Lost Folders

[Potus5]

For some curious reason I have lost in LR the linkages to a number of my folders. For example, when I attempt to back up my LR catalog to an external drive the "choose" pull down menu in the catalogue backup routine does NOT display any of my external hard drives nor most of the seperate internal drives. All that is listed is a hierarchial list of my personal 'C' drive user folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music". Thus I cannot choose the external hard drive where I previously stored my catalog backups. Yet my computer itself recognizes these drives, when I clikc on the "Computer" or the "Windows Explorere" icons, all my internal and external drives are recognzied and listed.

Likewise, I only see the same folder structure as above, in LR when I run the import command and attempt to move or copy RAW images to an external hard drive. When I click on the "choose" pull down menu in the "copy to" listing for the "copy photos to a new location and add to catalog" command, none of my extrnal drives or internal drives are listed. All that is listed is the various 'user' folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music".

Any idea what has happened and how to fix the problem? I've tried rebooting the commputer and relaunching LR but to no avail in solving the problem.

I'm runing LR2.6 on a 4G RAM board, using Windows 7. The computer system and LR worked fine two weeks ago when leaving on a photo trip to Jordon I shut everything down - depowered the computer and the external drives. When I returned this week and repowered the unit, LR could not recognize any of my external drives or most of the internal ones. The assigned drive letters for all my external drives had been altered for some reason by the boot-up and LR could not find the external drive with the catalog. I had to copy the catalog to the internal system drive and have LR load it from there. And with none of the external drives being reconized or even listed with their new drive letters I cannot direct LR as to what drives it should access.

Appreciate any advice on this issue.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Hi Potus5, welome to the forums.

Interesting issue....and a bit difficult to understand as LR gets its list of internal/external drives from the OS....so if WIn7 can see the drives, it should be possible to point LR at them also. It does sound as if something went awry after your trip if all the assigned drive letters were changed....these things don't really just happen, there has to be an underlying reason wheich we would do well to determine, I think. Have you checked that ALL of your drives are still listed/available using Windows Explorer....I'm thinking maybe one drive has a hardware issue (e.g. power adapter packed up) and didn't start which might explain some degress of reshuffling of drive letters if you hadn't previously 'fixed' them.

When you use the 'Choose' option when trying to do a catalog backup, the browser dialog box which pops up under Windows 7 has a list of expandable/collapsable high-level system storage 'entities'....in order they are named Libraries, Homegroup, username, Computer, and Network (may be one or two other things as well). It sounds like the entity identified with your username is expanded, which is why you see all the My Documents, My Music folders etc. Could you collapse that entity by clicking on the small arrow to the left of the name, and then expand the entity named 'Computer'. If you could then post a screenshot of the resulting display together with a screenshot of your Windows Explorer default startup window, we could start trying to pin down the issue (the drives you see listed under Computer in the Windows Explorer window should also be seen under Computer in the LR browser dialog box). If they are not it will at least give us a starting point....

 

[Potus5]

TNG

here's the information you asked for. I'm sending the screen capture images material in two other sets as the capture sizes are too large for one posting. There are four screen catures.

1. the 1st is the capture of my computer. Drives C, D, E, and F are internals. Drives L, N, P, and Q are externals - all of which are Western Digitals.

2. The 2nd capture is my external Q - orginally this was addressed as K and is where LR was saving the cataloge backup. In the recent restart as I mentioned earlier this got renamed as Q.

3. the 3rd is the cature of the LR backup opening screen.

The 4th is the capture of the LR backup 'Choose' listing. You'll note there is no displaying of the 'Computer' entity, merely only my personal user folders.

Apprecaite your assistance.

Glenn

 

[Potus5]

TNG

even one capture is too large to transmit - I'll resave them under another format and send under separate cover.

glenn

 

[Potus5]

the four as one set of attachments didn't work so am sending them as individual replies.

Glenn

 

[Potus5]

here's the 3rd

 

[Potus5]

here's the 4th

 

[Potus5]

here's the 2nd screen capture.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Hi Glenn, thanks for posting the screenshots.....but I'm sitting here scratching my head as I've never seen that situation before and am struggling to understand what's going on here!

Couple of questions:

Have you tried launching Lightroom by using the "Run as Administrator" option? Just in case it's a bizarre permissions problem.

