Lightroom catalog corrupt, can it be recovered?

[saun5213]

I have tried to run the sqlite and I am getting nowhere.  I am probably making a mistake in the script as my catalog is stored on an external hard drive.  Can anybody help me here?  If I had the exact script written for me, I could maybe recover?  Please help, too many photographs to lose.

[Randy Hufford]

Have you been backing up catalog every time you close?

[TheDigitalDog]

Any backup (ideally).

[saun5213]

No, unfortunately my backup is very old. As raw images how can I extract?

[Randy Hufford]

Catalog does not hold your originals only previews and instructions, metadata. Your originals are stored where you save them not in catalog file.

[saun5213]

So, I created a new catalog.  I am importing all the images that are in the corrupt catalog!