Library module Catalogue

[Redthorne]

Lightroom Version Number

14.2

Operating System

1. Windows 11

Some time ago I accidentally formatted a drive containing many of my photographs. Inevitably some have been lost but I have recovered many and stored the recovered images on another drive. I would like to try and restore these images back to their original locations but when I try and do so the images are sort of faded out. Many if not all have been renamed by the recovery process. I had assumed I would just be able to import the recovered images because of the name change but it seems like lightroom identifies them by the original metadata. Is there any way round this without having to edit each file? I would also like to change the cataloguing to date order rather than topic. Any suggestions welcome.

 

[Califdan]

Tough problem. That's why we stress backing things up both locally and to the cloud including both the LrC catalog and the images. But, if you're stuck with renamed images, and assuming you still have your catalog (that knows those images by their old name) the answer depends on how badly the revovery program screwed up the names and whether or not it retained the folder structure.

Let's start with the file names. I'm assuming that a file that had been something like "IMG_1234.jpg" was renamed something like "Recovered IMG_123.jpg". In other words, the original file name is still part of the new recovered file name. If that is the case you can use a batch file rename tool outside of LrC to rename the files back to their original name. I use one called "Bulk Rename Utility" on my Windows machine (complicated control panel but very flexible). There are many others that should be just as good.

The second part of the problem is getting those images into the same folders they had been in. If your recovery did that automatically, count your blessings as you are a lucky person. Most do not. If and how you can get around that depends on the folder structure as seen in LrC. Please send screen shot of your LrC folder structure so we know how to answer this part.

 

[Redthorne]

The recovered files are very much a mixed bag of names & types, some using names, some numbers. I generally shoot Raw but some of the recovered files have become jpg's it would appear. Here are a couple of screen grabs which may throw some light on the issue. I also use "Bulk Rename Utility" but I am not sure how useful it would be in this scenario and some 55,000 files to try and sort.

 

[Califdan]

Which drive did you accidentally re-format? In LrC, can you provide a screen shot of the folders panel with that drive expaned to show the folder structure with at least one branch exposed to to bottom level.

Did you recover the data from that drive directly or did you have some sort of backup you recovered from and if so how?

Are the recovered files in any folder structure on disk? If so what is that structure

In the "file names" screen shot, the first few aren't showing the full name. can you widen the name column to show the full name.

I doubt that any recover tool would converte a RAW file to a JPG. Perhaps you were shooting RAW+JPG and forgot.

 

[Redthorne]

'F' was the formatted drive and was possibly overwritten in parts before discovering the error. I recovered what data I could from this drive. I have catalogue backups but no physical backup of the images. You can see from the screen grab that no pictures are showing when you move the mouse pointer over where the image should be I do get metadata showing.
The recovered files are on a separate drive and are filed by topic rather than date.
Expanded "file names" shows more detail now. The files listed have some different dates which I assume is connected with the date of recovery, the correct date is 14/12/2008. Are the saved catalogues of any use to help with restoration?

 

[Califdan]

Screen shot of LrC folder panel with the F drive contents expanded.

Screen shot of the drive where the recovered images are that shows the folder structure where the images are

 

[Redthorne]

Not 100% sure what you want with the expanded F drive but I have attached another grab together with a grab of the M drive where the recovered images are stored. I am currently in the process of removing duplicates and this will take some time as there are currently some 120000 plus to get through.