OMG I have the worst luck in the world, please help

<p>Maybe not the worst luck, but bad. House was struck by lightning and my surge protector apparently didn't do enough and my HD won't boot up (nor air conditioner/security system..etc). Took the machine, fearing the worst, to the folks who built the unit for me to troubleshoot and they said the drive won't boot, but the data is intact. Using a USB bridge connection to another computer they saw all of my data and photos. So they put a new HD in the computer, and reinstalled Windows XP and I was set to pick it up ready to do the data migration. I just needed to install Lightroom 2.7 again. HOWEVER....I'm in the major flood area of upstate NY and they closed early due to the road conditions, and NOW we are under a state of emergency and the computer place is UNDER WATER..I'm talking water to the top of the first floor. They won't be back for days and I'm assuming the computer is lost. I have two sources of backup: DVD's and Carbonite. <br>

So I'm trying to get some photos back onto a second computer after reinstalling Lightroom and no Googling or searching here is helping. I've copied photos back into "my pictures" on this computer and copied and pasted the .lrct into the Lightroom folder under "my pictures". I double click the .lrct folder and nothing happens. I would like to get photos back with all of their edits intact. This has been a long, painful and sad affair. The Lightroom I have now has no folders, and I have held off on reimporting since I wanted the edits and everything intact. I searched and multiple sources said to avoid reimporting again unless you want to do all the edits over. <br>

Any help is greatly appreciated. I need to rethink my backup strategy. Take it from me folks: if you don't think you could get hit by lightning then have your computer guy flooded out of business, think again. </p>

<p>Sorry for your troubles.</p>

<p>You need to point LR to the catalogue. Go LightRoom-Preferences-General-Default Catalogue. Put the path to your copied catalogue and it should open, but the image folders might all have question marks next to them, you then need to tell LR where all the images are, unless you copied all your folders and files as they previously were, then LR just works. </p>

<p>If you reimport LR will start a new catalogue and it won't have your previous edits, if you set it to read a copy of the old catalogue it will see all edits up to the time it was last copied.</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p>First: A surge suppressor is useless for lightning. Do some research on home lightning arrestors.</p>

<p>The HD is ok. Take it out of the original computer and put it in the second computer as a second HD. Open LR and then point it to the library on the old HD. You'll also need to let LR find the new location of your files, since they are now on something like a D: drive.</p>

<p>I'd just add one thing...don't count on the original hard drive running too long. The first thing you should do is to copy the contents to a new hard drive. That way, if it fails, you still have your data.</p>

i think he said the computer was lost in the flood . . . so all she has is backups on dvd and carbonit . . .

sad story, i feel very bad for you! Sounds like the earthquake, tsunami, flood - perfect storm . . . Wish i

could help you but i'm sorry to hear about hour situation! Good luck.

<p>Buy one of these:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtModelID=3180">http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtModelID=3180</a></p>

<p>Worth every penny.</p>

<p>I've used TrippLite protection on all my equipment since the early 1980's, and I've never had it fail. I once had an improperly grounded telephone pole beside my house that got struck regularly. I couldn't get the power company to ground it properly. I once even had all my telephones blow up. However, all of my Tripp-Lite protected equipment just kept humming along. Absolutely bullet-proof protection. If you can't afford $600 for their 1 kW uninterruptable PS, at least pick up one of their excellent line conditioners.</p>

<p>Hi folks, thank you. Scott, your advice helped, I have boxes that look like images, but it says there are over 11,000 of them. I only have 2500 or so? There are question marks next to them and I had them "find" the images. Still, I am getting a message that says "the image is offline" and still not able to see images. </p>

<p>Sarah, I'm sufficiently frustrated that I may look into one of those Tripplite units. This is the second computer fried. We live on top of a hill and have some wicked weather, and being in the country there are a lot of surges.</p>

<p>Andrew can you post a screen shot of the left side bar and main window when in grid mode of the library with the warning box on?</p>

<p>Andrew, I know your pain. The TrippLite line conditioners were recommended to me by a truly talented electronics designer after we had lost a second computer to voltage surges. The second failure burned a hole in the motherboard the size of a quarter. He couldn't speak highly enough of the basic circuit design, which hasn't really changed much since that time. It's much more substantial than the typical (and cheap) sacrificial MOV (metal oxide varistor) in most surge suppressors.</p>

<p>Scott, not sure how to do that. </p>

<p>Well I have some success. I guess I'm confused since it shows so many photographs and I did not download that many photographs from Carbonite. I downloaded only a portion. The catalog is showing the data from ALL of them, even though I only have some of them on the disc now. I pointed to the question mark on one image, located it individually, and it found the adjacent ones. Folder naming seems off for some reason. </p>

<p>Andrew,</p>

<p>If you are using an old backed up catalogue it will show thumbnails, or attempt to, for every image that was in that catalogue, not just the ones you have reimported, but every image that was in there previously. After pointing to the new images it should just leave you with question marks over the images you have not yet reimported.</p>

<p>On a Mac to take a screen capture: ⌘-Shift-3, for a PC you'll have to do a search, I don't use them.</p>

 

