Moving Photos to New Drive

[Helen]

Due to a lack of space, I need to move all my photo images, tags etc to a new drive. I was wondering what is the best method to do this? I have thousands of images that are all tagged and under "My Documents". My "C" drive is just about overflowing and I thought it would be best to store my photos on another drive and create more space. At this stage they are all still image files and no video except for a few "mov" files taken with the still camera. I also have some images tagged that I store ofline on CDs.

I will also reformat drive "C" once I have moved all my files. I like to reformat on a regular basis to get rid of all the rubbish that builds up over time. Normally, I put the photos back in the same folder structure so I have no problems with my catalogue and tags, but by moving them to another drive what sort of problems may I experience. I really don't want to have to reconnect each photo one at a time or lose my tagging.

After I have successfully moved over my photos and have my catalogue working correctly, I will then load my new versions of PSE and PE and am looking forward to taking advantage of the new features in these progammes.

Thanks in advance
Helen

[Barb O]

Helen, what is your current version of Photoshop Elements? Is your new drive connected as an internal hard drive or an external hard drive?

Since your photo files are cataloged in the PSE Organizer, it is best if you use the Organizer to do the move to the new hard drive. This process will update the catalog to point to the new location of the photo files.

Adobe has a technical document titled "Move files to another disk using Folder Location Arrangement in Photoshop Elements 5.0 (Windows)" at
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgeb ... ?id=333521

So I suggest that you read that document and then post back if you have questions.

-- Note that it is better to use Windows Explorer to verify the results of the moved files: the Organizer might not immediately display the correct location of just moved files.
-- Personally, I don't move my whole folder tree at once. I find some less important photos to move first as my trial of whatever procedure I will use.

Since you will be wiping your old disk and you said you did that periodically, I suspect that you will have taken a complete backup of the old disk. That of course is useful if there are any problems.

Now I recollect that the exact specifics of how to move the files have differences for different versions of PS Elements - so if you have PSE 4 there will be some differences to discuss. I hope that you do not have PSE 3, because that is really tedious to move version sets to a new disk: I know because I did it.

[Helen]

THanks Barb,
I am currently using PSE 4.0 and yes my new drive is connected as an internal hard drive.

I am guessing that moving the files will not be much different in version 4.0 as to how the document titled "Move files to another disk using Folder Location Arrangement in Photoshop Elements 5.0 (Windows)" at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgeb ... ?id=333521 explains.

I will definitely have a backup of everything. Is it easier to restore from the backup on another internal drive or on cd? I usually do my backups to another internal drive and to cds that I store off site. So I will have both backups.

I was going to move a few files first as a test run like you suggested as well. I thought I would ask the questions first, rather than get into trouble by not knowing enough about what I was doing.

I have just thought, could I restore from my backup that is on the other internal drive and restore these to my intended new location. I have three internal hard drives C, D and E. Currently all my photos are on "C", my backup is on "E" (this drive is only for backups) and my intended location for the photos is drive "D".
I am not sure if this would work or if it would cause more problems. I do not have access to PSE from this computer.

Also will I have to move/copy the "proxy" file that lists all my photos that are stored offline on CD, or will this move automatically with the other photos. I have had trouble with these files in the past when I have reformatted, but luckily I have been able to fix it fairly easily.

My wishlist for Christmas includes an external drive for backups.

[Barb O]

1- As I recollect in PSE 4, if you did an Elements Restore restore command and specified a different "to" location for the restore- but the photo files existed on that PC at the locations currently known in the catalog - then the Catalog was NOT updated to show the new location. Also restore to a new location can actually make some rather weird folder names when the photos were previously in My Pictures. So doing a Restore may not be first choice.

2- I don't think that Proxy files will necessarily move with the online photo files.
Proxy files are under the Catalog Folders folder, I believe: I don't currently have any offline photos but this FAQ at the Adobe site (http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bbd1bc3) verifies my suspicion that the proxies are under the Catalog Folders folder structure, which is USUALLY near the catalog to which it refers. So that raises the question of whether you plan to move the Elements catalog and its associated Catalog folders to the same hard drive as you are moving your photo Files?

