PSE 4 Organizer

[grandpa D]

My computer crash and the computer shop was able to save all my pictures.I made a full backup of my catalog just before it crashed. I would like to get the pictures back in the organizer without creating duplicate pictures. On my backup disc I did find the backup.tly. what is the best way to put the pictures back in the organize?

[Ward Grant]

Hello Doyle
Sorry to hear about your crash and I'm glad you are back up and running.
When the computer shop "saved" your pictures, were they able to put them back in their original folders? If they did, you can try this-
Look in your backup folder and find the file ending in BUC (which is Back up catalog). Copy this to your C:\drive and rename it My Catalog.PSA. Click this to open the catalog and hopefully all will be good (it has been in some testing I have done).

The catalog can be anywhere, but the default location is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalog\My Catalog.PSA. When you launch the catalog the first time, it will need to rebuild the thumbnails and stuff, so it may take some time the first time.

The other option would be to Restore the catalog from the backup. Open Organizer and click Restore and point to the file ending in TLY. It will ask if you want the backup in its original location and folders. Answer yes. If if finds a file in the same location, you should get a prompt asking if you want to overwrite it.

If you have sufficient space somewhere, say an external hard drive, you could move your current pictures off before launching the Restore commands to avoid any potential conflicts.

[grandpa D]

I found my catalog .psa folder. When I try to open, it goes to the organizer but I don't see any pictures.I could not find the BUC file . All of my pictures are in there folder on my hard drive. If I need to use my restore dvd do I find the tly on disc and restore from that? I feel so lost when it comes to things like this. I appreciate any help.

[Ward Grant]

Hello Doyle,
The BUC file should be on the same disk (or in the set of disks if you have multiple disks) that the TLY file is. You should have a set of renumbered files (your images), the TLY and BUC files.

I am thinking the PSA file you see is the default file built when you re-installed Elements, which would explain why it has no pictures in it.

Have you considered doing a Restore? Open Organizer and then File>Restore. Point to your backup disk and click the TLY file. You'll be given the option of where you want the files. Select original.

If you are still uncomfortable, see if you can find the BUC file and post back and we'll go from there.

[grandpa D]

Hello Ward
When I click on the TLY file I got a screen from windows that said they could not open. It needed to know what program made this file so I said PSE Organizer. Now I get the file is damage or is in a format that can not be included in the organizer D:\Pt Backup\Backup.tly. Do I need to give up on putting the pictures back in the organizer? What do you suggest I do? Thanks for your help.

[Ward Grant]

Doyle,
That is certainly a strange message, one I have not seen before.
Just to be sure, when you say "clicked the file" this in Organizer after File>Restore. It sounds like you may have been clicking in Explorer.
Did you ever find the BUC file? It should be on the same disks as the TLY file. If you have that and your images are already on your hard disk, we can copy the file back to the hard drive.

[NickLewis]

Hi Ward & Doyle,

To me, that sounds like the sequence of events that would be initiated by double-clicking on a TLY file in Explorer.

PSE doesn't register the TLY filetype with Windows (at least it hasn't on my machine :) ). That implies that Adobe don't intend anyone to run the Restore function in response to a Windows command.

Since no application has registered TLY, if you do double-click on TLY file, you're prompted to choose an application to run it with. Having chosen PSE, I imagine PSE is trying to open it as a PSA file, which is all it seems to have registered. Since it isn't a PSA file, Organiser then complains.

If a Restore is run, won't PSE know where the BUC file is by reference to the TLY file? I thought that was the sort of thing it was for - i.e. keeping track of the names and locations of the various backup components.

Nick

[grandpa D]

Hi Ward & Nick
I found the BUC File on my backup DVD. If you backup using the original location and click on restore I get a screen that says you have selected orginial location option as your restore location. With this option restoring to a computer which is different from the one you had backed up might create some changes to your existing file structure. New folders might be created or new files added to existing folders.Do you want to continue? If I click yes will it do something to my pictures already in folders? If I can backup from the BUC file how do you do that?
Thanks for your help.
Doyle

[Ward Grant]

Hi Ward & Nick
I found the BUC File on my backup DVD. If you backup using the original location and click on restore I get a screen that says you have selected orginial location option as your restore location. With this option restoring to a computer which is different from the one you had backed up might create some changes to your existing file structure. New folders might be created or new files added to existing folders.Do you want to continue? If I click yes will it do something to my pictures already in folders? If I can backup from the BUC file how do you do that?
Thanks for your help.
Doyle


I wanted to see what happens when you Restore with pictures already on your hard drive. I got a popup for each file saying File Already Exists-Do You Want To Replace? You can answer Yes/No or Yes To All/No To All (won't be prompted again so be sure if select this option).

Based on this, I think you can reclick to get to this box and then just say No To All and keep the pictures you have on your hard drive. It should rebuild the Organizer and return all the tags and stuff.


Here is how I tested this:
Created a New Catalog and brought in four small files
Did a backup on this catalog.
Edited the images to add a big red X to each one.
Did a Restore and answered Yes to two and No to two when asked if I wanted to replace the image.
On the files I said Yes (replace) I ended up with the image with no red X (what the file looked like at the time of the backup).
On the files I said No (do not replace) I ended up with images with a big red X (changes made after the backup or the files already on the hard drive).

[grandpa D]

Hi Ward
I did what you said and now have my pictures back in the organizer. I appreciate all your help. I was afraid that I would destroy the pictures already in folders by clicking on the wrong thing. Everything is back to normal.
Thanks again.
Doyle

[Ward Grant]

Thanks for posting back with the success. I'm glad it all worked out.