Red Circles????

[lg_schmisa]

My hard drive is getting pretty full due to all of my materials. I purchased an 8GB external hard drive to move my materials over too. But when I moved them over, on my ACDsee there is a red circle with a line through it in the corner of all my folders now. I'm not a super smart computer person, but I do know that something like that can't be good. Any idea as to what that is, how I can change it, or what I could do?
Thanks!

[kathleen08]

How did you move the files? I'm guessing you opened Windows Explorer and dragged the files from one folder/hard drive to another.

ACDSee is a database program and it is really important that it knows where your files are. It is kind of like you putting precious vase somewhere so you know exactly where it is, and then a two year old comes along and moves. You have no idea where it is, and can't find it to put flowers in.

To repair, try this ... move your folders back EXACTLY where they were. Folder name and path is very important. Now open ACDSee and see if it finds your files again with tags and everything. Now from within ACDsee, move your files from their current location to your external drive. You can drag and drop. ACDSee just needs to know you are doing this, so by doing it with the program it can still keep track of your files.

~ Kathleen

[lg_schmisa]

Thank You!!! It worked:)

[kathleen08]

Yipppeee!

~ Kathleen

[lg_schmisa]

Uh-Oh..the circles are back!!!!
I moved all my smaller folders first and everything was going fine. Then I went to move my DSP folder (which is HUGE). I knew it would take awhile, so I set off to do other things, when I came back I had the red circles again. I assumed that the folder was too big so I moved it back to my hard drive, but the red circles are still there on everything. I checked my space on my external hard drive and to me it seems that I should have enough space to move it all over.
HELP!!!:)

[lg_schmisa]

OK, I really messed it all up this time. I moved all my folders back to my internal hard drive to empty my external hard drive, so that I could just start over. Well once I got that done, all the organizing and tagging that I worked on for HOURS AND HOURS is gone. :help:
Is there anything I can do to get them back and why did this happen?

[carlalee]

The best thing I can suggest is to go directly to the ACDSee experts at DigiScrapInfo (http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/forum/). Their website is 100% dedicated to ACDSee Photo Manager and Photo Editor. Sometimes they peek over here and answer questions, but you can go over there and post your problem to get a quicker response. They can explain to you what's going on and hopefully how to get back your work. More than likely your problem is caused by moving things around outside of ACDSee or maybe your EHD was not hooked up to your computer and there for you got the little red circles. They can help you much better. HTH -c-

[kathleen08]

So where are all the files now? In the exact same place as there they were originally in the exact same file structure?

For example, if the were originally in C:\Documents and Settings\lg_schmisa\my documents\digiscrap that is not the same as C:\Documents and Settings\lg_schmisa\my documents\Digi Scrap

If you have deleted and recreated folders, the folder names have to be EXACT.

And have you kept the overall folder structure the same? What I mean is if you had everything in say My Documents\digi scrap\ and then subfolders, the folder names have to be the SAME. And the files have to be in the same folders.

If you have kept the file structure the same, it might bust mean rebuilding thumbnails or restoring the database.

Before you moved everything, did you by chance back-up your database?

~ Kathleen

[lg_schmisa]

Unfortunately I didn't back-up....ugh!
I sent an email to the website suggested below, so maybe they can help. I think I will probalby have to end up retagging everything.
Should I just keep all my supplies on my internal hard drive? I would really like to save the space and put them on my external, but not if it causes all these problems.

[carlalee]

I keep a good portion of my digiscrap supplies on my HD. (I have a laptop so it's just easier that way for me.) Then all of my supplies are on my EHD AND bkps on DVDs. It's very important that if you are using ACDSee Photo Manager, as I am, to NEVER move ANY of your digi stuff outside of ACDSee. Even if it's just one item, ACDSee takes a "snapshot" of the stuff you designate, then if something is moved outside of ACDSee, the program doesn't know where the item is. So that would cause a red "no" circle. That's kind of the same thing if all of your stuff is on an EHD but it's not plugged into your computer. If you open ACDSee PM at that point, again you'll see the red no circle. In this case it means ACDSee can't access the drive. ACDSee doesn't make copies of your stuff, it works with where your stuff is. So if you have everything on an EHD and want to scrap, you can't open ACDSee to get to your goodies if the EHD isn't plugged into your computer. Maybe an easier example for you to picture this is to think of a library. The library is your EHD. Each of the books is a digi goody. The card catalogue is ACDSee PM and each card in the catalogue is reference to each digi goody. When all of the books are on the shelves where they should be, you can go to the card catalogue, look up a book and go get it. But if someone put the book back on the wrong shelf, even though the card has the information where the book should be, if you go to get it, it's not there. The card catalogue doesn't know where the book is. It could be checked out or just miss filed. There are tools in ACDSee to help locate things if they've been moved around outside of the program (like if you move a kit using Windows Explorer instead of ACDSee). But best practice is just don't do it! Wait to see what the DigiScrapInfo folks say. If it ends up you need to start over, start with everything where it is and ACDSee PM on your HD. Then open ACDSee and move things where you want them. Then go through and start tagging. If you go over to DigiScrapInfo and search for "speed tagging" you'll find some stuff that may help you get a good portion of your tagging done or at least caught up. Then MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL - BACKUP!!! Hang in there, don't give up! -c-

[lg_schmisa]

Thanks for the help!
Lesson learned to always back-up (which I did this morning) and to never move files outside of ACDSee. I had been moving things around outside of the progam for awhile. I guess I didn't realize the after effects of moving things...oops.
I guess I am going to have to look into investing in a larget internal hard drive.

[carlalee]

You're Welcome! I remember when I first started out, I had so many questions, I didn't even know how to ask them. :) Just remember to keep having FUN! -c-

[bensenc]

Yes ACDSee relies on a database and it can't keep track of what is done outside of it.

So when items are moved outside, they create orphaned thumbnails that require rebinding. As Carla said - it's best to make a rule to not move anything outside of ACDSee.

[lg_schmisa]

Thank you all for your help! I got everything back to it's original spot and backed up my database just in case anything was to happen again. Thankfully I didn't loose any of my supplies.

I would still like to get all my supply folders transferred to my external hard drive. It is an 8gb, so I know it has room. When I plug in my external hard drive, I still get red no circles. It is an empty hard drive and I plugged it in before I turn on the program. Any suggestions? Is it possible to have all my folders on a external hard drive and still use ACDSee?

[bensenc]

ACDSee requires that an external hard drive have a serial #. ACDSee may not be seeing one. Please post on the forums at digiscrapinfo.com & Heidi will help you with that.