PE7 Organizer thinks files are on wrong drive

[fastbill]

I've captured all of my tapes directly from one of three MiniDV cameras (Sony PD170 and VX2000, Panasonic PV-GS500) over FireWire connections. I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop running Windows Vista Ultimate, with 2GB of RAM.

All of my PE7 projects are stored on a brand-new external Seagate 500GB USB2.0 drive. The folder structure looks like this (starting at the root of the drive):

-Adobe Premier Elements Projects
|---Project 1
|---Project 2
|---Test Project

Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to bring these clips from the Organizer to the timeline of a project. Apparently when I first used PE7 this USB drive was assigned drive letter F:. (This may have been with the trial version of PE7 before I purchased the product on physical media, uninstalled the trial version, and installed the licensed version from its product disc. Or it may have been the first time I used the licensed version.)

Today, I happened to have another USB drive in F:, so my Seagate "Video Projects" 500GB HDD is assigned to letter G:.

In the Organize tab, the icons for my .avi files do not display an image of the clip; rather, they display "missing media file" icons -- red and green arrows pointing at each other in a circular fashion. If I attempt to drag one of these .avi files to the timeline (or simply double-click it), PE7 displays a dialog box whose title is something like this:
Where is F:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Project 1\Side Cam 01.avi?
If I navigate to G:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Project 1\ and double-click the "Side Cam 01.avi" file, PE7 displays this error message:
______________________________________
Generic Failure
______________________________________
This type of file is not supported, or the
required codec is not installed.

[OK]
Now, this gives rise to at least two issues/questions:

1) PE7 successfully captured the MiniDV tape to the timeline, plays it successfully there, allows me to edit it there, etc. Why does it think that the filetype is not supported or the codec is missing when I attempt to re-use that clip from the Organizer?

2) If I right-click the clip in the Organizer and select "Update", and then navigate to G:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Project 1\, select the file "Side Cam 01.avi", and click the "Select" button, PE7 does [I]not update the path reference for this .avi file -- Organizer still shows the file path starting with F:\. (This is true for every icon shown in the Organizer.) How can I get PE7 to change the paths of existing .avi files?

Today, I set up a new project. I captured two tapes to the timeline. Like my earlier projects, this one is also on G:\, but Organizer once again thinks the .avi files are on F:\ as it does with all the other projects and files.

Note that Edit > Preferences > General, then "Scratch Disks" shows that all of the Scratch Disks are set to "Same as Project" and their paths all are
G:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Project 1, but in Organizer the captured .avi files have paths starting with F:\ instead of G:\.

Among other things, this means that when capturing if I do not check the "Capture to Timeline" box I cannot access the captured clip, because Organizer thinks it's on the wrong drive.

BTW, I can play any of my captured .avi files in Windows Media Player and QuickTime Movie Player. Both of them report that the file is only 640x480, whereas Windows Explorer's Properties dialog reports it as 720x480 (which is what it's supposed to be). I've inspected one particular .avi file with several applications, and found differing results:


The GSpot utility (http://www.headbands.com/gspot/) reports the codec used for this file is "dvsd (DVC/DV Video)" and that the dimensions are 720x480.
Ulead Movie Factory says that the codec is "DV Video Encoder -- Type 2"; it does not report the dimensions.
QuickTime Movie Player says that the Format is "DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, 640x480, Millions, 16-bit Integer (Little Endian), Stereo, 48.000 kHz".
Windows Explorer's Properties dialog says that Frame Width=720 and Frame Height=480; it does not report the codec.
WMP says that the codec is "DV Video Encoder."


But PE7 thinks that the codec is missing. :mad:

Sorry for the long-winded post. I'd appreciate any advice about:

(1) How to get PE7 to recognize that my files are now on G:\, not F:\,

(2) What to do about the "missing" codec? If it's truly missing, where can I get one of these? If it's not really missing, where would it be located?

(3) Why do some programs state that the dimensions are 640x480, while other programs report it as 720x480?

Thanks,
FastBill

[ATR]

This is going to be a multi part response....I am currently reviewing all your details to make sure that I am on solid footing in my suggestions....but, first your file format....

You have DV AVI (DV is the compression type; AVI is the wrapper); there are many types of AVI, ex. AVI MPEG4, AVI Motion JPEG, etc. But, you have DV AVI. Everything that you cite tells you that.

1. You have used miniDV camcorders and Firewire Connection to computer to capture with Premiere Elements...that ends up as DV AVI on your Premiere Elements Timeline.

2. DVD compliant video (standard or widescreen) is 720 x 480 with aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9, respectively. The 640 x 480 is not.

