New Hard Drive

[Len]

Think its time to replace an aging Hard Drive and move all Taged Photos to it.

 

Question iss will i have to re-tag all photos or is there a way of moving them and their Tags together??

[Uwe]

Hello Lennard,

did you write all the tags to the photo files - synchonize=ON or by "Write tags to file"? If you did it, no problem.

If your new disc has the same drive letter (local catalog) you should not have any problems to continue.

Regards, Uwe

[Len]

Hello Lennard,

did you write all the tags to the photo files - synchonize=ON or by "Write tags to file"? If you did it, no problem.

If your new disc has the same drive letter (local catalog) you should not have any problems to continue.

Regards, Uwe

 

did you write all the tags to the photo files - synchonize=ON or by "Write tags to file"?

 

As a new user I am not sure what you mean or what the differance is, could you explain a little more please

 

Thanks

[rene]

if you have all files properly tages, like Uwe said, there will be no problem. Just copy everything to the new harddrive and if not the same drive letter change it and you are good to go.

[Murat]

I wanted to summarize what Uwe and Rene suggested:

 

- If you copied all your images from HDD1 to HDD2 and the root path will be the same - all should works without additional actions

- If you copied a folder with your images to a new location that has different path, then you can locate the root folder in the tag tree in Daminion, right click and Relink the root folder to a new location.

[Len]

Thank you, I will keep all that in mind until such time as the HDD is replaced.

[WilfriedB]

I wanted to summarize what Uwe and Rene suggested:

- If you copied all your images from HDD1 to HDD2 and the root path will be the same - all should works without additional actions

- If you copied a folder with your images to a new location that has different path, then you can locate the root folder in the tag tree in Daminion, right click and Relink the root folder to a new location.

I am surprised you neither asked whether Lennard uses a standalone or a server based solution nor did you point out the function of the "Daminion Catalog", i.e. the .DMC file. Since Lennard describes himself as a new user, I assume he started with standalone version of Daminion ... correct?

 

My understanding and experience with Daminion:

All tags - either read from images or added/modified manually - are stored in the a file with the extension .DMC. When you move your images to a different hard drive, you should also move the .DMC. To perform this most smoothly, the new drive should have the same drive letter as before. All images, as well as the Damion catalog should be in the same directory structure as before. If not, as Murat pointed out, you can adjust it by re-linking the root folder.

 

The point Uwe and Rene made:

After you added or changed tags within Daminion, you can write those tags to each individual image. This is a good practice to make sure each image carries its tags to be able to create a new catalog in the future in case it becomes damaged or otherwise lost.

[Len]

I am surprised you neither asked whether Lennard uses a standalone or a server based solution nor did you point out the function of the "Daminion Catalog", i.e. the .DMC file. Since Lennard describes himself as a new user, I assume he started with standalone version of Daminion ... correct?

 

My understanding and experience with Daminion:

All tags - either read from images or added/modified manually - are stored in the a file with the extension .DMC. When you move your images to a different hard drive, you should also move the .DMC. To perform this most smoothly, the new drive should have the same drive letter as before. All images, as well as the Damion catalog should be in the same directory structure as before. If not, as Murat pointed out, you can adjust it by re-linking the root folder.

 

The point Uwe and Rene made:

After you added or changed tags within Daminion, you can write those tags to each individual image. This is a good practice to make sure each image carries its tags to be able to create a new catalog in the future in case it becomes damaged or otherwise lost.

 

 

Cheers Wilfred, how do you do this??

 

Like Daminion, but at times a bit daunting and seems to do things I did`nt want it to do but getting there and feel it`s worth working at.

[Murat]

Wilfred is right - you need to provide us more info about your Daminion environment:

 

- Do you work with Standalone or Server version

- If you work with Standalone version please let us know more info about location of your .dmc file relatively to your image file. If you stored your local .dmc catalog file in the same folder where your images are stored then all your need to migrate your image archive to a new location is just copy your root folder that contains .dmc catalog file, your images, thumbnails and version folders into a new folder.

 

Otherwise you can just use the relink folder command from the tag tree.

 

Please note that even if your tags are synced with image metadata - there are some formats that don't support embedding metadata (for ex. BMP) so Relink folder command should be the best approach for you (if your Daminion catalog file is out of your root Images folder.

[WilfriedB]

Cheers Wilfred, how do you do this??

Hi Lennard,

I guess, your question is: How do I write tags into the images?

- Click one or more images in your catalog.

- Either right click one of the images or open the Item menu.

- Select Actions -> Write Tags to file

The tags related to each individual image are written into the image file as embedded "Metadata".

 

However, in the context of your initial question, this doesn't buy you much. If you copy the images to a different disk drive or folder, you cannot see or use the tags, unless you create a new catalog or import the images into an existing one. So we return to the most important question: Where is your catalog? Only a catalog can make usage of your tags.

[Len]

Hi Lennard,

I guess, your question is: How do I write tags into the images?

- Click one or more images in your catalog.

- Either right click one of the images or open the Item menu.

- Select Actions -> Write Tags to file

The tags related to each individual image are written into the image file as embedded "Metadata".

 

However, in the context of your initial question, this doesn't buy you much. If you copy the images to a different disk drive or folder, you cannot see or use the tags, unless you create a new catalog or import the images into an existing one. So we return to the most important question: Where is your catalog? Only a catalog can make usage of your tags.

 

 

As I see it by installing new Internal Drive (In addition to Drive C:) and transfering my Photos to this new Drive, which are scattered over about 4 exterior Drives and Partitions I will lose my Tags.

[WilfriedB]

... transfering my Photos to this new Drive, which are scattered over about 4 exterior Drives and Partitions I will lose my Tags.

 

No, you should not lose any of your tags (if you plan thought- and carefully!), but your situation "... scattered over about 4 exterior Drives and Partitions ..." makes the process a bit more complex.

 

On those four disks, in how many folders did you store the images?

 

If there are not too many folders, you can move one folder a time. After doing so for one folder, you can "Relink Folder", so Daminion knows the new storage location for the images which are already tagged.

 

To Relink:

In the Catalog Tags window look for Folders and navigate to the previous location of the folder you used moved, right click it and select Relink Folder ... Now you can update the location of that folder by entering the new path and drive letter.

[Len]

OK that looks good, will try that, and then would i then not see the previous link??

 

I ask because I would like to keep the old Hard Drives as Back-up, maybe.

 

Also if I save new Photos to new Drive and as Back-up to another Drive will/can Daminion show both positions of a Photo, say Drive E: and Drive F:

[Uwe]

Also if I save new Photos to new Drive and as Back-up to another Drive will/can Daminion show both positions of a Photo, say Drive E: and Drive F:

Hello,

 

this is not possible because one item in the catalog must have a one to one relationship to a file on the disc.

But to manage the backup you can go other ways:

manage the backup discs in a new or the same catalog. After the relink to the new disc - you can import the files once more to the same or a new catalog. Since the original file on your new drive "E:\..." is linkt to the "original item" in the catalog, the new imported file on the backup drive "X:\..." is linked to a "new item" created by the import process.

Another idea to shorten the process - but I don't know if it works:

Close daminion..

Copy as described in the posts above your original catalog, thumnails and files to the new disc.

Rename the old catalog to "catalog_old.dmc".

Now you have two catalogs: the backup catalog "catalog_old.dmc" to handle the files on the "old disks" and your "original catalog" to handle the files on the new disc.

 

Regards, Uwe