Best way to relocate/move photos

[Eric Schurr]

i'm using PSE 6.0 on a PC. My 12,000 photos no longer fit nicely on my hard drive. I need to move them to an external hard drive i have connected to my PC (I never disconnect it). I just want to move my entire MyPictures folder and retain all the folder substructures to an external harddive

what's the best way to move them all?

If I use the "file-->move" command, i think i will need to move them folder-by-folder (because the command moves a selected set of files to a target destination). So if my photos are in folders on my hard drive, this could take some time.

If i backup the catalog and restore it to a new location and tell it to recreate the folder structure, it creates a funky folder structure that at the top level has something like documents and settings/username/my pictures/etc.

i'm sure there's a reasonable way to do this -- suggestions?

[johnrellis]

Go to Display > Folder Location view. In the left-hand pane is a folder hierarchy, similar to Windows Explorer. You can drag and drop entire folders from one location to another (unbelievably, that isn't documented). One tip: The view only exposes folders if they already contain a photo imported into your catalog. So if you don't see a folder you want, import a dummy photo from it and it will show up.

Moving a large number of photos all at once will take a fair bit of time -- perhaps 30% slower than if you were moving them in Windows Explorer. So be patient. Also, you might try moving a couple small subfolders first to make sure everything is working the way you want.

[Eric Schurr]

Thanks. this may be helpful. If i move a folder and it has subfolders will it move them, too?

[johnrellis]

If i move a folder and it has subfolders will it move them, too?
Yes, it moves the whole hierarchy beneath the folder you move.

[Eric Schurr]

Interesting. I tried this on a small test: one folder and a sub folder. A few notable things:

1. first, it was odd that the Folder View does not show any folders on the external hard drive. They're there, but it doesn't show them. Means i can't drag the folder to the destination where i really want it, because i can't see the target folder.

2. Second, i dragged the folder to the external drive anyway to see what would happen. It warned me "there are items in this folder that are not visible in the organizer -- do you still want to move it?" i don't understand why it's saying that -- the only items in the folder are jpegs, video clips, and PSDs, all of which are being shown in the organizer.

any ideas?

[johnrellis]

1. first, it was odd that the Folder View does not show any folders on the external hard drive. They're there, but it doesn't show them. Means i can't drag the folder to the destination where i really want it, because i can't see the target folder.
Yeah, that’s the issue I mentioned in the previous message: The view only exposes folders if they already contain a photo imported into your catalog. So if you don't see a folder you want, import a dummy photo from it and it will show up.

2. Second, i dragged the folder to the external drive anyway to see what would happen. It warned me "there are items in this folder that are not visible in the organizer -- do you still want to move it?" i don't understand why it's saying that -- the only items in the folder are jpegs, video clips, and PSDs, all of which are being shown in the organizer.
Most likely, there is a file in the folder that’s usually hidden by Windows, e.g. Thumbs.db (which on XP stores the thumbnails the Explorer uses to show your photos). I just ignore that message from PSE and go ahead and move the entire folder.

[Eric Schurr]

John,
you are being very helpful -- many thanks! i will give all this a try in the next few days and i'm optimistic that it will go well.

[Eric Schurr]

hmmm....this is getting interesting

in order to see the folder structure on the external hard drive, i placed a file (it happened to be a .NEF) file into a directory on my external hard drive, then i imported it into PSE 6.

Here's what happened:

1. PSE copied the photo to a folder on my internal hard drive, in MyPictures (where my other photos are stored) into a folder called Adobe/Other photos. I have no idea why it did that. So now the photo exists on the external hard drive AND on the internal hard drive. Not what i want.

1.5 The Folder View in PSE still does not show me the folder structure on my external hard drive -- and that was the reason i imported the file in the first place

2. I tried deleting the photo from the organizer and checked "delete from hard drive" and i got an error from PSE saying there may be something wrong with the media or the file system.

3. i tried deleting the file from the internal hard drive using Windows -- it says the file is in use by another program

4. i tried deleting the file from the external hard drive using Windows and it also says the file is in use by another program

5. i restarted Windows to free up and garbage locks or processes and it still won't let me delete the file from anywhere.

