PS 5 Catalog

[acmarcil]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum.

My question is:

Where does PS 5 Organizer saves its catalog and what is the file ( or files ) names ?

I intend to save an updated clone copy of the catalog in a safe place in case of a disaster.

Thanks

[NickLewis]

Hi, and welcome to the forum :)

By default, PSE5 saves its catalog in c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalogs\My Catalog.psa. Its a hidden folder.

Nick

[Edmund]

Welcome to the forum,
In case of a disaster you'd be better off saving a copy of all your images. The organizer is only a link to where that particular image is stored on your hard drive.
Eddie

[NickLewis]

My apologies - In a hurry, I made the unwarranted assumption that you were separately backing up your photo files.

To fully recover from a disaster, you need both your photo files and the catalog file. Neither is sufficient on its own. Some people do that independently, others use the built-in Backup routine in PSE.

Nick

[acmarcil]

Nick and Edmund,

Thank you for your interest in helping me finding the catalog files.

I'm aware that the catalog is only a link to the photos.

In fact, all my photos are saved on 3 different hard drives on different computers.

Naturally, my collection keeps on growing and whenever I have enough to warrant a DVD, I burn one. So far, I have 8 DVD's.

So, there's no security problems with my photos.

My main concern is to be able to recuperate my catalog after a possible crash on the HD on which PS E runs.

Claude

[acmarcil]

Nick and Edmund,

Thank you for your interest in helping me finding the catalog files.

I'm aware that the catalog is only a link to the photos.

In fact, all my photos are saved on 3 different hard drives on different computers.

Naturally, my collection keeps on growing and whenever I have enough to warrant a DVD, I burn one. So far, I have 8 DVD's.

So, there's no security problems with my photos.

My main concern is to be able to recuperate my catalog after a possible crash on the HD on which PS E runs.

Claude

[clpvt]

Just to confirm what you're saying...
I have 15,000 images in PE5 on my Windows XP Professional machine. I have tried several times usingn PE5 to backup my images onto DVD's but the process doesn't seem to work. The last time, I burned 15 DVD's (needed to burn 18) but the 16th one wouldn't burn so I had to cancel the process and toss the 15 DVD's that were not able to be a part of a complete backup set. I also have an external hard drive. I would like to have a backup on both DVD's and my EHD. At present, I have a second internal hard drive where My Documents resides, includes all of my photos in My Pictures. My programs are on my original c drive.

So using Windows, I could copy My Documents (which includes My Pictures) onto DVD's and also to my EHD and then copy my catalog from my C drive (c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalogs\My Catalog.psa.) As a hidden folder, I still can locate it through Windows Explorer?

Then if my computer crashed, I would be able to reload my images from either my DVDs or from my EHD and copy the catalog file and I would be able to recreate my present images and tagging system? It would be as simple as this? Many thanks.

[NickLewis]

Hi,

A lot of people have experienced problems using PSE's built-in backup routine to write DVDs (or indeed CDs). This is speculation on my part, but I suspect that the issue is not so much with PSE's routine, as with the difficulty of writing faultlessly to optical media. I am as sure as I can be that, if I tried to write 18 DVDs for any purpose, at least one of those operations, probably more, would fail.

My catalog is now about 9000 images, and PSE backup works faultlessly when writing to an EHD. I've no intention of even trying to produce DVDs.

If you don't use the built-in routine, then, yes, you need to back up both the image files themselves (which you are presumably keeping in My Pictures) and the My Catalog file, which, by default is in the hidden location you refer to, but is accessible through Explorer. You just need to set Explorer's View options to show hidden files. You must do these backups at the same time, otherwise the catalog backup will be out of step with the image files.

A lot of people do this. The only caution I would give is that, as far as I know, it isn't an Adobe documented routine, so there's no actual guarantee that PSE isn't storing data elsewhere as well. I don't believe it's storing anything to do with the catalog elsewhere, but I do know it stores email address data elsewhere, for example. (But I don't know if PSE Backup saves that even.) You could also back up the thumbnail cache, but there's no need as PSE will recreate that once you copy back the catalog file.

That's probably more a theoretical warning than a real concern, but one real issue with backing up independently is that you must restore the backups to the same locations as they came from. If you don't, all the catalog references will be wrong, your images will be disconnected, and you'll have a mess on your hands. This is relevant if you ever had such a bad PC crash that you rebuilt or replaced the machine. You need the same drive letters, folder structures and user IDS to restore to. This is because the catalog file contains the absolute locations of the image files. This limitation doesn't apply to a PSE backup, which is capable of being restored seamlessly to a new location.

Hope that helps,
Nick

[budman101]

I recently built a new computer and have a big issue with PSE5 reconnecting with my photos. I cloned the hard drive and used the clone drive in my new system. Possibly because of the processor switch, AMD vs Intel, Windows XP did not allow me to just do a recovery install. This was the first time this has ever happened. I had to format the drive and start fresh. I then used a commercial program to transfer the files and settings to the new computer. PSE5 along with other programs had to be re-installed. The hidden PSE folder must have been transferred because my catalog images popped right up in organizer. BUT all of the pictures have that little broken tag that appears when the files are not connected to PSE.
There are over 35GB of photos on the drive. I can reconnect them individually or in small groups, but PSE5 chokes when I ask it to reconnect the entire catalog. Would it be better if I just uninstalled PSE and deleted the index file? Then PSE would search for photos and they would be connected. However I think that all my tags would be gone. My photos are backed up to an external HD so there are no worries about image loss.

[NickLewis]

Hi,

If you delete the catalog (I'm guessing that's what you mean by the index file), then basically you will have to recreate your catalog from scratch, by reimporting all your photos.

All your tags will indeed be gone, except for those that have been written to your photo files. If you shoot JPG, and are in the habit of tagging and then editing, then that may have happened. Or if you have deliberately written tags out. But if you shoot RAW, or tag more files than you subsequently open in Editor, you could lose loads of tagging.

You'd have to judge whether it's more effort to continue reconnecting or to retag.

Of course, what you could do is set up a new catalog, and import your photos into it. You could then judge how many tags survive, and make your decision accordingly. Your old catalog would still be there if you wanted to go back to it.

However, only your tags can be saved this way - any collections, version sets, star ratings, stacks or creations will be lost when you set up a new catalog. So if you've a lot of those, the only way to retain them is to persevere with reconnecting.
Nick