How do I backup and restore outside of elements?

[camperguy01]

Would REALLY appreciate anyone's help in trying to figure out how to backup my photos AND catalog (tags, etc..).

I've had Elements 4.0 for a few months now. Prior to Elements, I copied from camera to D:\Photos\JPEG\etc..... on my PC. To backup the photos, I would then copy the contents of the JPEG folder onto an external hard drive.

After purchasing Elements, I added photos to the catalog and spent a large amount of time adding tags, etc.. Not wanting to lose those tags, I've been backing up within Elements by going to File > Backup. Using this method, Elements creates a folder containg all of my JPEG's (prefixed with B000) and two files - Backup.tly and My Catalog.buc.

Backing up the jpegs both in the D:\Photos\JPEG\etc.. folder and having Elements backup the jpegs as B0000***.jpg seems redundant and a waste of time and disk space.

So my question is this - Is there a way to backup my tags, catalog, etc... within Elements without having to redundantly backup all of my jpegs as B000**.jpg? All I want to do is backup my photos in D:\Photos\JPEG\etc...AND my catalog and tags. (I'm assuming the backup method would have to be outside of Elements, which would be perfectly fine).

Thanks much in advance for any helpful replies! :)

Frank

[Ward Grant]

Hello Frank and welcome to the forum
If you wish to backup outside of Elements, you can either use the standard XP (or your OS) drag and drop or a third party backup software program, whichever you prefer.

You should copy the following:
Your picture folder
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalog folder (contains the actual catalog file-My Catalog.PSA by default)
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalog Folders folder (contains "support" files for each catalog)

These folders are hidden by default but you can change this in Windows Explorer (Tools>View).
I usually include the total folders as they are not too large and I find it easy to copy the whole folder instead of "cherry picking" selected files.

[camperguy01]

Thanks Ward, this is exactly what I was looking for. Appreciate it much!!!