Where are photos stored in Adobe Photoshop Album 3?

[Poppa Bear]

I am reloading Windows for a friend, because the hard drive is full, but before doing so, need to save all data.

One of the progams she is running is Adobe PhotoShop Album 3. I have never used this program but from what I have read on Google, it shows thumbnails of various photos.

Can anyone tell me if the actual photos which the thumbnails depict are stored in the Adobe program on the hard drive; or are they stored in a separate location such as My Pictures, or on a web site, or wherever?

I'd be most grateful for any help on this as I don't want to lose any data in reloading Windows.

 

[DelJo63]

Many such programs render thumbnails on the fly and if stored, they're in some *.db with the originals -- using Picasa3 as an example

'hidden' stuff can be in \Documents & Settings\theLoginId\

• Application Data\
• or
• Local Settings\

but I think you know that

 

[LookinAround]

Hi Poppa Bear :wave:

1. You should only need focus on saving the user's actual grahpics/pic files (for example, all their *.jpg, *.avi, *.gif, etc. etc. files)

2. As jobeard mentioned above, things like those thumbnails are created by the picture viewing software (like Windows, Picassa) "as needed"

3. Of course, if you could image the drive first you'll have everything. Here's a tip: While i know you're familiar with Acronis True Image, there's also a very handy freeware disk imaging tool EASUS Todo Backup if your friend doesn't have Acronis. Some of differences between EASUS (since it's free) vs. Acronis
> Free EASUS doesn't provide for a Recovery CD (only their paid version allows for Recovery CD)
> Free EASUS will only do full disk sector-by-sector imaging (which should be fine i think for this case)
==> vs. Acronis which also supports Incremental and Differential backups
==> Acronis can also create "smaller" image backups by ignoring unallocated space and things like pagefiles

Hope this all helps

 

[captaincranky]

By default Adobe Photoshop Album (as does Photoshop Elements) stores photos in (user) >"My Documents" > "My Pictures" > "Adobe", then other folders if a scanner or such is attached.

There should be a catalog file (.psa) in documents and settings > application data > Adobe >Photo shop album. If in doubt You can click "Help" > "System Info", and you will find the location of the catalog file there. There are other files associated with the catalog file, for the thumbnails and such, and these must be brought forward to the new machine also. If the user has not deviated from Adobe's method of storage, then the easy way would be to copy the entire contents of the "My Pictures" folder, and paste it into the new drive. Then install the catalog and associated files in the same location(document & settings >>>), and open the catalog.

PSA is discontinued. Adobe is replacing it with the Organizer of Photoshop Elements 8. You can download the trial version of PSE-8, and ignore the advertising for 30 days, (if you can), the Editor will stop working, but the Organizer will continue to function.

Many of your questions about PSA and PSE can be answered in these forums at Adobe.com. http://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop_elements and also http://forums.adobe.com/community/ps_album_starter

There should be so many copies of PSE, 3, 4, or 5 running around, I'm not quite sure why you want to mess around with PSA in the first place. These were given away with hardware purchases, and don't require activation, just the correct serial number. Every version of PSE from PSE 3 up basically has PSA (the "Organizer") included. As long as the PSA catalog file is in the correct place, any version of PSE will find it, and convert it to its own.

 

[Poppa Bear]

Wow! I'm overwhelmed by all the all the great support. Many thanks to you, Joebeard, LookinAround and CaptainCranky. The replies have more than answered my question.

To Joebeard re:

Many such programs render thumbnails on the fly......
but I think you know that

No I didn't know that in regard to this specific application.

To LookinAround re:

Hi Poppa Bear

1. You should only need focus on saving the user's actual grahpics/pic files (for example, all their *.jpg, *.avi, *.gif, etc. etc. files)

3. Of course, if you could image the drive first you'll have everything. Here's a tip: While i know you're familiar with Acronis True Image, there's also a very handy freeware disk imaging tool EASUS Todo Backup if your friend doesn't have Acronis.....

Hope this all helps

Hi LookinAround, :wave: I'm at it again, :haha: but I learnt from the last time round, when I was doing Karen's PC, from all the excellent advice you gave me. This time I'm helping a friend who works in a mining town in the north of West Australia, and he's left his wife's PC with me which makes it a lot easier than doing it in installments at someone's home as in Karen's case.

Unfortunately her PC is a mess. The OS is corrupted and the HD has only 20MB - not GB - of space. Her "My Documents" folder has 27GB of data. There is not even enough space to defrag. So it's going to be a fresh installation of Windows XP Pro.

Your advice in my earlier post prompted me to buy an external HD. And that proved invaluable. I have already made a full Acronis Image of her OS and saved it to the external HD, using my Acronis Rescue CD which loads the Acronis program onto the RAM.

You had alerted me to EASUS freeware in the last post, and I have kept it as a backup when it would be over-kill to do a full Acronis image. So thanks for that, it's a great little program.

By the by, I do this kind of thing to help friends and don't charge, except for the cost of parts if they're needed for the PC. However, I can't claim to be "oh so altruistic!" I do it because I enjoy fixing PCs... and in the belief that what goes around comes around. And this is evidenced by the fantastic support freely given by this forum. And to me in particular. So in this case the help I'm receiving is helping a New Zealand family working in the far north of West Aussie, which gives it an international flavor. Cheers :grinthumb

To Captaincranky re:

By default Adobe Photoshop Album (as does Photoshop Elements) stores photos in (user) >"My Documents" > "My Pictures" > "Adobe", then other folders if a scanner or such is attached.

There are other files associated with the catalog file, for the thumbnails and such, and these must be brought forward to the new machine also.

Hi there Capn', :wave: nice to "come back on board again!" LOL!

I have to admit to being a bit slack. I would not have known to look for an Adobe folder in My Documents if you hadn't alerted me. Even then it took quite a bit of finding among the mulititude of 27GB worth of assorted files and folders. Ditto re the advice to bring the associated files forward to the new machine.

So thank you all once again for your great support. And my apologies for any slackness on my part in perhaps not searching more thoroughly in the first instance. I did research it on Google, but couldn't find anthing that really answered the question the way you guys have done.

Cheers PB :grinthumb

 

[captaincranky]

Many such programs render thumbnails on the fly and if stored, they're in some *.db with the originals -- using Picasa3 as an example

Starting with Photoshop Elements 6, Adobe switched to SQLite for the data base, dumping M$ Access in the process. Then they gave the job of programming for the yearly release to the third world. The net result has been, a program that will no longer generate thumbs "on the fly". In fact, the only machine I have that will generate thumbnails in a reasonable amount of time is an H55 / i3-530 4GB RAM 64 bit Win7 box. This generates thumbs in seconds, rather than minutes! Incidentally, Adobe claims that PSE is not compatible with 64 bit Windows, and to a certain extent, it isn't. This is why I always recommend the earlier versions of this program. The one caveat is that PSE, up to version 5, is an 8 bit organizer, and doesn't have support for the very latest cameras.

@Poppa Bear; look for the files associated with the catalog file, in the same general location in a folder named "Catalog Folders".