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Move the catalog location from one internal hard drive to another

New Here ,
Jun 09, 2020 Jun 09, 2020

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The current location of my catalogs (Elements 2019 Organizer) is on Drive C:, which is unfortunately full.

How can I safely transfer the catalog location to my new 6TB internal hard drive U: ?

Thanks for your help!

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How to , Organizer , Windows

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Explorer ,
Jun 09, 2020 Jun 09, 2020

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Assuming you are using Windows and really mean the catalog and NOT the Media, all you need to do is go to Windows File Explorer and do a copy-and-paste of the Catalog folder (along with all its subfolders) to your U: Drive (I say copy instead of cut and paste as a safety measure - you don't want to delete the old copy until of the catalog until you verify it works in it's new location). Once it is copied to U:, open EO, go to File > Manage Catalogs, click on the Custom Location radio button and browse to the new location on your U: drive. Once the catalog copy shows in the lower pane, hilight it and click on Open. You should now be working from the catalog in its new location. Once you are satisfied it is OK you can delete the original via File Manager.

 

Note that doing this will 'only' free up a few GB from your C: drive. Perhaps since the media takes up a LOT more space than the catalog, you have both the catalog and media on C: and want to move both to U:? In that case, you can't do it via copy and paste from Windows File Manager. If you want to do that you will have to do an EO backup/restore, which is a whole different animal.

 

Bob

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Community Expert ,
Jun 09, 2020 Jun 09, 2020

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Bob,

You said:

"If you want to do that you will have to do an EO backup/restore, which is a whole different animal."

As a matter of fact, that different animal has only advantages for me... and many other users.

- nothing simpler: simply a backup and restore on an external USB drive. No need to be acquainted with networks.

- once the restore is done, you can use the external USB drive alternatively by just plugging it on any computer with the same (licensed) PSE version. Only requisite, you can't work at the same time on the same catalog. Everything is available as soon as the USB drive is plugged in.

- you start with an original library and catalog, you have a full backup available plus the working library/catalog on the external drive. Ideally, the backup folder is on a different external drive as the one holding the restore. You are safe.

- speed: if you use USB3 external drives, you won't notice a speed difference provided you have enough RAM. 

- Size: the USB external drive isvery small. 

- Price: most affordable solution compared with NAS.

- NASs are not safer, they also need backups. They are not supposed to be moved between different locations. You can't simply take with your a small USB drive to work between two or more desktops or laptops on different locations like me. Cloud sharing solutions are better in this respect. but they don't either offer the ability to edit the same catalog by different users at the same time.

- The only expected advantage of NAS would be the ability to edit the same catalog at the same time from different computers. The organizer has never been built for multiusers access, and I am curious to know if someone has been able to manage that.

- The psychological issue with NAS today is that they are promoted by IT people when returning home. I simply observe that today, your wife and children do prefer sharing on the "Cloud" rather than being under the control of the 'home network and catalogs administrator'. However, Cloud solutions don't either offer the ability to edit the same catalog by different users at the same time.

 

 

 

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New Here ,
Jun 10, 2020 Jun 10, 2020

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Hi Michel

thank you for your answer. 

My problem is not a backup or multiuser problem. I have everything backed up twice. What I need is a suggestion how I can transfer the catalogs and the media safely from drive C: to drive U: another without loosing any data.

Drive U: will be used for Photoshop Elements only and iswill be backed up to another internal and one external drive.

Where in the programm can I transfer the catalogs and the media to another drive?

Thanks

Kathrin

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Community Expert ,
Jun 10, 2020 Jun 10, 2020

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Here is the solution which has always worked to move the combo Catalog+media files:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/backup-restore-move-catalog-photoshop.html

 

As you can see the backup is not the main goal, it's the first step of the backup/restore process to be able to restore where you want. After the restore on a new drive, you can delete the old media from the explorer.

You absolutely need to use the backup solution from the organizer, not any other copy utility. Only the above workflow can ensure that you can restore the catalog and media while keeping the links in the catalog even if the original drive is no longer available. Other backup solutions are able to recover the media and a copy of the catalog, but that copy points to the missing drive, so your catalog is no longer useable except if you try to 'reconnect all', which is irrealistic.

 

Another way to achieve what you want is to use the folders panel in tree view and to drag and drop folders (with their subfolders) from the original drive to another. You can try it with a relatively small folder tree to see how that works. This can work on the whole media folder tree (be patient...) However I would not advise to drag and drop without a backup as a safety (your other backup solution would be good since the original drive is still available).

