HappyScot
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 111 
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by HappyScot on Aug 10, 2018 16:58:39 GMT
I am intending to take some of my photos off my hard drive on to an external drive which may or may not be connected all the time. These are basically images which I want to keep but will never, if ever, look at again. This is really going to throw the Organiser into a bit of a tizz!!
Before I do this, is there anything I should do to minimise the disruption?? The images I am moving will be in discrete folders if that's any help rather than just images at random!
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Post by Major Major on Aug 10, 2018 17:20:58 GMT
If you want to keep things straight, be sure to move them from within Organizer.
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HappyScot
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 111
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by HappyScot on Aug 10, 2018 18:41:04 GMT
I think I already have thrown the Organiser into a tizz. I deleted a lot of .NEF (raw) files from some of the folders currently in the catalogue. Is there any way I can get the catalogue to rebuild itself? Would Optimise or Repair do the trick?
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Post by michelb on Aug 10, 2018 19:07:06 GMT
I am intending to take some of my photos off my hard drive on to an external drive which may or may not be connected all the time. These are basically images which I want to keep but will never, if ever, look at again. This is really going to throw the Organiser into a bit of a tizz!! Before I do this, is there anything I should do to minimise the disruption?? The images I am moving will be in discrete folders if that's any help rather than just images at random!
Solution # 1
As indicated by Major Major, do this from the organizer.
- you simply plug in your external drive - from the organizer you move the selected folders or files from their current location to where you want on the external drive used for archival. Either use the File >> Move command or drag and drop them from the folders panel on the left.
- The files are away from your computer, but they are still recognized and searchable from your catalog even if the external drive is absent.
- If the external drive is not connected, those files will be shown as 'missing'. So, when you need to manage missing files, you'll have to plug it back.
Solution # 2 (You no longer want to keep the moved files managed in your catalog) If you have already tags and captions for those files, do a 'write metadata to files'. You might want to retrieve some files in your archival external drive and that would enable your use that info. Now, you have two things to do: move the files to the external drive - delete the moved files from the catalog. Since you don't want to keep them managed in the catalog, you can either move them from the organizer or move them from the Explorer or Finder. - If you move them from the organizer, you can select them from their new location and delete them from catalog (not from disk, obviously) - if you move them from the Explorer/Finder, do a search for missing files and delete them.
Warning: Deleting a big number of files (from catalog and/or from disk) is a very slow task in the organizer and may well abort if you delete big batches. Try to delete smaller batches. Recent 64 bits PSE versions and big RAM are better at deleting.
Searching in the archive external drive. If you have written metadata to files, you can create a temporary catalog for that drive and import all. The tags and captions will be retrieved and will help you to find what you want.
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Post by Major Major on Aug 10, 2018 19:29:27 GMT
Thanks as always for jumping in here, Michel.
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HappyScot
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 111
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by HappyScot on Aug 10, 2018 19:34:57 GMT
Thank you both so much for your replies. If I could ask a further question? I've looked in the documentation and I can't see the answer to this.
Does the Organiser catalogue Backup do anything clever or if I back up my system regularly, am I safe not to do a backup within the Organiser itself? The catalogue backup is not the fastest thing in the world!
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Post by Major Major on Aug 10, 2018 20:03:12 GMT
I don't use the Organizer, so take this with a grain of salt, but if you back up yourself you're simply backing up bits and pieces. If you back up via the Organizer, you're backing up the catalog system and its corresponding integrity itself.
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Post by Bailey on Aug 11, 2018 0:40:14 GMT
Hi HappyScot,
I also do regular system backups which backups all of my photos, videos PSE catalogue etc etc but I also routinely do full PSE catalogue backups. The full catalogue backup backs up your catalogue file (SQLite database containing all the meta data you see in the Organiser) and all your images. The full catalogue backup allows me to easily import my images/videos and catalogue onto another computer and get up and running again quickly if my main computer should completely fail. A full backup takes about 4-5 hours on my computer so I run it overnight normally.
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Post by Sepiana on Aug 11, 2018 0:45:37 GMT
Thanks as always for jumping in here, Michel. Thanks from me too, Michel!
Earlier today I was looking for this information. Bingo! You had posted this. You made my day! 
Searching in the archive external drive. If you have written metadata to files, you can create a temporary catalog for that drive and import all. The tags and captions will be retrieved and will help you to find what you want.
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Post by michelb on Aug 11, 2018 7:49:27 GMT
I think I already have thrown the Organiser into a tizz. I deleted a lot of .NEF (raw) files from some of the folders currently in the catalogue. Is there any way I can get the catalogue to rebuild itself? Would Optimise or Repair do the trick? If you have deleted files from the Explorer or Finder instead of the organizer, the result is that the entries corresponding to those files in the catalog are still there. The organizer checks that the file is missing at the original location and shows the 'missing' icon.
To get rid of the entries for the missing files, use the 'reconnect' option dialog. You have a small icon (3 horizontal bars) which opens a drop-down menu enabling 'select all' and 'delete all'.
I recommend downloading the pdf help file: |
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Post by michelb on Aug 11, 2018 8:03:21 GMT
Hi HappyScot,
I also do regular system backups which backups all of my photos, videos PSE catalogue etc etc but I also routinely do full PSE catalogue backups. The full catalogue backup backs up your catalogue file (SQLite database containing all the meta data you see in the Organiser) and all your images. The full catalogue backup allows me to easily import my images/videos and catalogue onto another computer and get up and running again quickly if my main computer should completely fail. A full backup takes about 4-5 hours on my computer so I run it overnight normally.
Hi Happyscot,
Yes, it's always prudent to have organizer backups for those reasons, and it's practically the only way to move to another computer or drive. The reason is that other backup systems may store your media files and separately your catalog folder, but the restored catalog will still point to the old drive. All the locations of your media files in the catalog will be broken; they will be all shown as 'missing'. The 'reconnect missing files' in the organizer is very useful in general, but with a library like mine or Bailey's, you'll spend days or weeks to reconnect all. Most of the time, even expert users will only backup the media files tree and ignore the catalog folders. Other backup systems have a lot of advantages, so if you have a good one, use it regularly but include the location of the catalog folder (menu Help >> System Info) and do an organizer backup from time to time and anyway when you intend to migrate to another computer or drive.
Hi Bailey, Can you tell us more about your regular backup system? I do use the Microsoft Synctoy app.
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Post by Bailey on Aug 11, 2018 12:47:34 GMT
... Hi Bailey, Can you tell us more about your regular backup system? I do use the Microsoft Synctoy app.
Hi michelb, I now use Acronis after you mentioned it in your thread. |
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HappyScot
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 111
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by HappyScot on Aug 12, 2018 21:54:17 GMT
I use Acronis as well and back up to external hard drives. Full system backup every month and data files every week to a different drive. My Catalogue gets backed up to yet another drive on an adhoc basis, approx. once a month.
I actually did read the Organiser doc to try and find the answer to my problems first!
I have found it easier and quicker to delete my unwanted files outwith Organiser and then do a 'Find all unconnected files' within Organiser and delete. Have just started going through the last 5 years worth of photos and deleting the dross, as well as the RAW files of the photos I know I will never need them for and moving some folders on to an Archive drive. This is a bid to free up some disk space on my main drive, speed up backups and generally just have a good tidy out. I have been a bit snap happy with digital cameras - need to have more discipline in the future!
Thanks everyone for your help.
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Post by Bailey on Aug 13, 2018 0:27:09 GMT
no problem HappyScot, happy to try to help |
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