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Migration to Windows 11 nightmare

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lek6346

New Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2024
Messages
9
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
Classic
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom Classsic Version 13.1 [202312111226-41a494e8]
Operating System
  1. Windows 11
Can I UNDO a migration to win 11 from win 10? I discovered I didn't clean up all the files in win 10 before I migrated. The win 11 migration was a disaster partly because of me and onedrive on win 11 kidnapping my files they wanted to ransom me to pay for more storage. I have since been able to unlink one drive so now hopefully won't be a problem. I migrated/copied using a backup portable external drive with a backup from lr6, to the new pc to drive D then for some reason I tried to copy the files to C drive ( thats when the kidnapping took place). At this point it may be easier to undo everything, it was all copied not moved. I understand its ok to delete a copy and I wont loose any files? Is there anything that can go wrong with that? My picture file on old pc 67000 files 55000 folders 220gb. There a lot of files/folders that can be deleted on the old pc then make a backup of that and migrate to Lr classic again.
 
an you summarise your disk set up…. Size and free space on c drive. Summary of images in catalog… Any internal or external drives… etc..
 
Thank you for this, I still have to purchase the ext drive, and I am looking into what would be the best option for me. But you have given me great steps to follow and I will let you know shortly on my progress.
I have finally managed to extricate myself from the OneDrive nightmare. I successfully copied my whole OneDrive folder to a new external SSD using ExtremeCopy. However that process reduced my 1TB drive C to less than half it's size to 475GB. I haven't found a way to restore the drive to its original size. But, I was able to relink LR to all my copied folders intact. Phew! I uninstalled OneDrive from my 'Apps' . I then deleted my original One drive folder held hostage but that wiped out my desktop too! Good job I had a copy of it and could restore it as the only folder under OneDrive on my C drive. Finally I cancelled my subscription to Microsoft, so hopefully, apart from the missing space on my original HD, I can resume importing and working on my photos. Thank you for your invaluable assistance.
 
It’s good to make such progress.

I do not understand consumption of C drive, there may be many factors and may not be linked directly to One Drive issue.

I use TreeSize which is the best tool in the world to understand what is taking up space on a drive. I have the pro version as I can then use it on network and other non local platforms. There might be a free version which will work with your C drive. It is worth the price for the amount of time and hassle this utility provides. Sadly, Mac users have alternatives also, but do not match the usefulness and usability of TreeSize.

There is a standard Windows tool which can be used to clean up cache folders, etc.. Also, if you did a Windows update recently, your old ver of Windows may also be on the C drive. It is called something like Windows Disk Cleanup and is a Microsoft utility.
 
It’s good to make such progress.

I do not understand consumption of C drive, there may be many factors and may not be linked directly to One Drive issue.

I use TreeSize which is the best tool in the world to understand what is taking up space on a drive. I have the pro version as I can then use it on network and other non local platforms. There might be a free version which will work with your C drive. It is worth the price for the amount of time and hassle this utility provides. Sadly, Mac users have alternatives also, but do not match the usefulness and usability of TreeSize.

There is a standard Windows tool which can be used to clean up cache folders, etc.. Also, if you did a Windows update recently, your old ver of Windows may also be on the C drive. It is called something like Windows Disk Cleanup and is a Microsoft utility.
I don't understand the reduction in the C drive either. I have scanned int Internet for others' responses to ExtremeCopy problems but couldn't find any, That software Help info is useless and non-existant, so perhaps a poor choice to use. Windows copy and paste did not work, not enough storage to perform the task, so I had to look for alternatives. The copy function worked, but it damaged the partition size.
When I look at TreeSize, it shows my Users folder and the Free Space of 155GB (of 475GB). It doesn't show the actual disk size of 1TB. Now that I have purchased another SSD and my files are safely copied there I can continue on, but the C drive problem remains.
 