6. i deleted the photo from the PSE catalog, hoping that might free up some locks, but no luck.

so now i can't delete the photo from my internal hard drive or my external hard drive.

I tried this again with a JPEG and it all worked perfectly.

I also tried this by exporting a JPEG, a NEF, and a .AVI file and then importing them and moving them with PSE. it all worked -- EXCEPT i can't delete the NEF file from PSE OR Windows.

what's going on?

And i STILL haven't moved my photos to my external hard drive.

help!

[johnrellis]

in order to see the folder structure on the external hard drive, i placed a file (it happened to be a .NEF) file into a directory on my external hard drive, then i imported it into PSE 6. … 1. PSE copied the photo to a folder on my internal hard drive, in MyPictures (where my other photos are stored) into a folder called Adobe/Other photos. I have no idea why it did that.
When you import a photo from a drive that PSE thinks is removable (e.g. flash drive or CD/DVD), by default PSE will copy the files to a folder under My Pictures (XP). You can override that by unchecking the option Get Files On Import in the Get Photos From Files And Folders window.

Thus, it appears that when you imported the NEF file from your external drive, PSE incorrectly thought the drive was removable. Other users have encountered this – there seems to be a bug in PSE and/or Windows that sometimes reports an external drive as removable.

It wasn’t clear from the rest of your message: If you repeat these steps again with a different file, does it get copied to My Pictures? If so, then let’s check the type of the drive. In Windows Explorer, right-click the external drive and select Properties. What is the precise string that’s shown to the right of “Type”? It should be “Removable disk”, but if it’s not, then we need to address that.

[Eric Schurr]

John -- thanks for all your help. after hours -- literally -- of trying things, i think i've figured it out.

the issue seems to arise when copying .NEF files created with a D300 (It doesn't happen with D300 .NEF files that have just been imported from a card).

it is related to the MS RAW thumbnail viewer if you have that installed.

you can resolve it by installed a new .NEF codec from Nikon (I didn't even know something like this existed). you can get it here: www.nikonimglib.com/nefcodec

As far as PSE copying the file to my local disk, i couldn't replicate that after i installed the new codec. It didn't do it for .NEF files or JPEGS. maybe the issues were related somehow.

BTW, i did check what windows thinks my hard drive is: it says "Local disk," not removeable hard drive. and the option to "copy files on import" in the "Get files and folders view" is grayed out, so i can't even check it.

Again, thanks -- and now i will go and move all my files (using your great technique), which is what i was trying to do in the first place!

[johnrellis]

As far as PSE copying the file to my local disk, i couldn't replicate that after i installed the new codec. It didn't do it for .NEF files or JPEGS. maybe the issues were related somehow… BTW, i did check what windows thinks my hard drive is: it says "Local disk," not removable hard drive. and the option to "copy files on import" in the "Get files and folders view" is grayed out, so i can't even check it.

I’m reasonably sure the codec update is unrelated to the problem of PSE copying the file to the local disk – PSE pays no attention to raw codecs. But it sounds like your system is operating normally now with respect to hard drives: Windows thinks it is a local disk and so does PSE (which is why the “Copy files” option is grayed out).

Hopefully your move will go smoothly now…

[Eric Schurr]

thanks, john. the interesting story continues.

In the Folder View i dragged my My Pictures folder to the location in the external hard drive where i want to locate my files. PSE "went away" for awhile while it did its job. it took easily over an hour (12,000 photos, 40gb) and finished. it all seemed to go well, except for one folder and its subfolder. it didn't move from the original location (it was the only one remaining), and a folder with its name appeared on the new location, but when i clicked on it Windows said something like "the refers to a location that doesn't exist." there were no files in the original folder (except an odd file that i think was leftover from Bridge called .bridgesort) and no files in the desitnation folder.

The PSE catalog still has the images in them that point to the original files, but it says they are disconnected. when i clicked on a image and it tried to locate them it found them in my backup drive, but no where else. Weird.

Right now i'm moving the files in the one folder from my backup drive to the destination drive and then i'll tell PSE to reconnect to them. if that goes well it will all be good.

!!!!!!