3. In Quicktime/Windows/Show..., when you see "DV/DVCPRO-NTSC, 640 x 480...." that should read "DV/DVCPRO-NTSC 720 x 480 (640 x 480)....." The 720 x 480 (DVD compliant) is the encoded bounds and the 640 x 480 is the display bounds.

4. There are two types of Microsoft DV AVI, type 1 and type 2. Type 2 is the type associated with Premiere Elements. The following link is the best that I could find to explain the difference between the two types:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms787833(VS.85).aspx

At this point I do not think it productive to think in terms of a missing codec, only one of two suggested problems in your error message of:
This type of file is not supported, or the
required codec is not installed.

I suspect that you have gotten yourself into a mess with the external drive installation /Organizer/Project .prel file. There can be complications, like file is not supported, when the .prel file is saved to an external hard drive. It is one thing to save the preview, encoded, media cache files for a project to the external drive, but there are complications when you do not save the .prel to the C: drive (internal hard drive). How and where are you opening your projects (prel) that are currently saved to the external hard drive? I will go into detail in future re: scenarios on how you could be getting a "file is not supported" message related to save location of the .prel file.

Right now I am rethinking the safest scenario to explore.... thinking about:
1. moving ALL of those projects (.prel) files and associated project files to the internal hard drive
2. uninstalling/reinstalling the external hard drive, seeing if you can assign a fixed letter to it
3. setting up your Scratch Files so that the .prel goes to the internal hard drive and the preview, encoded, media cache files go to the external hard drive.
4. trying to salvage what you have done and get the files connected to the project(s) so that Premiere Elements and its Organizer recognize file locations..... flushing out the Organizer contents and starting from scratch if not too much is involved at this point.

If all of the above is going in the right direction, then we can start talking about the merits of using Premiere Elements Project Archiver to save projects and bypass the hang ups of reconnect when you move your source files for a project after the project is completed.

To be continued.....

ATR

[fastbill]

Hi, ATR --

Thanks for the detailed reply.


I suspect that you have gotten yourself into a mess with the external drive installation /Organizer/Project .prel file. There can be complications, like file is not supported, when the .prel file is saved to an external hard drive. It is one thing to save the preview, encoded, media cache files for a project to the external drive, but there are complications when you do not save the .prel to the C: drive (internal hard drive). How and where are you opening your projects (prel) that are currently saved to the external hard drive? I will go into detail in future re: scenarios on how you could be getting a "file is not supported" message related to save location of the .prel file.
ATR

I find it absolutely astonishing that the location (drive) on which the .prel file is saved has an impact upon references to media files! I've been in the software business, working for enterprise-product vendors, for more than 25 years and at the moment I cannot recall any product in which the saved file location matters.

If saving the .prel file somewhere other than C: is known to cause problems, IMHO Adobe should prevent the user from saving the project file anywhere else. Better to avoid problems in the first place than to analyze and solve them later on :).

My laptop, a Toshiba Satellite A205-S4639, has two internal HDDs -- C: and D: are each internal physical disk drives. As a matter of principle, I do not put any application files on C:. Almost all of my application programs are installed in D:\Program Files\..., and files that applications create usually go either on D: or on an external USB drive (of which I have several).

I open PE7 projects in any of several ways:


If PE7 is not running, I will usually double-click the .prel file (on G:\...) to launch the program and open the project.
If PE7 is already running and I want to switch to a different project, I will usually (a) Close the current project, and then (b) Open the next project from the File menu (either File > Open, or File > Open Recent).
Occasionally, I'll double-click the PRE icon on my desktop to launch the program, then open the project from the Recent list in the File menu.

Fixing the drive letter assigned to my external USB drive should be possible. I discovered a utility program called USBDLM (USB Drive Letter Manager) at http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html. The author is beta-testing a release that will let the user assign a drive letter based on the Volume ID. I would prefer to pre-assign letters high up in the alphabet (rather than F or G), so I'll be faced with the issue of convincing PE7 that my files are on a new drive letter such as R or U.

BTW, wouldn't it be better if Adobe stored relative paths (from the root of a removable drive) rather than assuming that removable drives will always be assigned the same drive letters when they are plugged in?

Despite some "teething pains" and the occasional program crash (once or twice each day), I think Premier Elements is a very good product. I just finished editing a 2-camera, 45-minute lecture with PowerPoint slides, title and credits over a graphic B-roll image, sound track music behind title and credits. For a product at this price point, I'm very impressed! The program will "air" on our local cable Public Access channels over the next few weeks.

Thanks again for taking the time to assist me.

--FastBill

[fastbill]

Hi, ATR --

I took your suggestion about saving the .prel file for a brand-new project on C:, with the other files of this new project on G:.