1. Pls do a screen grab of TreeSize showing you the top level folders of your C drive. The total for each top level folder plus spare space plus any folders in root should equal the total size of your drive. If they do not tally then you have a definite line of enquiry.
2. Your system physical drive may be partitioned into multiple sub drives. If so…. then this may explain apparent missing space.
3. Have you checked out the Windows Disk Clean Up utility. Run this a few times and drill down to include all options. Have you found where you can decide to keep old versions of previous Eindows updates. This is the main (and free ) tool to keep your system drive free of rubbish. Run it every 3 months. Get to know it really well. It is your best friend if you are short of space on your system drive.
4. Copying files. I will use drag and drop and cut/paste for the occasional file….. but I will Never Ever use these tools for doing large copies. The reason… way too easy to make a mistake with disasterous consequences… mouse slips when dragging… cut and paste to wrong dir by mistake….. I will use Beyond Compare or GoodSynch. The reason….. They have superb user interfaces, they are very simple to use and most importantly… you have a graphical picture of the progress of a large copy, estimate of the duration, visible error messages and options for logs of all activity. Further, these tools are invaluable for scenarios where you are regularly repeating the same copy process. For example, every so often I will wish to copy new and edited images to my archives on my Nas drive. Easy, painless, error free, repeatable.

When travelling… I back up my Sd cards to external SSD drive, keeping a dedicated folder for every card, using either Beyond Compare or GoodSynch. For the moment I have stopped using Beyond Compare on Mac, due to (in my opinion) a serious bug. I back up the entire cards, as often videos and other stuff are not obvious by just checking with Explorer and there may be multiple DCIM folders.
 
1. Pls do a screen grab of TreeSize showing you the top level folders of your C drive. The total for each top level folder plus spare space plus any folders in root should equal the total size of your drive. If they do not tally then you have a definite line of enquiry.
2. Your system physical drive may be partitioned into multiple sub drives. If so…. then this may explain apparent missing space.
3. Have you checked out the Windows Disk Clean Up utility. Run this a few times and drill down to include all options. Have you found where you can decide to keep old versions of previous Eindows updates. This is the main (and free ) tool to keep your system drive free of rubbish. Run it every 3 months. Get to know it really well. It is your best friend if you are short of space on your system drive.
4. Copying files. I will use drag and drop and cut/paste for the occasional file….. but I will Never Ever use these tools for doing large copies. The reason… way too easy to make a mistake with disasterous consequences… mouse slips when dragging… cut and paste to wrong dir by mistake….. I will use Beyond Compare or GoodSynch. The reason….. They have superb user interfaces, they are very simple to use and most importantly… you have a graphical picture of the progress of a large copy, estimate of the duration, visible error messages and options for logs of all activity. Further, these tools are invaluable for scenarios where you are regularly repeating the same copy process. For example, every so often I will wish to copy new and edited images to my archives on my Nas drive. Easy, painless, error free, repeatable.

When travelling… I back up my Sd cards to external SSD drive, keeping a dedicated folder for every card, using either Beyond Compare or GoodSynch. For the moment I have stopped using Beyond Compare on Mac, due to (in my opinion) a serious bug. I back up the entire cards, as often videos and other stuff are not obvious by just checking with Explorer and there may be multiple DCIM folders.
Here goes:

1711713796093.png
exit

1711713928886.png
 
Volumes 2,3,4,5 are perhaps on the same disk in separate partitions. The recovery volume is a Windows thing on the same disk as C:\. I do ont recognize the other two or why one is formatted FAT32.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Your TreeSize details above look normal for a 475GB drive. You can see the majority of this space is consumed by what is in the Users Folder and related subfolders. This is where a lot of stuff from your Downloads, Music, MyDocs, MyPics are stored. Many people forget that other stuff needs to be stored somewhere. A good example is all your emails... this could be tiny or massive if your last 20 years of emails and their attachments are here. You can explore Users using TreeSize and get a real understanding of what you are storing and in what sub directories.

With 475GB on C, 206GB in Users and 158 GB free... is a workable system.


To better understand your C drive, you will need to explore how your C drive is structured. The way to do this is to use a standard Windows Tool called Disk Management.

Be extremely careful of what you do inside Disk Management, as you can easily destroy the structure and integrity of multiple disk drives and therefore also your PC.