I will think about this some more. There are some differences in the Folder Location view between 4 and 5, so I suggest that we look at the specific command choices in v4.

[Helen]

Currently, most of my photo files are in folders by the month the picture was taken and then under the year, eg January folder in the 2007 folder. I do have a a couple of different folders, mainly for image files that I have received from other people. So rather then risk having weird folder names, I will leave the Restore option to a last resort.

I haven't actually thought about the catalogue and associated catalogue folders and whether to move them as well. My initial thought is to leave the catalogue and associated folders on "C" drive, but if the whole thing works better being on the same drive as the photos I will move them as well.

I am sure glad that I am asking the questions first rather then rushing in and just moving the photos. Thank you Barb for taking the time to consider and work out the best way to move my photos.

[Helen]

I have finally moved my photos to my new drive after reformatting my "C" drive.
First of all I backed them all up to an external drive using Photoshop Elements 4.0. I then reformatted "C" drive and loaded my new version of Photoshop Elements 6.0.
I thought I would try the "Restore" option in PSE6.0 and restore the photos to my new drive. I am happy to say that all went well. After PSE restored the images, it automatically converted the catalogue and then generated new thumbnails. Even my offline images moved across correctly. All my tag info came across intact as well.
The only thing I am not 100% happy with is the location of some of the folders. My folder heirachy is not quite the same as it was before, but I will move a few folders if it annoys me too much. I think if I chose the other folder name option in "Restore" it would have been better.
Should I keep the catalogue on the same drive as the photos which is "G" or can I safely move the catalogue to "My Documents" on "C" drive? If I move it to "My Documents" I think I will remember to back it up more frequently.
Helen

[Bob D]

Helen,

I have a question for you. You state that

Even my offline images moved across correctly.

Can you verify that when you click on those thumbnails you are actually able to retrieve the photos from the offline storage? And try some from the beginning , middle and end.

I have an open ticket with Adobe on its cataloging of offline media where it would work for the first 247 clips and then would not for the rest of my offline media.

Bob D

[Helen]

Bob
I have been following your issues with the offline media and I was a bit hesitant to upgrade to PSE6.0 until it was resolved, but due to a serious lack of space on my C drive, I had to reformat my drive and do the move. I only have about 740 images on 5 different discs offline, so I felt that if the restore did not work properly I could reimport the offline images if I had to. Luckily for me, everything went according to plan.

I have double checked and yes I can access my offline media. I checked them by searching for my offline tag and when all 740 were listed, I picked random photos from the different discs and went into edit for each photo. As I placed each disc into the drive, the little red offline symbol would disappear and in the properties panel I could see the link to the disc.

I don't know if it makes a difference, but all my offline media are jpgs. I hope your problem will be fixed soon and I can imagine how frustrating it is not to be able to access all your media.

Helen

[Bob D]

Thanks. Yes my offline media is avi files. I'm glad to hear that your offline access to jpeg files turned out successful. It is one more piece of information that might be helpful to Adobe.

Bob

[Rockdoc]

It's interesting to me that Helen did a Restore first, then converted the file. My pictures were all stored on a external drive, and I formatted the C: drive, installed Photoshop 6, and then went directly to converting the catalog. I ended up with the same offline media problem that Bob did.

Hmmmm..... perhaps I will try restoring the old catalog, then converting it...

[Helen]

Jennifer
I hope it works for you as well. I wasn't sure how it would go with the problems that Bob has, but I think I was lucky. The whole process took awhile. I started the Restore in the late afternoon and left the computer running overnight and by early morning it was all finished. When I went to bed it had just start regenerating thumbnails.
A few of the folders were not in the same heirachy I had before and I was not sure whether I would bother changing them, but I decided to try. I have now moved the folders back to how I want them and it was so much easier than I thought it would be to move them in the folder option view.
So far I am happy that I decided to upgrade to the new version. Now that I have PSE up and running, I might now have some time to try out my new PE4.0 and check out the new features on my videos.
Helen