When you originally had the catalog on one of the external drives, did you try to launch Lightroom by browsing to the catalog using Windows Explorer and double-clicking the catalog file? Again just trying to establish if Lightroom has permission on the external drives.

Are you actually running Lightroom OK, i.e. with the catalog on your internal drive and your raw images on an external....or are you saying that at the moment you just can't get Lightroom to function at all?

 

[Potus5]

Hi TNG

Highly appreciate you help on this. I answer your questions:
1. Yes, I can run LR ok without any problem. I have full access to my master catalog. What I did when the problem started was to tell LR not to create the catalog backup - directing it to "skip backup". And LR loaded my master catalog [which is NOT lodged on an external drive - its on my internal F drive under F:\Lightroom\Glenn's Master LR Catalog. It loaded without any problem - all my images were there. I then shut LR down and restarted it - and ran the backup, creating a new backup each time on my desktop under the internal C drive, for example the latest version is C:\Users\User\Desktop\2'1'--'4-21 '''6. My "only" problem with loading LR this was is that as you see there is no listing for changing the drive location of the backup nor for the "importing" new images onto my RAW drive "Q". I have to save them in LR to the "C" drive and then using the LR Library module I 'move' the folders with the new images to the Q drive. LR then has no problem understanding that the images are now located on the Q drive. Merely will not let me import them to that drive directly.
2. I have full 'Admin' priviledges for my log in on the computer and thus, no, I have not tried launching LR by using the "Run as Administrator" start up option.
3. As you suggested I just attempted to launch LR by going to the old master backup copy on the new "Q" external drive. However, when I double clikc on the old backup catalog Windows Instalelr starts to run and then gives me an error message that it cannot locate "Adobe_Lightroom.msi" which it believes should be located as "C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\{83BB4A4I" [There are more #s and letters in the file name than I'm showing you here]. Since I have my LR program loaded on my "Programs D" drive I browsed to that drive as "D:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp" - all there is under the D:\Users\User\AppData\Local" directory is a "Miscrosfot" sub-directory - there is not "Temp" sub-directory listed.
5. When MS Instalelr fails to complete as above I get the follwoing error message: "Error 17'6: No valid source could be found for product Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.6. The Windows Installer cannot continue."
6. I ran a full search on all my drives for the file "Adobe_Lightroom.msi" but no listing appears anyway - I get a zero find.

Glenn

 

[Potus5]

TNG

here are the screen captures - 3 - for the running of Windows Installer. Excuse my typos - I'm typing too fast!!!

 

[Potus5]

here's the 2nd

 

[Potus5]

here's the 3rd in the Windows Installer series.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Thanks Glenn for the info and the screen capture. Mysterious indeed....very odd that the installer tries to start up when you double-click on the old master catalog, sort of implies a corruption somewhere. Could you try to launch LR by double-clicking on the "current" master catalog on the internal drive (the catalog name ends with the .lrcat suffix, yes?) and see if the installer starts again. If it does it would suggest that Windows and Lightroom are having a major disconnect somewhere, and my inclinination would be to reinstall (although as LR2.7 is now out I'd actually properly uninstall LR2.6 and then download and install 2.7).

Before we get that far it would be useful to try the above startup procedure first.....

 

[Potus5]

TNG

Ran it as you suggested - doubled clicked on my master catalog file to run Windows Installer. Same error messages - am sending the screen captures attached.

Curious - 1. since when I click on the desktop icon for LR it opens fine [except for the backup and importing errors noted earlier; and 2. since my LR program is actually installed on my Program D drive I would have thought that the file Windows Installer is looking for would be on that drive BUT no can find!!!

 

[Jim Wilde]

OK, I'm not worried that Windows can't find the installer file (YET!)....I'm more bothered that it's actually trying to do an install. As I said, sounds like a corruption somewhere.

Another thought and question: have you recently installed and removed, or tried an install which failed, either Lightroom2.7 RC or Lightroom 3 Beta? Am wondering if the .lrcat file/program association has been changed somehow....

How's your patience holding up....there are a couple more things we could try yet!

