Moving Pictures and Organizer to New Computer Questions

[tjodork]

I have a new computer and I want to move my pictures to the new computer.
If I do a backup of pictures can I then move backup to the new computer and do a restore ?\
From what I can tell the backup creates weird names for the pictures....does the real name get restored on the backup ?
What if the directory doesnt exist on the new computer ....will it automatically create it ?
What if the hard drive is not on the new computer ...will it ask where to put pictures, not restore those or put in a default location ?

Since I'm converting from PE6 to PE10 ...can I do the backup in PE6 and the restore in PE10 ?

Thanks in advance for any advice !

[Barb O]

I am looking for additional references for methods of doing the PSE 6 to PSE 10 plus old computer to new computer migrations. In the meantime, here are some specific comments :

-- Yes, doing a Backup with PSE 6 and doing the Restore with PSE 10 on a different computer is a supported function of the Organizer.

-- it is normal for the photo files of the backup to have different file names and yes using the Elements 10 Restore is designed to give those files their original names during the restore process

-- why you are not seeing which files can not be found on PSE 6, I don't know so I am still thinking about that.

-- the folder structure possibilities of the Restore do have some choices (more details when we know more about the other current questions)

Presuming that your new computer runs windows 7:
-- what is the operating system on the old computer?
-- is the windows User Name the same on the new computer ?
-- where are the photo files stored on the old computer (like are they under the user's My Pictures or somewhere else) ?

FYI - some people have first installed the new PSE version (10) on their old computer, done a Catalog upgrade to new version 10 on the old computer, then done a v10 Backup on the old computer and a v10 Restore on the new computer. Even with this scenario it is not always possible to do a straight across with the same folder structure on the new computer if coming from Windows XP to Windows 7.

[Barb O]

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/402/kb402894.html
Move catalog to another computer | Use Backup and Restore | Elements Organizer

The John Ellis tips contain a disclaimer that they are no longer maintained so we can't be sure if any tip will be relevant for PSE 10. However for the PSE 6 on your old computer, they should be relevant :

The Organizer Log file MIGHT have something at the time you did the Reconnect Missing Files which gave you the blanks instead of photos. See
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/pho ... s_log_file

Recreating some or all of the thumbnails is sometimes a solution for some problems. Do you have any ideas which timeframe or which Window folder is relevant for either the current blanks or the previous missing photos for which you did the delete from catalog? If yes, a partial recreate of thumbnails could be considered.
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/pho ... thumbnails

I also suggest that you scan though other tips in that John Ellis file - perhaps you will see something you think might be relevant and we can discuss.

Barb

[tjodork]

Barb,
Thanks for the awesome references....they did answer several question.
I am moving from Xp Home to Win 7.
They ARE different userids but I will change Win 7 to match (good to know !!)

Photo files are stored on an internal SATA drive that I'm moving over (SAVE is on an external drive, also moving over)

Most of the files are stored on J:\My Pictures and subdirectories but there is exceptions. I think I will try and clean up with folder view and move some folders under that.
Some are on different drives which based on reading Adobes info ..didn't go into.

Should i install PS10 on the XP system and convert and backup again ?

Hmmm, now that I think about it.....if I get everything under J:\My Pictures and move the J drive....could I move the catalog over and the drive and NOT do the save and restore ? If so, should I update to PSE10 catalog before moving ?


I looked at the log file (never knew it existed)....right after doing the reconnect but there was nothing interesting about the reconnect. The pictures were on my J drive that I deleted earlier and were from October.
I just kicked off a thumbnail update....hopefully that will help. Maybe upgrading catalog to PS10 would help?

Thanks again for the great links and help !

[tjodork]

MORE QUESTIONS
I installed PS10 on my old computer and it instantly showed me my current catalog I was using without any questions or conversion.
In addition,my old catalog (PS6) had 29004 items and the new one only shows 28054 ...meaning 950 items are missing.

How could so many things be missing ?

Is it using the same catalog without conversion ...i hope not ?

[tjodork]

OK, so I did find a new catalog with same name at
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\My Catalog for J\catalog.pse10db

whereas old one was
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Catalogs\My Catalog for J\catalog.psedb

it's interesting it didnt at least say it was doing a conversion

so ..what happened to the other 950 items ?

[Barb O]

OK, so I did find a new catalog with same name at
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\My Catalog for J\catalog.pse10db

whereas old one was
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Catalogs\My Catalog for J\catalog.psedb

it's interesting it didnt at least say it was doing a conversion

so ..what happened to the other 950 items ?

What happened to the other 950 items ? - I don't know. I agree with the comment that I would have expected a message about upgrading the catalog.

Suggestions for troubleshooting

-- Look at the ReadMe file that came on the PSE 10 disc.
does it say anything about regenerating the thumbnails in v10 after doing a catalog upgrade ? Or any other instructions or suggestions about upgrading from v6 or earlier versions that seem like they might be relevant ? For example, sometimes there are specific types of Creations that will not upgrade.

-- Under v10, filter the Organizer by each type of media and record the numbers for each type. Then close v10 and open the v6 Organizer - do the same filtering by media type. How do those numbers broken out by media type compare ?

[tjodork]

So...after doing a bunch on analysis (using the pdsdbtool) etc, I decided to convert the catalog again.... this time the catalog came out with the RIGHT number of items AND the RECONNECT had NO errors.

So...I was thinking......I did participate in the Beta For Pre10 but not the Beta for PS10....did the organizer come with just Pre10 or only PS10... what I'm thinking is that maybe the catalog was created a while ago and since then things had changed.... I just dont remember if the organizer came with PRE10 only.

Anyways, I'm thrilled that it matches up.... Now to still move to the new computer. : )

[Barb O]

I'm thrilled that it matches up.

That is great news !

FYI - the same Organizer does come with both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements.

Moving to new computer --
Did I understand correctly that you will move the physical hard drive(which contains your photo, video AND elements Organizer catalog) from your old computer to your new computer ? Will it have the same drive letter to Windows ?

If yes to above questions and you do the cleanup (so all photo, video, etc files known to the elements catalog are on that same drive), then just moving the physical drive might work.

If your catalog, is on a different drive then you should copy over the entire folder which contains the v10 Catalog. And it is here that I am not sure if this approach of copying that entire folder will get everything that the backup and restore process does.

I am curious - does your Organizer catalog have the default name ?

[tjodork]

yes Im going to move the physical drive.... The catalog is not on the same drive.
So I'm going to try moving the entire catalog directory to the drive to be moved
move the drive and see what happens : )

The catalog name is not default... will be trying shortly.!!

Thanks for your help !

[tjodork]

i successfully copied the PS10 catalog folder to drive with pictures and moved the drive to win7 computer. I pointed to that catalog in PS10 organizer and I had about 15 files to reconnect.
They were legitimate as they were on other drives not moved.

As I'm writing this I clicked show all and got the msg "Elements 10 Organizer has stopped working: : (

My next step is to checkout projects to see if they work....toomorrow