop Elements (PSE) knowledge base.

    Please report back on your progress.

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