 

 

 

 

 

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New Here ,
Jun 10, 2020 Jun 10, 2020

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Hi Michel,

thank you so much for your advice!

I will try it out with a new small catalog to be sure that everything works smoothly before I transfer 120000 photos to their new location.

Kathrin

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Community Expert ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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With 120 000 photos, I would do the backup and restore process. Such a big library is worth having a spare USB external drive for the process, which could be kept for periodic organizer full backups.

Don't try to move all files at the same time, that requires a little more time that copying the same files, probably 5 to 10 hours. You can't interrupt the process. So move smaller folder trees at a time. That gives you back free space on C : 

Also, if there is a problem such as a mains failure, the already processed original files are not yet deleted from the original disk until the total transaction is successfully achieved. No loss in the catalog or in photo files, but you have to start the project again from scratch. Note that I did have such a mains failure at 90% and I did not lose anything; it seems that the process is safer in the organizer than in Lightroom where it is not advised.

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Explorer ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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MichelBParis said:

- nothing simpler: simply a backup and restore on an external USB drive.

 

I fully agree with you USB stick philosophy, just to add one point:

 

As an ultra-portable USB stick gets lost easier than a NAS, one might want to encrypt the stick (e. g. using Windows' built-in Bitlocker), also if only the catalog (with all the thumbnails) is on it.

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Community Expert ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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"I fully agree with you USB stick philosophy, just to add one point:

 

As a ultra-portable USB stick can more easily get lost than a NAS, one might want to encrypt the stick (e. g. using Windows built-in Bitlocker), also if only the catalog (with all the thumbnails) is on it."

Just to avoid any misunderstanding, I don't mean a USB stick, I mean an external (conventional) USB drive. There are issues with storing backups on USB sticks. In Windows USB external drives are considered just like internal ones so you can only 'Import from files and folders', not from camera or card reader. With USB sticks you can choose both, which enables using the downloader options to automatically create subfolders by date (YYYY MM DD) at import time. Anyway, if you need 1 GB or more, you have to choose an external USB drive.

 

 

 

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New Here ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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Hi Michel,

I just bought a 8TB external USB Drive which I will use for the backup. To avoid catalogs which will be too big I always had my photos stored in separate catalogs. Consequently I will be able to backup one catalog at the time to avoid mains failure.

I'll try the whole procedure with a test catalog, better safe than sorry! 

Thank you for your help.

Kathrin

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New Here ,
Jun 10, 2020 Jun 10, 2020

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Hi Bob

thank you for your answer. I actually have to move the catalogs and the media because the C. drive is maxed out and I'm not even finished with importing all the data. I would like to designate my drive U: for my Photoshop Elements catalogs only.

Kathrin

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Explorer ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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I would also advise keeping a backup of both your catalog and media on a separate physical drive. I would also suggest that you keep that backup on a drive outside of the NAS. Even if you have multiple physical drives on the NAS, the NAS hardware can fail as well. In my case I have an external USB drive physically attached to my NAS and I backup the backups of whatever I simply can't afford to lose every so often. A bit overdone but I don't want to take any chances of losing my media for example. And if I had a faster internet connection, I would put the backup of the backup on a cloud. Or maybe I'd just do one backup on the cloud ...

 

Bob

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New Here ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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Hi Bob,

that is good advice! I have two NAS sytems which backup the real photos, two 6TB internal hard drives and one 8TB external drive which will bachup the Photoshop Elements catalogs and media. I'm also planing to put everything in a cloud.

Kathrin

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 10, 2020 Jun 10, 2020

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Hi,

 

If you want to just move the catalog and not the media imported in the catalog you can use the Move Catalog option in the Catalog Manager. Please do the following steps:

1. Open File Menu. Select "Manage Catalogs".

2. In the opened dialog, select the "Custom Location" radio button and then click on the Browse button next to it.

3. Select the location you want to move your catalog to and click Ok.

4. Now Select "Catalogs Accessible By All Users", select the catalog you want to move and click on the Move button.

5. In the opened dialog, select the last option "Custom Location" and click on Ok.

This will move the catalog to your selected location.

 

Thanks! 

image.jpg

 

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New Here ,
Jun 10, 2020 Jun 10, 2020

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Hi ankitd,

thanks for your answer.

I need to move the catalogs and the media from driveC: to drive U:.

I didn't find a possibility in the program yet and I would appreciate your help.

Thanks,

Kathrin

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