External Hard Drive has changed

There may be a simple answer to this .. but I am stuck ..The external hard drive I use with Laptop was Drive (F) and now it has changed to Drive (H)?and LR 2 says my files are missing or offline .. what is happening

External Hard Drive has changed

I can't answer why ''your'' hard drive has changed from (F) to (H). However, getting your images back on-line should be relatively simple. Right-click on the top level folder in the folder panel then choose Update Folder Location from the context menu. An OS style window will appear. Using the window navigation tools find the same folder on the (H), select it, then hit Choose button.

The last section in the following tutorial might also come in useful http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

External Hard Drive has changed

Sounds like you are using Windows XP?

If so assign a name and drive letter to the external disk and this should stop windows constantly changing drive letters

You can do this as follows

1) Start

2) Control Panel

3) Administrative Tools

4) Computer Management

5) Disc Management on the left side

6) Bottom Right window find the device you want to reassign the letter to

7) Right click on that box

8) You will then see a drop down box of which you will select ''change drive letter''

9) Then you will get another drop down box which will show you all available drive letters and select one. Windows will give you some kind of warning but just hit OK anyway.

The other solutions are to use Vista or windows 7 where this doesn't usually happen....or of course buy a mac!

Ian, thanks for taking the time to help me with this. I have locked up

my laptop for the night but will try it in morning

many thanks again

This occurred yesterday to me also. PC. Windows XP, Western Digital 1 Tb HD was labled G, then to L and same issue with unable to find files. If I open My LR photos as they show on the now L drive, and try to link, I get a message that these files are already in LR. I notice also that my collections are partially gone, maybe back to last prior catalog back up,which to me, seems too far back. Of course the pictures in the collections don't show because LR thinks they are on drive G, which now is called L. I need a fix here for the catalog and collections and some explanation as to why the drive changed names which is way too wierd.

Neal W.

The fix to relocate the files is outlined in Ians post above. The fix for your OS's constant changing on external drive letters is outlined in my post above. As to why windows does this, your guess is as good as mine. You could try asking Microsoft....

Hello Peter

Thank you kindly for your help .. I followed your instructions and changed

the Drive back to original (F) and it worked !!

Starnge the way these things happen .. many thanks

Noel Greene

Thanks. I actually ended up just pointing to the new letter in LR

preferences. Neal