Reintall Pics into LR

[Hill Country Hack]

I just got my PC back with more RAM and Win7 os. The drive did have a wipe and clean. The tech pulled all the files out first and then replaced them after the OS install.

I reinstalled LR3 and did the update. I know want to put my photos back into it. There is a folder named LR. Inside that folder are two folders and several files. The folders are "back ups and LR3 catalog previews.irdata". Those two folders show nothing in them. I tried importing from LR catalog which is a LRCAT file at 179kb size. LR could not see it. I double clicked the LRCAT file and LR opened and showed me the images, but with question marks. I open one of the images in loupe view and I get a bubble stating "The file named X is offline or missing". Any clue as to where I can find them? I do have a HD back up as well as carbonite. I have the carbonite restore frozen so I could install LR and other programs.

My question is...Where else can I look for the actual data for the images?

[IABoomer]

Ideally you had a good organizational structure in place. I'm going to make a couple of assumptions to point you in a direction, and you can clarify if I'm wrong.

Under XP, your images were stored in the "My Pictures" folder.

Under Win7, your images are being stored in the "My Pictures" folder.

If this is the case, the Lightroom catalog has the full path to the folder, and that path is different on Win7 from what it was on XP.

If you right-click the main folder with the question mark and select "Update Folder Location", you should get an Explorer window where you can tell Lightroom your images have moved to.

Lightroom should then update the location information in the catalog and you should be back to functioning. I went through this when I bought a network file server and moved my images from a local to a shared drive and all my edits, metadata, etc. stayed intact once Lightroom knew where the images had been relocated.

[Hill Country Hack]

The options I get with the right click on the folder is "find missing folder" gives me a pop up to find it, "remove" and "export as a catalog".

I guess I'll wait and talk to my computer guy in the morning and carbonite is busy restoring.

[IABoomer]

"Find missing folder" could be the terminology. I know with a current Lightroom catalog, you can use the "Update folder location" feature. I'd use the "Find missing folder" and click where your images are (although I'd wait for the restore to complete first).

[Hill Country Hack]

Still can't find the photos. The good news is the guy who did the work still has everything and can view the photos. I'll be going back to him on Sat with LR installed so he can move the images back and we can test. Even with the carbonite reinstall I can't find the images.

[zephod]

Have you tried going to search and using *.nef or *.jpg as your term and seeing if they are actually on your hdd?



d

[brianxlt]

Thats what I was going to ask ^^ did he remember to put them back on your HHD? if you use the import funtion on the HHD it should find the images.

[Hill Country Hack]

I really don't know what happened or where the photos are. I'll do a .jpg or .dng search when I get home. I have all the folders, but nothing in the folders. Anyway all will be fixed on Sat. Thanks to all who commented.

[Hill Country Hack]

Still couldn't access the documents and settings area in win7. Most of my photos are in that pathway. I had to take the unit to a computer store and the dude there pulled them out and plced them in a desktop folder in 5 min. He kept it for another day trying to recover my outlook contacts. I'll be picking the unit up at lunchtime and then spend the afternoon re importing from the desktop to place the images in the new location. I also have some on the camera card to download and edit.

PHEW!

[sk66]

Ah, it sounds like you don't have an admin login...this can be good for system security reasons but it can also lock you out of certain functions/areas. You should get the admin login so that you can use it when needed.