You can go into Disk Management to review the information that is there.

Here is an example from my PC.


1711751876888.png

On the first line above, you can see my C drive of 465 GB (1).

At first glance you might not think the next 2 lines are relevant (2) ... but these are also part of the C Drive.


Further down, you will see a diagram of Disk 3. Note ... it is made up of 3 segments.
a. My C drive
b. 100MB Segment
c. 507 MB Segment,

1711752049039.png


I do not want to confuse the discussion by getting too detailed here. Segments will exist here for a variety of reasons. Often there may be a very large segment..... of unused space.... because when the drive was been installed the installer made a decision to use only, say, half of the disk and keep the second half for later use. It is also common to deliberately create 2 segments as a strategy, using the C drive for the operating system and the second segment for , say , data. The objective might be to be able to back up the operating system and apps separately from the data. Other elements may be there, because the disk maker might want to keep some housekeeping or techie stuff available on the drive for diagnostics, mtce, etc.

In my case... I am not in the least interested in trying to understand why there are 2 segments on my system disk... as 100+500MB is not worth the effort. If it was 100MB and 500GB ...I would be keen to understand what is happening in the 500GB segment.








As things stand .... you have a working C drive .... with the possibility that you may have more space available... but you will need to investigate further to understand what is actually there.

In parallel, you can check if there is stuff inside the Users folders which might be of no further use and can be deleted.

A viable option is not to do anything.... leave it as it is. Maybe by the time you need to do something 4 GB ssd drives might be so cheap that it might be easier to put in a newer, faster, bigger model.
 
I'm going to look into Windows Cleanup after breakfast
Your TreeSize details above look normal for a 475GB drive. You can see the majority of this space is consumed by what is in the Users Folder and related subfolders. This is where a lot of stuff from your Downloads, Music, MyDocs, MyPics are stored. Many people forget that other stuff needs to be stored somewhere. A good example is all your emails... this could be tiny or massive if your last 20 years of emails and their attachments are here. You can explore Users using TreeSize and get a real understanding of what you are storing and in what sub directories.

With 475GB on C, 206GB in Users and 158 GB free... is a workable system.


To better understand your C drive, you will need to explore how your C drive is structured. The way to do this is to use a standard Windows Tool called Disk Management.

Be extremely careful of what you do inside Disk Management, as you can easily destroy the structure and integrity of multiple disk drives and therefore also your PC.

You can go into Disk Management to review the information that is there.

Here is an example from my PC.


View attachment 23005
On the first line above, you can see my C drive of 465 GB (1).

At first glance you might not think the next 2 lines are relevant (2) ... but these are also part of the C Drive.


Further down, you will see a diagram of Disk 3. Note ... it is made up of 3 segments.
a. My C drive
b. 100MB Segment
c. 507 MB Segment,

View attachment 23006

I do not want to confuse the discussion by getting too detailed here. Segments will exist here for a variety of reasons. Often there may be a very large segment..... of unused space.... because when the drive was been installed the installer made a decision to use only, say, half of the disk and keep the second half for later use. It is also common to deliberately create 2 segments as a strategy, using the C drive for the operating system and the second segment for , say , data. The objective might be to be able to back up the operating system and apps separately from the data. Other elements may be there, because the disk maker might want to keep some housekeeping or techie stuff available on the drive for diagnostics, mtce, etc.

In my case... I am not in the least interested in trying to understand why there are 2 segments on my system disk... as 100+500MB is not worth the effort. If it was 100MB and 500GB ...I would be keen to understand what is happening in the 500GB segment.








As things stand .... you have a working C drive .... with the possibility that you may have more space available... but you will need to investigate further to understand what is actually there.

In parallel, you can check if there is stuff inside the Users folders which might be of no further use and can be deleted.

