Back up not working

[erinjain]

I recently imported a large number of photos into lightroom, so much so that my computer was running a little slow.

So i backed up my lightroom catalogue onto an external hard-drive and then deleted the files off my computer

when i opened the catalogue from my hard-drive, it said all my photos were missing.

Did i just delete all my files off my computer forever??????

[Rob_Cullen]

Did i just delete all my files off my computer forever??????

Yes.!!!

A Lightroom catalog does not contain your photos. And a Catalog backup does not include your photos.

You may have several possibilities-

-Import them from camera cards again,

-Copy from a backup of files (Not the Catalog backup!)

-Restore them from the Trash/Recycle Bin.

-Run a 'Recover' program to un-delete files ( you may be lucky they have not been over-written)

I suggest you grab a copy of the Lightroom Quick Start Guide from-

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/blog/

and improve your understanding of the workings of Lightroom.

[erinjain]

oh bugger
Theyre gone gone, the files i deleted were too big for my recycling bin.

I understand how to use lightroom, and have been using it for many years. I have just never tried to use a back up, because i have never had a laptop that is limited in storage as this one.
Thanks for your help.

[Rob_Cullen]

Before you do any more work of anything on the laptop-

You do not say what operating system you have, but if you have Windows and access to another computer, download a version of {Recuva} and run it from a usb stick. It may very well recover many of the deleted files in the laptop.

Download Recuva | Recover deleted files, free!