Need Help fixing backup/recover script for Preferences

R
Posted By
RISALIGHT
Sep 20, 2006
Views
272
Replies
5
Status
Closed
Hi everyone,

I need to appeal to your brilliant expertise for a very frustrating issue I currently have no solution for.

My PC runs on an XP platform and my workstation configuration is as follows:

· 2 hard drives – 300GB each
· Overall memory = 2GB RAM
· Video Card – 256 MB RAM
· 3 GHZ Pentium 4 Processor
· Still use Photoshop CS

I have set up a backup and restore script of my preferences that I copy back over top to recover with. It has been working really well for quite a long time, but recently (over the past week) it has just stopped functioning. Each time I close CS and re-open, most my basic prefs are gone, i.e. colour settings, memory/image cache, brushes, etc.

I’ve tried to manually copy the files and save them, but to no avail. Nothing has changed on my PC, so I see no reason for the script not to work. I have no clue as to what to do next and would really appreciate some help.

If anyone has some insight as to what might be happening and what you think the fix is, I would LOVE to hear from you. Thanks very much for any advice in advance.

BTW – based on what’s going on, would this be a good time to upgrade Photoshop, and if so, to which version??

Kindest Regards,
Risa
Related Tags
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Y
YrbkMgr
Sep 20, 2006
Risa,

I can’t comment about your script, but here’s what I do. I make a backup copy of the Preferences file(s). Whenever I change something, I make another backup (copy and paste into the same folder). If something were to go haywire, I just copy rename the most recent one.

All of the preferences are stored in:

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop\9.0\Adobe Photoshop CS2 Settings

The latest version of Photoshop is CS2. Only you can decide if it’s a good time to upgrade, really. But if you’re interested in some of the new features and how to use them, this is a nice site:

<http://www.photoshopuser.com/photoshopcs2.html>
R
RISALIGHT
Sep 20, 2006
My preferences are stored in the correct place and I have been doing exactly what you describe with my script YrbkMgr; the only part that I have not done is "rename" when I make changes. You think this is what the problem is? It makes sense that if something goes wrong to rename it as you would with a regular file. I will definitely try that – immediately 🙂

….and thank you for the great link. I totally appreciate your advice and help.
R
RISALIGHT
Sep 21, 2006
Update — Bad news. I tried renaming the files rather than copying them to a new location but no luck. In fact now "most" of my preferences are missing. My gradients, patterns, styles, brushes, all gone. Even my workspace settings. The problem just exacerbated. I knew something even stranger was going on when the program opened in less than 5 minutes. Good thing I have a back-up (lol). Bad thing that it’s not’s working.

I’ll try to add further information to bring clarity to the problem at hand. I make changes to my preferences, close Photoshop normally, then re-open it again and I find that the changes I made in the previous session have not been saved. The fact that the recovery method I have been using (which used to work) is no longer functioning is just a symptom and not the cause. How can I get Photoshop to "remember" my preferences between sessions again (all my preferences)? And how do I recover my current preferences?

Thanks.
Y
YrbkMgr
Sep 21, 2006
then re-open it again and I find that the changes I made in the previous session have not been saved

You may have corrupt preferences. You might try resetting them.

Look, the truth is, I have no idea what you’re doing or why you would bother with a script to make backups. I don’t know what this script does, but here’s my advice – dump it. If your preferences are now missing, your script isn’t helping you.

Photoshop saves the preferences every time it closes normally. If you try to save preferences with a script before photoshop closes, you won’t be saving the changes you made. Again, photoshop writes to the PSP when it closes. If you have a crash, they aren’t saved. If you reboot with PS open, they aren’t saved, and so on.

It’s no big deal in my opinion to just go to the appropriate folder, highlight all the PSP files you like, and Copy/Paste to the same folder. They will all end up with "Copy of" in the front of them. Every time you do that it will add a number "Copy (3) of".

So I can’t see why you would need a script; if you can remember to run the script, you can certainly put a shortuct in Explorer to the Preferences folder and just dupe the PSP’s.

<shrug>
R
RISALIGHT
Sep 21, 2006
The backup is my emergency folder and it’s been really helpful when I’ve had system crashes or other instances. I do think it’s time for the long overdue upgrade however, so that’s the plan. I’m sure a clean slate will be a good start as well.

Thanks for all the excellent information. Appreciate it.

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