Unexpected Error Opening Catalog

[dj_paige]

I got this error message for the first time ever tonight.

As I advise others, I suspect it's a bad sector or other hard disk problem. So what to do? I have a recent backup, so let's try a few things.

Attempt 1: Copy the backup catalog (after unzipping it) to the same folder as the original on my C drive, and then try to open it — DIDN'T WORK

Attempt 2: Copy the backup catalog (after unzipping it) to a new folder on my V: drive, then try to open it — WORKED!

Attempt 3: Copy the backup catalog (after unzipping it) to a new folder on my C: drive in a different place in the folder hierarchy — WORKED!

Conclusion: this is some sort of hard drive malfunction on my C: drive, probably localized since it works fine elsewhere on my C: drive.

[helget9239018]

No solutions work. Thank's for the answer.

[MNauman]

I had this problem also on a 1 year old computer with a SSD.   In my case I was working in lightroom and it just closed on me as I was retouching a simple photo. 

I tried several times your method but failed everytime.   But I thought about the problem and finally copied "Light Room Catalog -2", pasted into the Backup Folder, then renamed the Folder to "Light Room Catalog -3", then copied the file that was in the origional "Light Room Catalog -2"folder, and pasted that into the Folder holding my previously pasted copied & renamed folder ("Light Room Catalog -3").   So that folder now contained the "Light Room Catalog -3" Folder plus the file that was in the origional folder as well.   Yes... that file should be in 2 new places now, once in the main Backup Folder, and a 2nd time in the "Light Room Catalog -3" folder in the main Backup Folder.   Hey crazy... but it worked after that.

I hope that makes sense. 

Note:   I had the same thing happen on my other power horse a week ago.  Only then I used an older data base.   Me thinks it was not the SSD's but a possibibly a windows or LR update.   I have been doing this since Lightroom 2 as a active Professional with 100's of thousands of images and never a burp... and to have it happen on 2 different laptops within a week with SSD's... I say its an update.