Move all images

[nlenoden]

Hi -

I have (the ancient) PE3, and I recently bought a new hard drive. I would like to move my entire set of images to this new drive, while still keeping all the tags etc intact. Right now, it seems that, to do this, I would have to use the MOVE command and select each of my images individually. Since there are about 10,000 of them, this would be a pain. I could move everything in WINXP, but this would break all the Elements tags. I could backup everything to the new drive from within PE3, but that is not exactly what I want. Is there an easy way to move all my images without destroying their connections in PE3?

Thanks
Neal

[dj_paige]

Use PSE's Folder Location View (Ctrl-Alt-3). This lets you move entire folders (or a tree of folders).

Do not do this in Windows.

[nlenoden]

Thanks, dj_paige. I tried your suggestion, but it appears that, even when I select the folder with CTRL-alt-3, as you said, the MOVE command still moves only one image within that folder. Is there any way to move all of them, rather than just one?

Neal

[dj_paige]

You don't use the move command. In Folder Location View, you use the visual display of your folders that appears on the left of your Organizer window, to drag one folder (or a tree of folders) to another location, just like you would in a Windows screen (but don't do it in Windows!).

[nlenoden]

Just one more question, dj_paige (I hope!) My new drive (F) doesn't appear in the Folder-Location View Tree, so I can't drag another folder into it. Can you tell me how I can make it appear? (I *can* navigate to it with the MOVE dialog box, which should prove to you that it actually exists. Also, I can see it in MY COMPUTER.)

Thanks
Neal

[dj_paige]

You probably have to take a dummy photo, and put it in a folder in F:, then import that dummy photo into PSE. Then you can do the move ... and then delete the dummy photo.

[nlenoden]

Yup, that worked in the sense that PE3 now recognizes F in its folder location view tree. But it seems that the left-click-and-drag option for moving folders does not exist in PE3. At least, nothing happens when I try it. In PE3 EDIT, I can select a folder and COPY it (which takes a while, for a big folder), but there is no PASTE option. Can you see what I am doing wrong?

Neal

[dj_paige]

You don't want to paste ... you want to perform a move of photos (and folders) to the new hard drive, and if I am understanding you properly, that worked. Keep doing it.

[nlenoden]

No, I'm sorry to have created the impression that things were working.
With one exception, they still are not.

The thing that works is your trick to force PE3 to recognizes F in its folder location view tree.

The thing that doesn't work is that I still am not able to move folders into this drive. I have tried in two ways:

1) in the PE3 folder location view tree, left-click on a folder in the C drive, then drag it to the F drive. This doesn't work. When I try to do it, PE3 simply ignores me, and nothing happens

2) IN PE3, EDIT -> SELECT a folder, then EDIT-> COPY it (which takes a while, for a big folder). This part is fine, but there seems to be no EDIT->PASTE command in PE3, so there again is no apparent way to move the folder to the F drive.

Can you tell what I am doing wrong?
Thanks again for your patience.

Neal

[dj_paige]

I am surprised that dragging a folder from C: to F: does nothing. It is supposed to work via dragging folders to a new location. When you say "PE3 simply ignores me, and nothing happens", how do you know? How can you tell it did nothing? Have you tested this on a small folder with only one or two photos?

I don't think this was supposed to work via menu commands Copy and Paste. I have never done it that way.

[Barb O]

Paige and Neal,

As I recollect moving files in PSE 3 is different than later versions.

Two considerations that I remember are :

-- need to Expand All Stacks before moving the photo files

-- Version Sets do not automatically move as version sets. As I vaguely recollect, I had to expand each Version Set individually and move its photo files - in order to retain the Version Set structure. This, of course, was very annoying, so I did multiple partial moves over a couple weeks

It is also possible that (as Neal posted) the drag and drop in Folder Location view will not work in v3. However, I don't use my PC that had v3 any longer so I can't verify whether or not it will work.