<p>Andrew:</p>

<p>To "print screen", open Lightroom to the screen Scott mentioned. Look at your keyboard. At the right end of the F key row are three keys marked Prt Scrn / Sys Rq, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break.</p>

<p>While Lightroom is open to the screen Scott said, press the Prt Scrn / Sys Rq key one time. This copies the screen you're currently viewing.</p>

<p>Open your Microsoft Paint program (its listed in Accessories in your Start Menu).</p>

<p>Click Edit / Paste. Voila. A screen shot of the Lightroom screen.</p>

<p>Save it somewhere as a jpg, then post it here.</p>

<p>Sarah, since you've indicated you're quite knowledgeable about this, what do you think of this Tripp Lite model...</p>

<p>http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-LC1800-Conditioner-Protection/dp/B0000514G8</p>

<p>Is it sufficient enough? Does it use the circuitry you mentioned above?</p>

<p>Thanks for mentioning the line conditioner option. I wasn't aware there were any available at a reasonable price. I live in an old apartment built in 1985 and I'm concerned about the wiring and you got me to thinking about getting one of these. I don't need or trust surge suppressors so when a lightning storm comes I just unplug everything.</p>

<p>Hope you get this sorted out Andrew. Sorry for your loss and what you're going through with the weather up there. The drought and subsequent fires down here in Texas are probably causing some to rethink and plan accordingly on whether it's a good idea to live that far away from the city's fire stations and fire hydrants.</p>

<p>+1 for Sarah's suggestion of a good UPS. I have one on all my computers. You don't have to spend a fortune on them, either. TrippLite and APC are two of the big names. Plan on spending a couple of hundred to get a good one. Beyond that, you're paying for the amount of time it will keep the computer running in a power failure. If this is important to you, pay more. The good ones have a connector that you can hook to your computer so the software can automatically shut it down in an orderly way when the power fails.</p>

<p>I have used an OptiUPS 1250 for about 6 years. It powers my desktop, LCD, and Nikon9000 scanner. I used to live in Haida Gwaii (formerly Queen Charlotte) where the power source was entirely from generators, and they were always having problems with surges, flickers, brown-outs, .... The guy who ran the local PC repair shop said he was always having people come in with blown motherboards (and other things) from power issues.</p>

<p>Tim, yes, that model is quite good. I have it myself, as well as a couple of 1200W versions. I have them around the house on all of my electronics (including televisions, etc.). Anyway, their "Isobar" circuit is the basic circuit design to which I referred. I believe TrippLite might also make a few outlet strips with the MOV protection -- which would be good products for what they are, but inadequate for real protection. The "Isobar" circuits are what you need to look for.</p>

<p>I just use line conditioners (like this one) for anything that can go down in a power failure -- like a television set. BTW, when the power flickers, you'll hear the voltage compensation relays clicking away. That's the first thing you'll notice when you're on the verge of losing power -- even before the lights flicker.</p>

<p>Peter, APC makes a good product, too, but it's not really built quite the same way and isn't quite as bullet proof. I'd personally rather have a TrippLite line conditioner than anyone else's UPS. This is in part because TrippLite warrants attached equipment from damage caused by power problems -- for life:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.tripplite.com/en/support/ultimate-lifetime-insurance-policy.cfm">http://www.tripplite.com/en/support/ultimate-lifetime-insurance-policy.cfm</a></p>

<p>Like most warranties, this one is useless in practice, because you'll never have a warrantable issue.</p>

<p>The only reason I eventually sprung for the unit I have is that we live in Hurricane country, and we sometimes really do need that 8 min (full load) transfer time to fire up a generator. We're in a position now in which we really can't afford to have our computers go down. However, if power outages are few and far between, a line conditioner is a very nice option.</p>

<p>FAIW, there are at least two types of UPSs. Mine is a double-conversion type. Attached equipment is ALWAYS running off of its internal inverter, which is running off of the internal batteries. In turn, line voltage is always keeping the batteries charged. Inbetween the power company and me, I have an Isobar circuit, a 12V converter, a huge bank of 12V batteries, and a 110VAC inverter. Because of its design, there is no transfer time to backup power in the event of a power failure, so the transfer time hash that normally occurs in a single-conversion UPS (and that can actually be slightly damaging to equipment) is never an issue. </p>

<p>The double-conversion design also keeps the batteries exercised a bit better, so they tend to last longer. I like the design of my unit, because it allows the addition of external batteries if desired. If necessary, I can attach a deep cycle marine battery and run my system for a day or more without AC power.</p>

<p>What Neal says is quite true, BTW. Power transients, surges, dropouts, etc. gradually take their toll on electronic equipment, particularly anything powered with a switching power supply and not an old-fashioned main transformer. Most electronic equipment dies a death of a thousand cuts. Since using heavy power conditioning, starting in the early 80's, I've lost only a monitor due to old age -- and nothing else. At any given time, I've probably averaged 2 or 3 computers/servers and 3 or 4 monitors going 16 hr/day, so that's a pretty good record.</p>

<p>Admittedly not everyone needs a UPS like I've got, but if you have SERIOUSLY bad power issues and/or serious equipment to protect, then not all solutions are equal.</p>