Recovering a PSE4 Catalog: Thanks for the Great Tip, BarbO

[George Tyndall]

In another thread, I described how, once one had created one’s PSE7 catalog, it was a simple matter to open it, namely, double-click on the file <catalog.pse7db> on whatever HDD one used to store one’s catalog. Even more important, if one created a backup of this HDD and it subsequently crashed, all one needed to do to restore the catalog was to double-click on that same file on the backup HDD.

BarbO replied,

FYI -- I don't think PSE 7 was the first release where that was possible because I think I had done it in either PSE 4....

Just now, with my 15,000-item PSE4 catalog, I completed the following experiment:
- Using SmartSyncPro, I copied an external HDD that contains that PSE4 catalog–plus all the media that it organizes–onto a second external HDD
- I opened the second external HDD, double-clicked on the .PSA file, and–Voila!–my PSE4 catalog opened, complete with all my tags and collections
- Amazingly, as I double-clicked on each image (thumbnail) in the catalog, the thumbnail would instantly change from out-of-focus to sharp, in other words, the thumbnail would instantly reconnect to the underlying image on that second HDD

P.S. If I needed to reconnect the entire 15,000-item catalog, an alternative method would be to select a number of the thumbnails and then go to Edit>Update Thumbnails.

I continue to be amazed by the flexibility that Adobe has given us for managing our catalogs–but a continuing mystery is that the company’s documentation instead describes a very cumbersome and inexact method for making a backup of the catalog.

Does anyone have an idea why that is so?

[Barb O]

I continue to be amazed by the flexibility that Adobe has given us for managing our catalogs–but a continuing mystery is that the company’s documentation instead describes a very cumbersome and inexact method for making a backup of the catalog.

Does anyone have an idea why that is so?

My perception is that Adobe intended their design of the Backup and Restore commands in PS Elements to be simple to use by people with very little knowledge of computers. The overall design of the Organizer is intended to free people from references to specific folder locations or specific disk drives. The Backup command in PSE backs up both the contents of the catalog and all the photo files referenced in it: basically no options - just do it. Now it is not as simple as Adobe intended, but that is a different discussion and I am not going there.

Now there are many people who place their media files (photos, video etc) on a separate hard drive and many of these people also place the Elements Catalog on that hard drive. These people often have more computer knowledge and experience and they usually choose to use other backup software. The critical fact that people need to understand when using other backup software is that the Elements catalog needs to be backed up in order to preserve tagging etc - not just the photo files.

Your scheme is one of those variations of people using other (than PSE) backup methods and software. Your method might have more dependencies on how the PSE internal software actually works than some other backup schemes. However, I think that your desired timeframe for being back running again is significantly shorter than most consumers running PS Elements for their personal use.