I love Lightroom BUT....

*Eaglerapids* · 11-22-2008, 06:09 AM

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what they were thinking concerning their backups, etc.
For instance. On my laptop, I use an external drive to store my pics. It has always been Drive F, for some reason it has now been assigned Drive G. I don't know why I didn't do a damn thing different I know of. But this has thrown Lightroom Ver 2.1 for a loop. It doesn't know where the pics in the catalog are and I'm either to stupid to point Lightroom to them or it's to frigging stupid to listen. When I try Lightroom says the pics are already in the catalog. Well, duh. Now the pics are on drive G not F you dumbass program.
On another note, why can't restoring a backup work? Have you ever tried restoring a backup? It's damn near impossible. Why did they put a backup option in place if you can't use the backup to restore a backup?
Maybe I'm missing something simple here but I'm frustrated and pissed off atm.

Cloudy Wizzard · 11-22-2008, 08:04 AM

Well this is not a problem for the Lightroom problem but Windows should allow you to change the drive back from F to G.

This is kinda hidden in the control panel so if you don't know where to look you might miss it.

I'm using a Dutch version of XP so it might be different on your system but it should be under :

Control Panel -> System Management (NOT system, could also be System Control or something like that). -> Computer Management -> Drive Management

if I'm correct you should see all drives (and DVD/CD Devices) in a list. If you right-click the drive you want you should see an option to change the drive letter.

first change the G to something else since you cannot change the F to G if G is already taken

Good Luck !

*Wheatfield* · 11-22-2008, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by Eaglerapids

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what they were thinking concerning their backups, etc.
For instance. On my laptop, I use an external drive to store my pics. It has always been Drive F, for some reason it has now been assigned Drive G. I don't know why I didn't do a damn thing different I know of. But this has thrown Lightroom Ver 2.1 for a loop. It doesn't know where the pics in the catalog are and I'm either to stupid to point Lightroom to them or it's to frigging stupid to listen. When I try Lightroom says the pics are already in the catalog. Well, duh. Now the pics are on drive G not F you dumbass program.
On another note, why can't restoring a backup work? Have you ever tried restoring a backup? It's damn near impossible. Why did they put a backup option in place if you can't use the backup to restore a backup?
Maybe I'm missing something simple here but I'm frustrated and pissed off atm.

Windows will reassign drive letters if you plug a new device in when an old one is unplugged. For example, you always have an external drive plugged in and running, but one time you plug in a card reader instead, and Windows reassigns the drive letter.
You can change it in the disk manager:
Control Panel/Administrative Tools/ Computer Management/Disk Management.
Right click on the drive you want to reassign and click on "Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Click on the Change button, and then use the dropdown in the next subwindow to assign the correct Drive letter.
If you do this while every external drive you own is attached and running, it should stay permanent.

In Lightroom you can also use the Import Photos from Disk command (under file) to rebuild your catalogue under a different drive.

To use a backup catalog, Click Edit/Preferences/ and change the default catalogue to your back-up.

There are probably other ways to do this. Also, considering that Lightroom is far more complex to run than your camera, it might be a good idea to hang out on one of the Adobe forums......

*Eaglerapids* · 11-22-2008, 11:57 AM

Thank you Wheatfield and Cloudy Wizzard, I owe you guys one.
Back in the LR 1.4 days I had to restore a backup and it was like pulling teeth. I browsed the Adobe forums and unless I'm just mentally challenged there were problems with restoring backups and I never tried since then. Now it works exactly as you described and as it should work.
I changed the drive letter back to F and since I did some stuff I shouldn't have done in my half-baked state of mind I restored the backup and now all is well:-).
I'm back in love with LR again.

kerrowdown · 11-22-2008, 12:39 PM

Computers dont you just luv 'em and Bill G has much to answer for.

*AlanR* · 11-23-2008, 02:55 AM

Thank you for asking the question and thanks for the helpful replies. As I acquire more external hard drives it was only a matter of time before I would also have a drive named as something not recognized by my software.
You have all saved me a big problem.

Lightroom is a fantastic program and I should mention that Scott Kelby's book Lightroom 2 has saved me a lot of trouble in organization of photos. If you are new to LR and before importing photos go through the 1st 33 pages of this book.

MoiVous · 11-23-2008, 03:56 AM

To add to the already sound advice here, Windoze will automatically assign a drive letter to any drive you plug in (USB, HDD, mapped NAS etc) in the order in which they are plugged in.

However, if you explicity assign a drive letter to each device from Control Panel as Cloudy Wizard describe, it will remember that letter on that PC (it uses the device signature) unless something else is plugged in first that hasn't been assigned.

I have this problem on a laptop I use that sometimes has its docking station removed (with integral DVD). The solution is to ensure that on adding new storage devices you attach everything else in the same order, then add the new device, then assign it a letter. Then in future, Windoze will remember the drive letter regardless of what is plugged in.

Of course, when you change your PC or upgrade Windoze, you'll have to do it all over again. C'est la vie.

mtngal · 11-23-2008, 04:32 PM

You can tell Lightroom2 that a folder has been moved to a different location, so you don't have to re-import all your files. I did some re-organization on my external hard drive (based on the fact that I just bought Scott Kelby's book and decided to change the way I've been organizing my pictures) and moved one of my main folders inside another, new folder. When I opened LR, the folders (there are several subfolders) had question marks (hey, I can't find it any more).

I just right-clicked on the top folder that had moved and selected "find missing folder". It opened a finder window where I just went to the re-located folder and selected it. It instantly indicated it had a location not only for the main folder, but for the subfolders as well.

*Wheatfield* · 11-23-2008, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by mtngal

You can tell Lightroom2 that a folder has been moved to a different location, so you don't have to re-import all your files. I did some re-organization on my external hard drive (based on the fact that I just bought Scott Kelby's book and decided to change the way I've been organizing my pictures) and moved one of my main folders inside another, new folder. When I opened LR, the folders (there are several subfolders) had question marks (hey, I can't find it any more).

I just right-clicked on the top folder that had moved and selected "find missing folder". It opened a finder window where I just went to the re-located folder and selected it. It instantly indicated it had a location not only for the main folder, but for the subfolders as well.

Thank you!!

*Eaglerapids* · 11-23-2008, 07:25 PM

Originally Posted by mtngal

I just right-clicked on the top folder that had moved and selected "find missing folder". It opened a finder window where I just went to the re-located folder and selected it. It instantly indicated it had a location not only for the main folder, but for the subfolders as well.

I thought I tried that and was told the folders already existed in the catalog or some such thing, one of the reasons I was getting so frustrated. But I don't remember exactly now. I may have not been doing it right.