 

[Potus5]

TNG

No problem - my past and current work experience has taught me well the virtue of 'loads of patience'. To answer your questions:
1. No, have not recently installed LR 2.7 or any other relevant updates [that I'm aware of]; and
2. No, have not downloaded any of the Beta versions of LR3.

I'm fully in your competent hands and appreciate highly the efforts you are directly to help me - I think I'll owe you at least a beer or two when I next get back to the UK.

Glenn

 

[Jim Wilde]

Well Glenn, I think you're going to need that patience!

Your last set of screenshots when you tried to open LR by clicking on the master catalog....all 4 appear to be the same screenshot? Or is it me?

It would be good to just check a few things before we decide on a recovery plan...

I've assumed that prior to your recent trip everything was working OK, with no obvious problem?
When you first booted up after your trip, you say that some of your drive letter assignments had changed? Was it just the K/Q drive or did others change as well? I was a bit baffled by the first Windows Explorer screenshot of your drive list....I would have expected C,D,E,F for internals: G,H for your two DVD drives: I,J,K,L for your card reader: and M, N, O, P etc for your externals. So am a bit puzzled and wondered if your PC was setup that way or did something happen to change it all?
Was there ANY indication of a problem other than the changed drive letters and your subsequent LR problems? Are you experiencing problems with anything else, other than LR?
Could you check two things for me:
1. Control Panel, Programs and Features - please confirm that you see Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.6 in the list of installed programs (by the way, are you running 64 bit or 32 bit)?
2. Control Panel, Default Programs, Associate a File Type or Protocol With a Program....in the list that follows, just check what file-type .lrcat is associated with (if any).

If these instructions aren't clear, just holler....

And while I remember...is your PC shared by other people, i.e. are there other user accounts on the PC? Do you have any network drives? Looking at some of the error messages there appears to be a user called "User"...is that correct?

At the moment I'm just trying to find a possible cause of the problem that you are encountering before I can suggest possible recovery options. From what you have described there seem to be three potential problem areas:
a) The operating system itself has a problem.
b) Your user profile has a problem.
c) Your Lightroom installation is corrupted.

b) and c) are the easier to deal with so they would be the first things I would try. But come back on the other questions first and we can take it from there....

And by the way, if there are any LR Gurus or Windows 7 experts out there with anything to add, please don't be shy!

I'll be signing off soon as its getting late over here. If you manage to post an answer to all these questions I'll get back on the case first thing in the morning.

 

[Potus5]

TNG

Sorry about the repeated screen captures for the Master catalog - I didn't notice I had not 'snipped' the different windows. Will run it again and send them to you under seperate response.

To answer your other questions:
1. Your assumption is right - prior to my trip everything seemed to be working fine - certainly the backup ran correctly to my external drive and the importing had no problems - LR would recognize all my drives and let me save to whichever I wanted to.
2. Yes - The only drive letter assignment that changed was the switch of my old K [where I store my RAWs and my LR catalog backup] to the new Q designation.
3.Can't explain why the other drives were assigned the various letters - have always been like that. Could it be because some of my externals [my old K/new Q and the P] are two separate Western Digitals - the P is connected via a USB, while the old K/new Q is connected via a eSATA. The L and N drives are actually four 1Tb externals RAID configured as two separate drives and mounted in a Drobo unit.
4. There was no indication of a problem other than the changed drives letters and the subsequent backup/import problems in the LR operation.
5. Yes, in Control Panel/Programs & Features I can see Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.6 listed as an installed program - installed on 19/12/2''9, 1'1Mb size, version 2.6.1. BTW I'm running in 32bit.
6. In Control Panel\Default Programs\Associate a File Type or Protocol - the file type ".lrcat" is described as a "LRCAT File" and the current default reads "Unkown application." BTW the ".lrdb" file type has the same default - current default is listed as "Unkown Application"; the same for the .lrmodule file, the .lrtemplate file, the .lrtoolkit and the .lrweb file - all have their current default showing as "Unkown Application".
7. No my computer is not shared with anyone else. My personal log in is password protected. The computer has an inactive network connection [you see it listed in the Windows Explorer as "GBC-OFFICE-DESK"] to another desktop [my business computer located in another room in my house but I'm the only one with access to it also.
8. Yes, there is a user called 'user' listed in both the C [the system drive] and D [the programs drive]drives but that is me - for some reason my name 'Glenn' does not appear as a specific user even though the desktop log in icon has my name Glenn as its identifier. Has always been like that since I upgraded from VISTA to Windows 7 - no idea why.

