Catolog and Tag retrieval....

[Renz]

I am currently using Elements 3 on my laptop with all the photos stored on an external hard drive. The problem now is that the laptop fell and is badly damaged I suspect that the Hard Drive is still working but I cant export any of it, I have a tecnician who will try to recuperate the info from the drive. I had fortunately made a back up of all the stuff I need EXCEPT my photoshop Catalog and Tags. Can somebody please tell me the location of all the information that I need to retrieve so that we dont miss anything.

Now I come to the second problem my new laptop runs Vista and having tried to download Elements 3 I am having some computer isssues, I have disinstalled and will be instaling a recent Elements. Please tell me that it will be possible for the latest versions to accept the info from my Catalog and Tags. Can someone explain how to do it.
I have a few thousand photos and the thought of having to relabel them all is ever so slightly depressing!!!

Please try not to make your answers too complicated.
Thanks alot for your help.

[dj_paige]

I can't make the answers any less complicated than they need to be.

Your catalog, and tags (and captions and notes and collections and map info) are stored in My Catalog.psa which I believe is stored in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalogs

(It may be located somewhere else, that is the default for PSE5, I think it is the same for PSE3, but you the user could have changed the file name or the folder it is stored in)

You cannot install PSE3 on Vista. I believe you will need either PSE5 or PSE6 to run on Vista.

You need to move all of your photos and the catalog file to the new computer. The photos need to be in the exact same directory that they were in on the old computer. In other words, if the photos were in C:\Photos on your old computer, then they need to be in C:\Photos on the new computer (at least initially, you can move them later using PSE). The catalog should ideally be in the same folder mentioned above (you may have to create the folder)

Install PSE5 or PSE6 on the Vista computer. Then, launch PSE5 or PSE6. PSE5, if everything is in the right folder, should recognize your catalog and convert it from PSE3 to PSE5. I'm not sure about PSE6, since I don't have it, but you should be able to tell PSE6 to find that catalog and convert it, I just don't know the exact command.

[Renz]

Thank you for your reply, I managed to locate the folder your refering too and it was in fact in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalogs. Can you confirm that this is the ONLY folder I need to copy or is there some other file somewhere? Just asking because after tomorrow the broken computer will be sent away (insurance claim) and I wont be getting it back again, so there will be no 2nd chance for me.
Thanks again

[dj_paige]

I can't confirm that. You can confirm it by finding the My Catalog.psa (or other .psa file) file in that folder.

If you always used the default catalog folder and default catalog name, then that the information I gave you should be correct for Windows XP.

It is possible for PSE users to place the catalog in a different folder, or name it something else. If you did either of these two things, I can't tell you where to look or what to look for.

However, once you find the proper .psa file(s), that should be the only file(s) you need to save to recover your tags.

By the way, was your old laptop using Windows XP?

[Renz]

Thanks for your replies. I managed to get the .psa file as you said. Elements 6 arrived today so going to give it a try and see how I get on, fingers crossed.....:).
The new laptop uses Vista whereas the old one was xp, would this change anything?
Thanks alot again. :)

[Renz]

Hi , I'm a bit stuck and wondering if anyone might be able to help me.
I've tried creating as suggested above (I'm using Vista) a new folder in C for my .psd files, but when I try to create a New File named "Documents and settings" I get a notice that "The files in New Folder will be moved to C:\ Users".
So how do I manage to create the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalogs with Vista so that when I download Elements 6 it will pick up all my info?
Thanks for your help.

[dj_paige]

I don't have PSE6, but I believe it works this way:

You take your existing catalog from PSE5, and place it anywhere you want. Someplace you can find easily. (By the way, this is a .psa file, not a .psd file as you typed). Your photos must be in the exact same folders as they were in before on the old computer's hard disk.

Then you install PSE6, and you have it convert your catalog from PSE5 format to PSE6 format. Somewhere along the way, it will ask you where the PSE5 catalog is, and you point to its location, which you must know, as I described in the previous paragraph. Then PSE6 converts things, and places them in its default location (which I don't know for Vista, but it really doesn't matter, there's no reason for most people to change the default), and you don't have to worry about creating folders or anything of the sort.

[Renz]

Thanks alot dj, you've been a great help (and very patient), I'll give it a go this weekend when I have some time and let you know how I get on.

[JonE]

Really what you should be doing if at all possible is running a full backup using PSE itself, to an EHD would be OK, then restoring that backup onto the new computer. Otherwise you may be in for a heck of a challenge. Here are all th details, follow them to the T:

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402894&sliceId=1