A viable option is not to do anything.... leave it as it is. Maybe by the time you need to do something 4 GB ssd drives might be so cheap that it might be easier to put in a newer, faster, bigger model.
Your final option is the one I'm going to take. I'm tech savvy to a point but when it comes to messing around in disk management when I don't know what what I'm doing it's too deep for me. I have a lot of space on the SSD I just bought for my photos, so I'm happy. And no OneDrive or subscription doubly happy! Many many thanks for your help and knowledge. I should have asked you about copying but it is what it is. :)
 
I'm going to look into Windows Cleanup after breakfast

Your final option is the one I'm going to take. I'm tech savvy to a point but when it comes to messing around in disk management when I don't know what what I'm doing it's too deep for me. I have a lot of space on the SSD I just bought for my photos, so I'm happy. And no OneDrive or subscription doubly happy! Many many thanks for your help and knowledge. I should have asked you about copying but it is what it is. :)
All is not well with my new SSD. !st using this as my main folder for Lightroom slows down LR considerately. I've now got a situation with the LR catalog accessing images across two external SDD drives (one's the import backup) and the internal drive C. The subfolder 'onedrive' is still part of each file tree, but onedrive is uninstalled and not present. Nothing gets synced. The 2nd main annoyance is the new SSD file folder into which I copied all my data into. I use Irfanview a lot to locate images quickly with no fuss in a structure just like Win Explorer, but faster access. I also use Irfanview to resize images quickly for emailing etc. But Irfanview does not see any of the file tree for just this one subfolder? It's weird and I can't fathom out why. I tried Xnview MP and same thing, the sub folders are missing.
1712847030368.png


1712847228828.png
 
It's pretty simple really. For LrC, keep your data on any drive other than C:.
 
I agree… always an option to explore if needed…
Thank you for mentioning Goodsync, it looks like a good option to use for backing up my data. That is about 575GB right now for all my photos, so their 1TB storage plan looks well priced and I think possibly a lower cost than many. Any thoughts before I take a plunge?
 
I have no experience with GoodSynch from a cloud perspective.

In terms of synching local drives, my real preference on Mac is Beyond Compare, but they had several months where their Mac version had a major system flaw….. so I used GoodSynch.

However, for my workflow, GoodSynch is not as elegant as Beyond Compare.

BC has fixed the system issue…. so I am confused as to which product to use going forward…. as BC was seriously broken and took months to fix and as far as I know, did not advise their clients about this issue. Not 100% sure about that, but I do not recall getting any warnings. Maybe I did and missed them.
 
I have no experience with GoodSynch from a cloud perspective.

In terms of synching local drives, my real preference on Mac is Beyond Compare, but they had several months where their Mac version had a major system flaw….. so I used GoodSynch.

However, for my workflow, GoodSynch is not as elegant as Beyond Compare.

BC has fixed the system issue…. so I am confused as to which product to use going forward…. as BC was seriously broken and took months to fix and as far as I know, did not advise their clients about this issue. Not 100% sure about that, but I do not recall getting any warnings. Maybe I did and missed them.
I use both utilities, for different tasks. For automatic sync'ing, Goodsync does a fine job. Just pay attention to the options. For example, you may not want to back up all deleted files and retain them for 30 days.

Sometimes Goodsync gets "confused," or sometimes I need to examine folders that have not been sync'ed meaningfully. For that BC is strongly preferred. Note that BC takes much longer to scan directories than GS.
 
While there is a massive overlap in functionality… BC is easier to use for one off synch exercises, whereas both excel where the same source and targets can be configured as a regular, repeatable task. From memory, GoodSynch has good scheduling options while BC, in my opinion is very poor.

Example.
I back up my cards while travelling, where each card is backed up to a unique folder (on say and external SSD). This is a trivial exercise in BC, plus I prefer the user interface and ability to monitor progress of large copies (say, thousands of images). The same task on GoodSynch requires setting up a new job for each card or editing an existing preconfigured task, plus need to confirm you are changing the target destination. This is a chore if backing up multiple cards regularly. There are pros and cons to both. I wish BC had the scheduling options of GoodSync.

On the other hand synching new or edited images from say my main 2024 images folder set on my main workstation PC to a backup location on my Nas, my tool of choice would be GoodSync because it is a repeatable task and can be scheduled easily.
 
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