Glenn

 

[Potus5]

TNG

here attached are the four Windows Installer screen captures of the actions and results when I attempt to double click on the LR Master Catalog file.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Good Morning!

Thanks for the very clear answers to my many questions! Unfortunately I'm still no nearer understanding what exactly happened to cause this problem!

The username issue is probably because you may have renamed your User Account in the past from User to Glenn....although Windows changes all internal pointers to reflect this change, it doesn't change the name of the actual user sub-folder in the Users folder. Bit of a pain, really, the only way to fix it is to setup a new user account and then delete the old one....not worth the bother IMO, but see later.

OK, from all I've seen from all the data that you've given me I think that your Lightroom program installation has somehow become corrupted and needs to be fixed somehow. As I said in an earlier post the underlying problem could be either Windows itself, your User profile, or just the Lightroom installation.

If this were my PC, this is what I would be doing next:

1. First I would want to check that my user profile isn't corrupt. I would simply add a new user account (as an administrator), then logon to the new account and launch Lightroom and check that I can 'see' all drives during a backup or import operation. If I can, then this would tend to point to my profile being corrupt and needs to be dealt with. If I still can't see all drives this would probably discount a corrupt profile, so I would log back on as Glenn and move on to step 2.
2. At this point I might consider trying to Repair the Lightroom installation, but as the OS seems confused about where the installation files are this could be a waste of time. So, making sure that I still have my Lightroom serial number(s) to hand I would next try to uninstall Lightroom then download and install Lightroom2.7. During this installation, the 64bit version should get installed automatically, and come to think of it I wonder why you are curently running 32bit on a 64bit OS. Odd, but not to worry about that now....finish the install, then launch and check that all your drives are available for backup and import.

If neither of those two actions fixes the problem I would be starting to get concerned about my Operating System and thinking about either a 'repair' or reinstallation.....but that's getting way ahead of ourselves. So have a read and think about these possible actions and let me know how you would like to proceed....

 

[Potus5]

TNG

thanks for the help - its 7:53 am here in Ottawa and I'm rushing off to a breakfast meeting so it will be later this morning when I can run the steps you suggest - BTW like you I'm curious that my system is running as a 32 bit OS since when I do a system check via the Control Panel I see it states the Intel DG33TL - Quad CPU Q66'' processer is "64 bit capable"!! Should I reset it to 64 bit and if so how do I do that?

Glenn

 

[Jim Wilde]

Hi Glenn,

Re the 64/32 bit issue, my error....I had assumed that you were running 64bit Win7 with 32bit version of Lightroom, and it was that mismatch that I found curious. All explained by the fact you are 32 bit all round. Unfortunately there is no simple reset from one to the other....64 bit Win7 is a different OS and would have to be installed as an OS upgrade. Hopefully we won't end up doing that by default.

Will wait to hear how you get on with the other things....

 

[Potus5]

TNG

had a minute prior to departing so I created a new user account as an administrator via the Control Panel/User Accounts and Family Safety, and when I'm in the Control Panel I can see this new account listed, as well as the account 'Glenn' [which also has administrator priviledges] and another one termed 'ASP.Net Machine Account' which is noted as a 'standard user' and is 'password protected' [I have no idea what the password for this account is - doesn't show up on my screen when I boot up Windwos]. And there is 4th account called 'Margaret' [my wife's name although she does not use this machine - has her own MAC], which is a standard user.

However when I rebotted the machine after creating the new Adminuser account - all that is displayed on the start up screen is my account "Glenn' and another icon called "Other User". There is no icon displayed for the new Administrator account I created. And when I go to the Windows start up menu in the bottom left corner of the desktop screen and go the the pull-down menu to 'switch users' all that is listed again is my Glenn account and the account 'Other User'. Where do I find the way to log in as the new Administrator account?

 

[Jim Wilde]

Glenn, it sounds as if a bit of a clean-up is needed here!

If you haven't already done it, I would hold off doing the LR uninstall/reinstall until we get a better handle on what's happening with these user accounts.

Actually got to go take some pictures right now, will get back to you later today with some further thoughts....