There can be complications, like file is not supported, when the .prel file is saved to an external hard drive. It is one thing to save the preview, encoded, media cache files for a project to the external drive, but there are complications when you do not save the .prel to the C: drive (internal hard drive).
ATR

PE7 was already running. I selected File > New > Project. For the Save in field, I browsed toC:\Users\Bill\Documents\Adobe\Premiere Elements\7.0
After PE7 established the new project named Chanukah, I went to Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks. For each entry, I changed the location from Same as Project to Custom; I then browsed toG:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Chanukah
for each entry.

I captured a 3-scene, 3-minute tape from a Panasonic PV-GS500 camera, using FireWire. Because I had started and stopped recording for each scene, I selected Split Scenes > By: Timecode.

I now have the following files:C:\Users\Bill\Documents\Adobe\Premiere Elements\7.0\Chanukah.prel
C:\Users\Bill\Documents\Adobe\Premiere Elements\7.0\Chanukah.log

G:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Chanukah\Adobe Premier Elements Preview Files\...
G:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Chanukah\Encoded Files\...
G:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Chanukah\Stop Motion Capture\...
G:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Chanukah\Chanukah 01.avi
G:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Chanukah\Chanukah 02.avi
G:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Chanukah\Chanukah 03.avi

On the Edit tab, the Project panel shows these 3 clips (Chanukah 01.avi...), and shows the first frame of each clip.

Unfortunately, the Organizer tab still shows the "Missing Icon" red and green arrows for these 3 clips. Clicking on a clip displays the popup pathname, which still begins with F:.

If I followed your suggestion correctly, it seems that having the .prel file in the "default" location on C: and the media and other files on G: doesn't resolve the problem.

Deep in its memory somewhere, PE7 must have recorded F: a long time ago, and it doesn't want to "let go" :). I've tried to find where it has saved "F:", looking at the XML in .prel files and in the Registry. So far, no success. Do you have an idea where PE7 might have saved "F:"?

Thanks again,
FastBill

[ATR]

I need a recap time.

1. Regarding my previous question about how you are opening the project (.prel) file. If you have the project .prel file stored on the external hard drive and attempt to open it by way of Premiere Elements Get Media/Files & Folders, you will get a non supported file type message. Based on your last post, that does not seem to be the case. Essential here: you cannot open a project .prel in another project .prel.

2. This Seagate 500 GB External Hard Drive which started out on F drive. How did it get labeled G drive?
“Today, I happened to have another USB drive in F:, so my Seagate “Video Projects” 500 GB HDD is assigned to letter G:.”
In the above quote, did you remove/unplug/re-plug Seagate 500 GB or did you uninstall (with Safely Remove Hardware button)/reinstall? I have a Seagate Free Agent 250 GB external hard drive. That is not plug and play. You install it and Seagate automatically selects the drive letter. If I plug in (or install, if that is the case) another USB drive, then Seagate retains its drive letter and the added drive takes on the letter of the next letter of the alphabet. So, it is escaping me how your Seagate went from F to G. You may want to look at the Seagate 500 GB installation settings via the Drive Manager Status Icon (if you have the Seagate external hard drive that I think that you have). Essential here: the Premiere Elements Organizer runs into serious reconnect problems when you make changes in source media location.


3. Premiere Elements and Source Media. In your scheme of what is on the external hard drive
G:\Adobe Premier Elements Projects\Project 1\Side Cam 01.avi
Where are the Project .prel file and folders for Preview, Encoded, and Media Cache? Does the Seagate have one main folder for Adobe Premiere Elements Projects (containing folders for preview, encoded, media cache) and then other main folder which houses the .avi video source files for the Project prel and/or saved .avi that may not have been used yet in a project?

As I mentioned before, we may need to try using the Premiere Elements Project Archiver that stores the .prel with its source media to avoid reconnect problems. But first….

4. When you open a Premiere Elements Project .prel, you get messages that allow you to reconnect the media. In addition, you can click on the thumbnail in the Organizer to Update it. All of that you can do via the “Look In” of the dialog. But you need to know where you have the video that you are looking for. So, I would urge you to define your external drive situation and then the Organizer reconnect should go smoothly. In theory, when you see the "Where is....F:.......avi" you should be able to browse in the Look In: to the location of wherever that F: .avi is now, the G: ?, and select that. Updating its thumbnail in the Organizer should fall into place similarly.


Please let me know if any of my recapping and thoughts are advancing to a resolution.

To be continued……..

