pictures doubling in recycle bin?

[Ms Monny]

Hi all

This is a bit of a weird question...

I am trying to clean up my laptop of my pictures, by transferring them onto my new External HD, so I can download my pics of Bali from last week!!

I have noticed that EVERY photo that I have in my Pictures in my laptop is in the Recycle Bin as well. It looks like they have doubled up there....

If I delete ALL the pics in Recycle Bin, will they be deleted from my Pictures? Also, how did they all get there? Very strange.

Probably a very naive question, but I don't want to lose my pics.

cheers
Monika

[kiwi]

Question, you have them on your external hd, where else ?

[Ms Monny]

They are still on my Laptop while I have been copying them to the External HD (doing this tonight). While doing this I noticed that the Recycle Bin was HUGE. I checked the photos and they were ones I hadn't ever deleted BUT they were also still in my Pictures folder.

Also, another thing happened after I wrote this.....because my laptop is full and I am transferring all my pics onto the external HD, they are also being taken out of LR! Not happy! I presume there isn't a way of perserving the images in LR but getting them off the computer??

Geez, I feel I need to take all this to someone who knows what they are doing, because I certainly don't and it is stressing me to the max. All I want to do is get a good workflow happening and it isn't happening. AAAAhhhrrrrrrrggggggg.

[kiwi]

Stop.

Do not delete from your laptop.

You need at least two copies of every file. What if you deleted from your laptop and then you dropped your ext hd or it crashed ? Happens all the time. Buy another similar hdd first.

In addition you should be using lr to move the files once you have another backup. Dont worry too much though as within lr you can "find missing folders" and simply point the catalog to the new location.

Call me on my mobile 0403062429 tomorrow if you want to chat

[Ms Monny]

'In addition you should be using lr to move the files once you have another backup'...??

do you mean not keep photos in lr, just use it to convert from RAW, minor adjust and then move elsewhere (like PS)????

I can put ALL the images back into the computer - luckily not that many compared to many here on AP - but I have NO SPACE to download my Bali pics!! I did buy two 1TB external HD's, so I should have backed up in that 2nd one too.

I would looove to give you a buzz to help me sort this mess out. Thanks for the offer. What time is best?

[kiwi]

Once you've copied all your pics to the two hard drives (triple check that they mirror) then you can delete the pics from your laptop. I'd empty the recycle bin first, then delete the picture directories. Just dont delete the lightroom catalog files.

Once that's done just open lightroom and go to the pictures folder where they were and at the parent level you can change the directory where the pictures are located. Lightroom edits are going to be preserved.

I'm ok after 2pm tomorrow or between 8am and 9am

Just whatever you do make sure both your external hard drives contain all your pictures before you start deleting anything.

[Ms Monny]

Okay!!

I am now copying the pics from my Ext HD back into the computer so I can put them into the 2nd HD!! (Should have done that before deleting but I thought I would be okay with one ext HD).

I will call after 2pm if that is okay. I will have pen, paper and questiions ready!

Thanks soooo much Kiwi.

[kiwi]

If you have two USB ports you could just copy straight from one external drive to another :-)

Do give me a call if you like, I only learnt all this stuff after very painful personal experiences :-(

[Ms Monny]

I didn't think of the that. Will do!

Speak to you tomorrow (but be prepared to talk to someone who doesnt' know much about all this! )

[Ms Monny]

Thanks Darren for helping me the other day! I finally got my images under control, on the ext HD, and processing beautifully!

[kiwi]

No problem !!