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[marty golin]

After reading some of the posts on corruption, trying to figure out what exactly I should do, an unabashed plea for help seems the most appropriate concrete step I can take.

It is curious to me that I went into LR without any problems & did minor modifications to a few shots. However I've been doing a lot over the last few days & LR seems to slow down with accumulated adjustment brush usage, so I optimized. When it came back, it came back with the corruption message. While the timing would suggest something I did tonight caused it, the revisions were nothing compared to some of what I have done with no issues.

I tried the repair, which clearly didn't work.

If pertinent, last night LR was not responding (after using a large brush in a 1:1 view which seems to take a LOT more processing than a small brush covering the same image area in a normal view), so I ended it via Task Manager; I did not just turn off the computer.

When I went to find my LRCAT, I noticed what seems curious. I have a Lightroom 2 Catalog dated tonight and another called Lightroom (no 2) Catalog dated back to August. I cannot recall anything I did to LR back then.

I will admit that as easy as using LR is, I have no comfort level in the background "technical" stuff. For example, reading a post saying to start a new catalog, how do I do that if I can't even get into LR? Do I need to install LR in another directory & then open from my back-up? I'd bet lots of money it's not that easy & my suggesting it only reveals my ignorance in the details supporting LR. I suppose it's time I learned.

I backed up prior to starting tonight (as I do most sessions), updated to LR 2.3 very shortly after it came out, & have a PC using Windows XP.

So...any help would be very much appreciated.

[Victoria Bampton]

Ok, don't panic, it's not a huge problem.

First questions first, do you have a recent catalog backup?

[marty golin]

Oh, so you intuited my panic beneath the veneer of calm. Very good.

Yes, I backed up just prior to starting & I have back-ups almost daily recently.

[Kiwigeoff]

I would recommend updating to LR2.5 before you do anything else. There are improvements in stability.

[Victoria Bampton]

Well that's always good news.  In that case, it's easy as pie.  Close LR.  Move/delete/zip up the corrupted catalog (*.lrcat, leave the *.lrdata) in case you want to go back to it later, and COPY one of the backups catalogs back into that same location.  Reopen LR.  You should be all set!

[marty golin]

Victoria,
 
Wonderful!!  Thank you very much. I'll try it when I get home.

[Victoria Bampton]

Shout if you get stuck

[marty golin]

Victoria,

Ok, shouting I am, & I really do appreciate your assistance. I expect I am missing something simple, but...

In the default C drive, there were two LRCAT files, one dated 11-19 (when it was corrupted) & another from Aug. There were also lrdata files of the same dates.  I deleted BOTH LRCAT files & the lrdata file of Aug. I copied a back-up from several days ago (named 2009-11-14 1738 if it matters) from an external drive. LR did open (yay!) but had zero pictures (boo!!)

When I back-up, is there an LRCAT file somewhere that I'm not seeing; I'm assuming the files under the BACKUP are what I should be using? Must I rename the back-up to something? Should I have left the Aug files in place?

For now, I'm leaving things as they are, assuming this is the best way to do no harm. Is there any more information I should tell you about?

[Victoria Bampton]

Do you know where your catalogs were stored originally?  Were you using the default location or had you possibly created a catalog elsewhere?  I'd do a search for *.lrcat files to trace any others.

[marty golin]

When searching for the LRCATs, even though the file names were e.g. 2009-11-18 1784, they were labeled LRCAT. When I copied the back-up to what was the default location (I had not created another location), it was curious that one file was named LRCAT, but was only 740 KB. The file I copied had its original name & was the proper size.

I deleted both. When I went to open LR again, it asked me which catalog. I led it to one &...voila! I now see that I must manually do this.

Thank you for your patience dealing with my ignorance. I very much appreciate it.

[Victoria Bampton]

Oh well done Marty