ATR

[fastbill]

Hi, ATR --

In response to your previous comments/questions:

1. I never attempt to open a .prel with "Get Media > Files and Folders." I sometimes use File > Open, but most often (when PE7 is not running) I double-click the .prel file in Windows Explorer to launch PE7 and open that project immediately.

2. The Seagate 500 GB drive that started out as F: and later became G:, happened this way. When I first plugged in that drive, I had no other external USB drives plugged in. Since my laptop has 2 internal HDDs [C: and D:] and an optical drive [E:], Windows Vista assigned the next available letter [F:] to the Seagate drive. I created my first PE7 project on that drive.

Some time later, I rebooted my laptop; at that time, in addition to the Seagate drive I also had an external USB optical drive plugged in. When Vista rebooted, it apparently "saw" the optical drive first, so it assigned F: to the optical drive. When Windows then discovered the Seagate drive, it assigned the next available letter [G:] to the Seagate. I created several more PE7 projects. (BTW, there are several different models of Seagate Free Agent drives, each with different capabilities. My drive is a "Seagate Free Agent|Desk" drive, which is the least expensive of the Free Agent line. To my knowledge, it did not come with a feature to "lock in" a drive letter.)

You wrote, Essential here: the Premiere Elements Organizer runs into serious reconnect problems when you make changes in source media location. True, as evidenced by my experience, but I submit that this is an unnecessary deficiency in the design and implementation of the software. Adobe engineers should recognize that it's not unusual for drive letters of external USB plug-and-play drives to change from time to time, depending on the other plug-and-play devices that are installed at any given moment.

3. My Seagate drive has one folder at the root level (Adobe Premier Elements Projects). Within that folder, I create a project sub-folder for each PE7 project. All of the data related to one project are within that project's sub-folder. All of the captured .avi files for a project are also in the same project sub-folder. And, until yesterday's "Chanukah" project, the .prel and .log files were also in that project's sub-folder. Data on the Seagate drive for 2 projects ("Chanukah" and "PAC Sound of Music 2008-12-11") looks something like this:

\---Adobe Premier Elements Projects
\---Chanukah
| \---Adobe Premiere Elements Preview Files
| | \---Chanukah.PRV
| \---Encoded Files
| | \---Chanukah.prel
| \---Media Cache Files
| | \---Chanukah.MACC
| \---Stop Motion Capture
| | \---Chanukah
| | | \---Chanukah - Session 01
| | \---Temp
| |---Chanukah 01.avi
| |---Chanukah 02.avi
| |---Chanukah 03.avi
\---PAC Sound of Music 2008-12-11
| \---Adobe Premiere Elements Auto-Save
| \---Adobe Premiere Elements Preview Files
| | \---Sound of Music Thursday.PRV
| \---Encoded Files
| | \---Sound of Music Thursday.prel
| | \---Sequence 01
| \---Media Cache Files
| | \---Sound of Music Thursday.MACC
| \---Stop Motion Capture
| | \---Sound of Music Thursday
| | | \---Sound of Music Thursday - Session 01
| | | \---Sound of Music Thursday - Session 02
| | \---Temp
| |---Center Cam 01.avi
| |---Side Cam 01.avi
| |---Sound of Music Thursday.log
| |---Sound of Music Thursday.prel
[Please note that Chanukah.log and Chanukah.prel are stored on C: rather than in the Chanukah project's sub-folder on G:.]

4. When I open a Premier Elements Project .prel file, I do not get any messages about reconnecting to media files. Moreover, when I right-click a thumbnail in Organizer, select "Update," and browse to the .avi file in the project's sub-folder on G:, PE7 responds with the "Generic Failure" message ("This type of file is not supported, or the required codec is not installed.") It does not update the Organizer's file reference to G: -- it still says that the .avi file is on F: -- and it displays the red-green-arrow "missing media" icon rather than the media's thumbnail image.

One interesting, and possibly relevant, side note: Last night, with the Seagate drive on G:, I installed Adobe Photoshop Elements 7. When I launched that application, its Organizer displayed all of my Premier Elements 7 media...and every thumbnail displayed the media's image. No red-green "missing media" icons! I don't know if that sheds any light on what's happening with Premier Elements 7, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

Clearly, the Organizers in both applications are independent of any particular Project. Hence, Organizer's references to media are obviously not stored in any .prel file. Do you know where Organizer does store its "Table of Contents" -- that is, where does Organizer maintain information about available media files?

Thanks again for all of the effort and thought you've invested in my dilemma. I really appreciate your assistance :)!

Regards,
FastBill

[ATR]

Fastbill

Just to let you know that I have not given up on this issue.

I will try to get back to you tomorrow morning with some more ideas on the matter.

