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06-17-2017, 07:38 AM   #1
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PCDU4 image parameters do not transfer to new computer?!?!?

Have spent hours researching this but have found nothing. Would highly appreciate guidance.

Background - longtime Pentax shooter, over 20 years, now using a K5-II. Have been lurking on this site for years. Since converting to digital and realizing the crazy power of shooting raw vs. JPEG, I have since processed 1000's of raw images using PDCU4. This has all been done on one (Windows) computer that has outlived its usefulness (it is six years old!) so I just purchased a new computer. I am now in the process of getting my new computer (512gb SSD, 3TB HDD, i7 6700, 16gb RAM) setup.

On the new computer:
1 - I have re-installed PDCU4 from disk (still have the original from my K10D purchase years ago)
2 - I have copied all image files from the old computer (drive letter and directory structure are different than old computer's due to SSD drive).

Problem - when a raw file is opened in PDCU4 on the new computer, none of the parameters I had previously (and painstakingly!) adjusted to make my image look awesome are there. The image has no previously-defined adjustments for white balance, exposure custom image, luminosity... nothing. All the work I have done for years appears lost, though of course I had saved the processed raw files as tif's. My old computer is still available.

Question - how can the parameter settings for all my raw files adjusted using PDCU4 be transferred to these same files in my new computer?

Note - this happens even when moving a raw file on the same computer simply to a different directory, which has burned me in the past.

Brad.

06-17-2017, 08:22 AM   #2
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I forget the name and location of the files but if you search for a folder "Pentax" in the User or Document and Settings folder copying over the contents should work.

There's a thread about startup problems (freezing) with PDCU4 that says where the folders are.
06-17-2017, 08:35 AM   #3
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The database files should be found in your user-specific app data directory for PDCU. On Windows, this would be (or similar):

c:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Pentax\<dcu dir>\

The data base file(s) will have the suffix ".db"


Steve
06-17-2017, 02:32 PM - 1 Like   #4
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Solved! Thanks, super big help directing me to that dB file. Here is my process:

1 - database file is indeed stored at C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Pentax\Digital Camera Utility 4\PTXUTL.mdb. Make a backup of this file before making any changes.

2 - simply copying this file to my new computer would not work because my images are now stored on a different drive and in a different directory structure... the pointers in the database file would be pointing to the old directory location, not the new one, which is a problem. Now, if the new computer's drive is literally a mirror of the old one, a simple copy/paste of this PTXULT.mdb file would work.

3 - so... how to change the contents of the database file to reflect the new directory structure on my new computer? Well, as it turns out, the parameter database file (PTXULT.mdb) is actually a Microsoft Access database, as indicated by the mdb extension. I suppose mdb could mean something else but sure enough, this file opens up just fine into Microsoft Access.

4 - there are eight tables in the MS Access database but only one requires a change --> the table called t_files. This table has a list of all raw images that have parameters adjustments saved. The key field to change is called "dir" because this field contains the directory path for each raw image. For all 8k entries (my count, yours will differ), I needed to change only the first part of the "dir" field, from "C:\Users\<user>\pictures" to "D:\Pictures".

5 - I am not an MS Access expert by any means. Tried to highlight the "dir" field and run a standard Find...Replace but it would not work. Probably could have written an update query but that seemed overkill. So I just copied the "dir" column to a blank Excel sheet, ran a Find...Replace there, then copied it back into MS Access. Then saved & exited.

6 - I opened up PDCU4 and all my historical parameters were properly referenced - my raw images now look as they should! Whew.

06-18-2017, 01:02 PM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by BradM Quote
6 - I opened up PDCU4 and all my historical parameters were properly referenced - my raw images now look as they should! Whew.
You 'da man!


Steve
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