Hard Drive crash - how to get my catalog and previews re-installed

[CoreTravelPhoto]

My hard drive crashed and I installed a new drive.  My photos are always on a stand-alone external drive and, fortunately, i was able to recover some LR files that were on my crashed (internal) drive.

I have re-installed LR 5.0, copied (from crashed drive) the BACKUP folder, PREViEW folder and LRCAT to the new internal hard drive (same User->Libraries->Pictures->Lightroom folder).

However, when I run LR (and attach the drive with my photos), only a subset of the images are available.  I know I haven't lost the images but want to be able to see them and the edits I've made over the years. 

Any suggestions?

I like to keep these folders on my internal drive for performance and images on external drive for safety.

[dj_paige]

However, when I run LR (and attach the drive with my photos), only a subset of the images are available.

This is way too vague for me to advise. You need to describe this in a lot more detail, so I can understand what you are seeing.

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Ok, let me try again.

I have about 28,500 photos on my F drive (in folders from 2003 through 2016).  Prior to my hard drive crash, these were all viewable as previews, many that I have edited with LR.  They don't appear when I launch LR now.  I see the total count (see image) but not the folders.

[dj_paige]

If you expand the 2012, 2013 and 2015 folders, what do you see?

If you click on "All PHotographs" and scroll up or down, do you see the photos from 2003 (for example)?

[CoreTravelPhoto]

In All Photographs, the images seem to be there, no previews (see attachment).  In the 2012 and 2013, there's only the folder.  In the 2015, I have the image previews.  Just odd. 

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Also, I All Photographs, i can filter by ratings, so it seems like my edits are still available.  Must need to do some kind of refresh..

[dj_paige]

These photos and folders are considered missing by Lightroom (question mark icon on the folders, and exclamation point icon on the photos). You have to restore the photos to these folders by using your operating system to copy the backups of your photos into the exact same location as shown in the Lightroom folder panel.

I don't believe you answered the part of my question where I ask if you can find photos from 2003 under All Photographs by scrolling up or down until you find them.

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Hi

I "see" some of the photos in All Photographs (added a print screen previously), I can scroll up and down (from image #1 to 597) but the folder says there are 28,809.

[dj_paige]

In the Filter bar, click on "None", and then try scrolling up or down to find the photos from 2003.

Alternative: click on "None", then click on "Metadata" and select photos with capture date 2003.

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Yes sir, you are correct, when I deselect a rating all 28,000 exist in the view, but only a few have a preview/thumbnail, most are greyed out.  Is there a solution to restoring the preview/thumbnail?  Should I restore using a backup?

[ManiacJoe]

Lightroom will regenerate the previews as needed.

What you first need to do is fix any missing folders in the Folders panel,

then fix any missing images in the grid.

[dj_paige]

The photos are not where Lightroom thinks they should be. You either need to copy your backups (using your operating system) to the exact location they were in previously, or inside of Lightroom reconnect via these instructions: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

[CoreTravelPhoto]

DJ, thanks so much for all you help!

Since all the folders don't show in LR (2003, 2004 ... 2016), do I first manually create new folders to all a location to reconnect?

All the photos seem to exist in the All Photograph folder, but not below.  I thought I did copy the BACKUP folder to the same location, any way to find out where LR is looking so I can copy to that location?

[dj_paige]

No, don't create new folders yet.

All the photos seem to exist in the All Photograph folder,

Great, find one of those photos from 2003 (or any other year that appears to be missing in the Folder panel), and now right-click on the photo (ctrl-click on a Mac) and select Go To Folder In Library. This will highlight the folder where Lightroom thinks the photo is in the Folder Panel on the left — you might have to scroll up or down in the Folder Panel to find the highlighted folder.

Please do this and report back what folder is highlighted (better yet, show us a screen capture).

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Hi

I right-clicked one photo and selected Go To Folder and LR hilighted the JCORE PHOTO folder.  This image was from 2004.  I don't have a 2004 folder in this directory.

[dj_paige]

Somehow, your 2004 folder is no longer a separate folder, according to LR and all of your photos from 2004 (and probably other years) are now in the Jcore Photos folder, according to LR.

So, you can copy (using your operating system) all of your backups from the missing years into this Jcore Photos folder and Lightroom will reconnect everything, and the thumbnails will be generated and the exclamation point icon will disappear. From that point, you could (if you want, it's optional) re-create the 2004, 2005, 2006 ... folders.

[CoreTravelPhoto]

I'm trying to figure out what you are suggesting.  Using my OS (Windows Explorer) all my files/photos already exist on my F: drive, but not visible in LR.

I also have my Backups, latest done late 2015.

I'm not sure what you suggest I copy from/to using my OS.  If from my Backup directory, then there's no folder structure, just one large file.  If from my JCORE (F:drive) i have the folders and sub-folders by year, where am I copying to?

As an aside:

1. My Identity Plate is Lightroom (not Lightroom Mobile).  I recall in the past this being an issue, so just mentioning.

2. For giggles, I tried to re-launch my backup,.  I noticed that the drive labels were different (eg: in the Nov-2015 LR Backup, shown below, the images on my hard drive were in E:drive.  Now my Harddrive is labeled F:drive.  I haven't changed my external drive.

The way LR handles directories is a bit confusing, but it's probably me not fully understanding ..

[dj_paige]

I mean exactly what I said: "you can copy (using your operating system) all of your backups from the missing years into this Jcore Photos folder".

Do not read into these instructions something that was not said and not implied and not intended. Don't do that. Interpet my words LITERALLY.

Find your backups of the 2004 photos. Copy them into the Jcore Photos folder (not some other folder, not some subfolder, but the Jcore Photos folder itself). This is where Lightroom thinks they are, if you copy them tehre, they will appear in Lightroom.

Ignore the backup catalog, that just confuses things even more. Use the orignal catalog, the one we were discussing all along.

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Not sure we are connecting.  My goals are to keep the mages on external drive, not duplicate copies (200gb) also on my C:  Copying from my external to the JCORE folder doesn't make sense, I thought you have to use the LR import function to import images and get them in a catalog.

Not sure this forum is working for me and not phone number to call.  So, guess this will end the support, but thanks for trying.

[dj_paige]

We have to go through several steps in order to fix all these problems. We can't fix it all in a single step.

Once the photos are connected inside of Lightroom, then you can move them to the external drive. That is the first step. The method is exactly what I explained. If you copy the backups of the 2004 photos to the Jcore Photos folder, this connects the photos inside of Lightroom, and the thumbnails appear and the exclamation point icons go away. Then you can move them to the external drive.

[ManiacJoe]

CoreTravelPhoto wrote:

Hi

I right-clicked one photo and selected Go To Folder and LR hilighted the JCORE PHOTO folder. This image was from 2004. I don't have a 2004 folder in this directory.

Let's start with the basics.

Using File Explorer, does your hard drive's folder tree look like it does in Lightroom?

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Hi

No, the folder structures on my external drive (where I store all my images) don't match.