ATR

[AndyCam]

Good morning - I have exactly the same problem.
My files are ornganised correctly in Photoshop Elements, yet when I open up the Organiser in Premiere Elements, I get the " where is the drive" message too!
I too rebooted my system which caused my seagate drive to change from G to F. It is now back as G (how that happened I have no idea) but for some reason, Premiere is still thinking the organiser is using the F drive!!!
I have even re-installed Premiere Elements and it still holds the F location in its memory!!!!
Hope somebody can help here!!!
Many thanks:confused:

[ATR]

AndyCam


Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7 installed on the same computer share the SAME database. So, I would expect that you will get the SAME “where is that drive?” whether you click on the video’s thumbnail in the Photoshop Elements 7 or Premiere Elements 7 Organizer. Is that what you found?

When the video is first introduced into the Organizer (either program), it is displayed as a thumbnail that is linked to hard drive save location for the video. If you move that video from that save location, you will get a reconnect message and have to do just that, usually best through Browse. Then there is also the Update for the thumbnail by double clicking it and reconnecting as per the Browse in the message.
The bottom line: The Organizer thumbnail needs to be linked to the video source on the hard drive. It remembers how you set it originally and will have to be reset if you make location changes. Also go back and read my previous posts in this thread on reconnects.
That is the Photoshop Elements/Premiere Elements Organizer side of all this as I see it.

Important to remember when you open a saved Premiere Elements project file (.prel)…if you have moved the source files, you will be dealing with two problems:
1. Reconnection of the source files
2. Updating of the Organizer Thumbnail

Now for the involved Seagate which I believe to be a Free Agent Seagate External Hard Drive (Desktop). Fastbill has the 500 GB version; I have the 250 GB version. Do you have one of these Free Agent Seagate External Hard Drives? In the last few days, I have been concentrating just on the Seagate as an external hard drive and trying to get the drive letters to move around. No Way. This is the basis for my No Way.

1. I am working off a Belkin 4 port hub (ports 1, 2, 3, 4). The Free Agent is not a plug and play. It needs to be installed initially. Once installed, you can check the connection and drive letter via the “Drive Manager Status Icon” in the System Tray (bottom left, next to clock). If you leave it as is, shutting down the computer/restarting will not change the connection and/or the drive letter.

2. If you decide that you want to remove the Seagate, you go to the “Safely Remove Hardware” in the System Tray and click the drive that the Seagate is on, for this ex. G. When you get the message that it is safe to disconnect the Seagate, you unplug the power adapter and then the USB connection to the USB hub (in this ex. position 2). The Drive Manager Status Icon will now display No Drive Detected. Now if you reconnect the Seagate power adapter, followed by USB to hub (either position 2 where it was or position 3 where it was not previously), the Drive Manager Status shows the drive connected and on “G”.

When all is said and done, if you find the letter of your Seagate External Hard Drive moving around, the core of the problem is in what is happening to Seagate and not in Premiere Elements.

If you agreed or disagree, please let me know where I have gone right or wrong.

Fastbill and Andy, I continue to explore your details.

ATR

[fastbill]

Hi, ATR --

Unfortunately (for me), Photoshop Elements 7 (PSE7) and Premiere Elements 7 (PRE7) on my computer are not behaving the way you described.


Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7 installed on the same computer share the SAME database. So, I would expect that you will get the SAME “where is that drive?” whether you click on the video’s thumbnail in the Photoshop Elements 7 or Premiere Elements 7 Organizer. Is that what you found?
ATR

In PRE7 Organizer, all .avi thumbnails show a pathname starting with F: and display the red-green-circular-arrow "Not found" icon instead of a frame from the video.

However, in PSE7 Organizer, all .avi thumbnails correctly show the pathname starting with G:, and correctly display a frame from the video.


When the video is first introduced into the Organizer (either program), it is displayed as a thumbnail that is linked to hard drive save location for the video.
ATR

Unfortunately, the newly-captured video .avi files are displayed in Organizer as thumbnails whose pathname starts with F: even though all of the following are true:


My Seagate drive has been in G: since I rebooted the laptop. It was in G: when I launched PRE7 and created a new Project.
The Project is assigned to a folder on G:.
The scratch files for the project are all assigned to the same folder on G:.


Then there is also the Update for the thumbnail by double clicking it and reconnecting as per the Browse in the message.
ATR

Although I have performed Update for thumbnails many times, PRE7 does not update the reference to the media file. Instead, it insists upon beginning the path to the .avi file with F:, even though I have browsed to and selected an .avi file on G:.


