Catalogs pc crashing whilst trying to backup LR Classic catalogue

[GORDONMACDOUGALL]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic 9.3

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Hi guys, everytime I try to back up my catalogue, my pc 'blue screens' on me :-
"Your pc ran into a problem and needs to restart... etc."
Anybody else had this issue and if so, how did you fix it?
Thanks.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

A blue screen is a hardware or low level driver issue that Lightroom just happens to be triggering. Some of our Windows experts might have some bright ideas on where to start looking if you share the information from the blue screen.

 

[Gnits]

Check that the target drive or folder exists.

 

[clee01l]

Another thing to check is available free space on C:\. Working Storage is located there and uses the free space. Lightroom uses this Working storage to create temporary file for optimizing the catalog and checking the integrity as well and the backup file that need to be zipped. I recommend at least 100GB of free space at all times for Windows operations.

 

[GORDONMACDOUGALL]

A blue screen is a hardware or low level driver issue that Lightroom just happens to be triggering. Some of our Windows experts might have some bright ideas on where to start looking if you share the information from the blue screen.

Thanks Victoria, this is what it says on the screen...

 

[GORDONMACDOUGALL]

Check that the target drive or folder exists.

Thanks Gnits, the target drive def exists

 

[GORDONMACDOUGALL]

Another thing to check is available free space on C:\. Working Storage is located there and uses the free space. Lightroom uses this Working storage to create temporary file for optimizing the catalog and checking the integrity as well and the backup file that need to be zipped. I recommend at least 100GB of free space at all times for Windows operations.

Thanks Cletus, the C: drive says it has 178gb of 475gb free.
I think that you could be onto something there though as this happened once before and I resolved it by deleting a whole load of old back up files (which created a lot space). That hasnt worked this time though.

 

[Paul_DS256]

Note the time of the crash then check Windows the Event Manager to see if anything was recorded that may provide some insight. Also make sure your OS has all the latest updates and that all drivers are up to date.

 

[Jim Wilde]

You should also google that DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION message, as there are lots of articles about it, as well as a host of suggested actions for you to try.

 

[GORDONMACDOUGALL]

My catalogue is pretty big. to create some free space, I could delete the previous catalogues - would anybody be able to advise me if this would be ok or not?

 

[GORDONMACDOUGALL]

You should also google that DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION message, as there are lots of articles about it, as well as a host of suggested actions for you to try.

Thanks Jim,
Ive tried that and you're right there are lots (and lots!) of articles and suggestions - pretty much a scattergun approach covering everything and nothing specific!

 

[GORDONMACDOUGALL]

Note the time of the crash then check Windows the Event Manager to see if anything was recorded that may provide some insight. Also make sure your OS has all the latest updates and that all drivers are up to date.

Thanks Paul,
Yes, everything is up to completely up to date

 

[GORDONMACDOUGALL]

My catalogue is pretty big. to create some free space, I could delete the previous catalogues - would anybody be able to advise me if this would be ok or not?
View attachment 15098

A blue screen is a hardware or low level driver issue that Lightroom just happens to be triggering. Some of our Windows experts might have some bright ideas on where to start looking if you share the information from the blue screen.

Hi @Victoria Bampton - would you please be able to advise if this an ok thing to do? Thanks (delete the previous catalogues as above)

 

[clee01l]

I think I can speak for Victoria and the rest of us.
"Lightroom Catalog 2-5.lrcat" seems to be the latest. If this is your master catalog then the other (*.lrcat) can be removed to the backups folder and the backup folder moved to another disk to free up space. This way you do not lose any critical data in old catalogs.

There are three files associated with old catalogs
"Lightroom Catalog 2 Helper.lrdata"
"Lightroom Catalog 2-2 Sync.lrdata"
"Lightroom Catalog 2-4 Sync.lrdata"
These can be deleted.

However freeing up space is not going to resolve your blue screen issue.

 

[GORDONMACDOUGALL]

I think I can speak for Victoria and the rest of us.
"Lightroom Catalog 2-5.lrcat" seems to be the latest. If this is your master catalog then the other (*.lrcat) can be removed to the backups folder and the backup folder moved to another disk to free up space. This way you do not lose any critical data in old catalogs.

There are three files associated with old catalogs
"Lightroom Catalog 2 Helper.lrdata"
"Lightroom Catalog 2-2 Sync.lrdata"
"Lightroom Catalog 2-4 Sync.lrdata"
These can be deleted.

However freeing up space is not going to resolve your blue screen issue.

Thanks Cletus, I appreciate you coming back to me. I'm hoping hat the extra space wil help with the blue screen issue. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Gnits]

You could try exporting your full catalog to an external drive (or even a usb key fob). This has the benefit of checking the integrity of your existing catalog. If it works, then you have a newly built catalog that will be clear of any legacy database issues and give you options in terms of how best to reestablish a satisfactory status quo.