Now, regarding the Seagate, and changing drive letters:

ATR, if you have only one USB device that you insert and remove, Windows will always (re-) assign the same drive letter to that device. However, if you do something like this, your HDD will be assigned a different letter than it previously had:


Assume for this discussion that your Seagate HDD is currently assigned drive letter G:.
Safely remove your Seagate HDD, following the procedure that you described in your most recent post.
Insert some other removable USB device -- a "Thumb" Drive, a DVD drive, or a different hard drive. Windows will assign "G:" to this new device.
Insert your Seagate HDD. Since G: is no longer available, Windows will assign "H:" to the Seagate HDD.

Apparently, the very first time that I ran PRE7 I had no other external USB devices plugged in, so Windows assigned "F:" to the Seagate drive. Thereafter, I have always had a USB DVD drive plugged in, and Windows assigns that drive to "F:"; hence, it assigns "G:" to my Seagate HDD. However, PRE7 stubbornly insists that media files are on F:.

BTW, I do not have a "Drive Manager" icon in my system tray. My Seagate FreeAgent|Desk drive did not include a "Drive Manager" application.

Thanks again for all of your efforts and thoughts. Perhaps next week I should call Adobe Customer Support about this issue...I believe that I am entitled to a small number of Support calls within the first 90 days (at no charge).

Regards,
FastBill

[ATR]

Fastbill

I am troubled that we have not found the key to solving this issue for you.

As I understand it, Adobe T/S offers free T/S for installation issues for purchased current versions. So that you do not lose your rights under this policy, please contact them for advice as soon as possible.

But, please let me offer these additional questions/comments.

How many USB ports does your computer have built in? Do I understand you correctly that you are not using a USB hub to give you additional USB ports for your USB devices? Adding a USB hub to your setup might be a consideration. Be that as it may, the scenarios that I detailed and others that have gone through here do not seem consistent with your example results. We may be missing a step between us somewhere.

As for the Drive Manager...it may be unique to my Seagate Free Agent 250 GB External Hard Drive, but check out this path to make sure:
Start/All Programs/Seagate
Then under Seagate/Basics
Then under Basics/Drive Manager and Drive Manager Status
If you do not see the "Drive Manager Status Icon" in your System Tray and you do find "Drive Manager Status Icon" via this All Programs route, then clicking on that "Drive Manager Status Icon" will put that icon in the System Tray where you can see the connection and drive letter just by bringing your mouse cursor over it. Did you ever say if your Seagate Free Agent 500 GB was installed initially or you just plugged it in? Because, if you installed Seagate, then I would expect that you would have run into the Drive Manager.

By the way, have you ever tried uninstalling/reinstalling the "works" and starting from the beginning?

At this time, I am not suggesting that you do anything with my further questions/comments. And, it is OK if you postpone answering my additional questions. I think it best for you to use your time to organize your info for Adobe T/S and contact them as soon as possible. These sessions can be lengthy, so set aside enough time to get the session complete.

We would like to know the outcome. So, when you get time, please let us know what happened either in this thread or my private message.

I hope that you can find your answer via Adobe T/S. If not and if you want to, we can give this continued attention.

ATR

[fastbill]

Hi, ATR --

I stand corrected, at least on part of my previous post regarding Seagate Manager. This software did come with my Seagate FreeAgent|Desk drive. However, since its primary purpose (as described in the Seagate documentation) is to facilitate backups of my Seagate drive--and I already use other disk backup software--I decided not to install Seagate Manager. FYI, here are 2 posts from a recent thread on the Seagate forum:

===============Begin Seagate Forum Thread===============
Any reason to install Seagate Manager if I'm not going to use it for backups?

Hi,

I just bought a FreeAgent Desk 1.5TB. I don't plan on using Seagate Manager software to do my backups. So, is there any reason at all to install Seagate Manager? I can see and access the drive with no problem via Windows Explorer just by connecting the USB. I'm using Vista x64.

Thanks.
- - - - - - - - - -
Re: Any reason to install Seagate Manager if I'm not going to use it for backups?



The only reason I could see for installing it, if not using the backup engine, is that it gave me a means to turn off the yellow/orange light bar on the drive.case. I decided to leave it turned on, and uninstalled the manager. I moved the files to CD on my first FreeAgent drive. On my next one, I just deleted the manager files.
=================End Seagate Forum Thread=================



I did move the setup program for Seagate Manager from my new Seagate drive onto my internal hard drive, so I could install it if there were some benefit to doing so, but from the descriptions and screen shots of its functions (on the Seagate Website) it does not seem that there is any need to do so. I simply plugged the drive into an available USB port; Windows recognized it immediately, and I've been using it ever since.



I never connect external USB drives through a hub...I always plug them directly into one of my laptop's 4 built-in USB ports. However, as far as Windows is concerned, it should make no difference whether a USB HDD is plugged directly into an inboard port or connected through a USB hub -- Windows always assigns the next available drive letter when it discovers a newly-connected USB HDD.


I will contact Adobe T/S next week. Hopefully, they can solve my mysterious F: vs. G: issue, as well as the problem where my attempt to update an .avi file in PRE7 Organizer results either in no change in the drive letter of the file's pathname or its icon, or in the message stating that the codec is missing, while at the same time PSE7 Organizer correctly "sees" the .avi files on G: and displays a frame from each of them.



Whatever I learn, I'll post in this thread.


Thanks again,
FastBill

[ATR]

Fastbill,

You may want to check out a recent addition (experimental) to one of the threads here re: Organizer of Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7

http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43158

With regard to the Seagate Free Agent External Hard Drive....I installed the software because of its management potential rather than its Backup offering. I never setup the Backup part.

ATR

[fastbill]

Hi, ATR --

Thanks for the reference to the other thread that deals with PRE7 and PSE7 catalogs.

I have some new info to share about my situation:

This morning, I powered off my laptop. After I upgraded my memory from 2GB to 4GB and booted up, I plugged in only my Seagate USB drive (without first plugging in the USB DVD drive). I therefore expected Windows to assign F: to the Seagate drive, but to my surprise it assigned G: even though nothing had been assigned to F:.

As an experiment, I went to the Windows Disk Management console and changed the Seagate's drive letter from G: to F:. I then started PRE7 by double-clicking a .prel file on the Seagate drive on F:. PRE7 complained that it could not find the scratch files for this project [of course not...it thinks they're on G:], and said that if I clicked OK it would reassign them to C:\Users\Bill\... I clicked OK. It then displayed a message asking me where a certain Render File was [since it was looking for it on G:]. I clicked Cancel. As I expected, the PRE7 Organizer correctly displayed thumbnails of all my media clips on F:...no more red-green-arrow "Missing File" icons!

Next, I launched PSE7 by double-clicking its desktop shortcut. Since its Organizer had previously displayed all of the video thumbnails, recognizing that they were on G:, I expected to see many "Missing File" icons in the PSE7 Organizer. To my great surprise, it displayed the media clips correctly, having somehow figured out that these files were on F: today even though it "saw" them on G: yesterday. No "Missing File" icons here, either.

I closed both PRE7 and PSE7, and then reassigned the Seagate drive to G: (because I plan to call Adobe Support on Monday--I'd like to solve the problem rather than work around it). Windows Disk Manager reported that an application was using F:, and that the drive would be available on both F: and G: until I reboot. "Application?" I thought, "What application?" I had exited from both PRE7 and PSE7, and no other applications have files on my Seagate drive.

Windows Task Manager reveals that neither PRE7 nor PSE7 is running, but a System Process named PhotoshopElementsFileAgent.exe is running. [Hmmm...Why does a photo editing application need a background process running all the time? What happens to PRE7 and PSE7 if I "kill" this process?]

I'm about to reboot, and get back to editing my movies :)!

Thanks again,
FastBill

[ATR]

Fastbill,

Are you telling me what I think you are telling me? You are back in business? What happened when you added your external DVD drive (USB) back into the mix?

Do you believe that a memory problem was behind all that odd behavior? Insufficient memory can cause all sorts of odd issues.

I added a note for you in that thread that I suggested re: catalogs. Check it out when you get a chance. From what you wrote here, catalogs do not seem to be your issue.

Right now I am extremely pleased (sending loud cheers through the Internet to you) about the turn of events.

Keep us updated on your progress.

ATR

[fastbill]

Sorry I took so long to update you, but it's been a very busy week here :).

I finally got around to phoning Adobe Support yesterday. After I gave the basic information to their agent in India, she transferred me to an American support engineer. After much discussion and some experiments, we agreed that my problem appears to be a defect ("bug") in PRE7, and the support engineer wrote up and submitted a bug report to Software Engineering.

When I described the problem to her, saying that all of my captured videos are on G:, her initial response was something like, "Oh, the Premier Elements 7 workflow requires you to have all of your files on C:." I replied (with more than 30 years of experience in software development and product management at enterprise software companies) that such a restriction was absurd, given the size of media files compared to the size of C:, plus the fact that many users want to keep everything except the Windows operating system off of C:.

In short, here's what I did, at the engineer's request:

1) Started in PRE7 Organizer with my external Seegate USB drive assigned to G:. All of the media thumbnails in Organizer claimed that the files were on F:.
2) Copied one of the media .avi files to C:\Temp\Adobe\.
3) In PRE7 Organizer, right-clicked that thumbnail and selected "Update."
4) Browsed to the copy of the .avi file in C:\Temp\Adobe\, and selected this file.
Voila! The red-green-circular-arrows "Not found" icon in the thumbnail was replaced by the first frame of the .avi file! Success...but I don't want all of my PRE7 project and media files on C: -- that's why I bought a 500GB and a 1TB external HDD.

At this point, she agreed that if Update correctly switched the path from G:\...\ to C:\...\, it should just as well correctly switch the path from G:\...\ to F:\...\, and she agreed to write up and submit the issue to Software Engineering for resolution. Hopefully, a software update will resolve the problem. (I won't hold my breath.)

After we ended the call, I decided to experiment further. First, I tried to change the path from C:\...\ back to the original file location on G:\...\. However, when I right-clicked the thumbnail in PRE7 Organizer and selected "Update" the program did nothing at all. (In particular, it did *not* display the "Where is file ...?" dialog box, nor did it display a message that the file reference was fine and did not need to be updated.)

I then closed PRE7 and renamed the .avi file located in C:\Temp\Adobe\ to a different filename, so that Organizer would not find it when I restarted PRE7. Indeed, when I restarted PRE7 Organizer displayed the red-green-circular-arrows icon. Now, when I right-clicked the thumbnail icon and selected "Update" PRE7 did display the "Where is file ...?" dialog box. I browsed to the original file on G:\...\ and selected it.

Would you believe...that PRE7 Organizer changed the pathname back to F:\...\ (not G:, where I selected the .avi file):(!!!! Clearly a software bug, if ever there was one.

So, while I await a fix from Adobe Software Engineering, my only recourse was to reassign the drive letter F: to my external Seagate HDD, which I have done (in Windows Drive Manager). Now, all of my media files in PRE7 Organizer display their initial frames, and PSE7 (which apparently is smarter than PRE7) finds all of these media files on F: as well.

Now, it's time to put this issue aside and get back to editing. I've just taken on a project to edit two tapes for a friend of mine, and (weather permitting--I live in the western suburbs of Boston and we're expecting snow on Saturday night) I have two new shoots scheduled on Sunday and a third on Wednesday.

Thanks again for your assistance!

Regards,
FastBill

[ATR]

Fastbill

Thank you for the detailed update. Adobe rarely releases software updates between versions. So, I am not really counting on seeing a Premiere Elements Software Update 7.x.x. Often "bugs" get taken care of in the next version. Even if a Premiere Elements 7 update does not materialize, did the engineer promise you a report on the engineering analysis of the details that you presented them?

I am looking for a catch all phrase to describe your issue. Could it be: "Issues Related to Premiere Elements 7 Organizer Links To Source Media When Media is Stored On External Hard Drive"? Fortunate for me, I did not get caught up in these same issues with my Seagate External Hard Drive and Premiere Elements 2, 4, or 7 projects.

But, you have your system working now so that you are able to get on to create your projects, that is the good news to come out of this. From what you wrote I could go on and on and on with more questions, but.... But, best we move on to creating projects and this weekend working around the same snow.

Thanks for sharing this experience with us. Much success in your projects.

ATR

[dougdrilling]

I have exactly the same problem described in the post. I have valid avi files that PRE alwasy wants to point to my F:/. But they are on H:/. If I take one and phycially move it to another drive I can get it to import and work correctly in PRE, but OMG what a pain as I have some very large avi files!!! I agree this is a PRE but - I've used various video edittin packages and have never come across anything like this. I just purchased PRE 7 a week ago and after reading this post from Dec 2008 and very surprised that I'm having the exact same problem almost 1 year later. Can anyone tell me if this has been resolved? I've tried everything I can think of, but PRE keeps thinking everything is on F:/ no matter what I try. Thanks in advance for your HELP!!!

[ATR]

dougdrilling

The latest word on the topic is Fastball's posts of around January 9, 2009 and the description of how he got around the issue by giving the external hard drive the letter that Premiere Elements insisted on recognizing.

As you can read in the thread, I also have a Desktop Seagate External Hard Drive formated NTFS/Windows XP SP3 and have never had the problem(s) described. So, I do not know if the issue is officially a "bug" since some users have the problem, some do not. You could file a "bug" report with Adobe, but watch your timing. With a new version due in Oct/Nov 2009, you could get "Sorry, this is not the latest version."

Not all problems that present the same way have the same cause. If you want to explore this further, perhaps start your own thread and supply a very detailed account of computer and project. Maybe be can identify a common link between what you and Fastbill are using vs what I have been using.

ATR