Photoshop Album corruption – not amused

"David French" wrote in message

Hi group,

I’m using Photoshop Album 2 and have about 1800 photos catalogued. The other day I went to access a particular image through Album and my PC crashed. This appears to have corrupted part of my Photoshop Album database.

Right, I worked it out. Hope this may be useful to somebody else.

I sussed roughly which batch of 100 or so photos was causing the index problem. Fortunately, when I dump them on my HD I put them in a folder for each separate month, so I was pretty sure the errant images were somewhere in this folder.

I zipped up all the images in the folder and deleted the original files so Album couldn’t find them. I then went to Reconnect File in Album, interrupted the automatic search, selected all 100 files it now couldn’t locate and told it to delete them from the catalog. This was without deleting any Tags.

I then unzipped them again, and added them back into the catalog as usual. I then had to retag them. But better to retag 100 images than 1800.

In the process of doing this, my PC locked up twice (totally froze, including mouse pointer) and had to be rebooted. How I laughed. This is on a fresh install of XP from 2 days ago. This has galvanised me to get rid of the PC and try a Mac instead. I’m sorely tempted to take a sledge hammer to the PC, as it would make me feel much better.

Now I’m off to backup that catalog.

David

"David French" wrote in message

"David French" wrote in message

Hi group,

I’m using Photoshop Album 2 and have about 1800 photos catalogued. The other day I went to access a particular image through Album and my PC crashed. This appears to have corrupted part of my Photoshop Album database.

Right, I worked it out. Hope this may be useful to somebody else.
I sussed roughly which batch of 100 or so photos was causing the index problem. Fortunately, when I dump them on my HD I put them in a folder for each separate month, so I was pretty sure the errant images were somewhere in this folder.

I zipped up all the images in the folder and deleted the original files so Album couldn’t find them. I then went to Reconnect File in Album, interrupted the automatic search, selected all 100 files it now couldn’t locate and told it to delete them from the catalog. This was without deleting any Tags.

I then unzipped them again, and added them back into the catalog as usual. I then had to retag them. But better to retag 100 images than 1800.
In the process of doing this, my PC locked up twice (totally froze, including mouse pointer) and had to be rebooted. How I laughed. This is on a fresh install of XP from 2 days ago. This has galvanised me to get rid of the PC and try a Mac instead. I’m sorely tempted to take a sledge hammer to the PC, as it would make me feel much better.

Blame Adobe, not Microsoft or Intel. Poorly written software has absolutely nothing to do with hardware or operating systems.

Rick

On Tue, 8 Jun 2004 22:58:32 +0100, "David French" wrote:

In the process of doing this, my PC locked up twice (totally froze, including mouse pointer) and had to be rebooted. How I laughed. This is on a fresh install of XP from 2 days ago. This has galvanised me to get rid of the PC and try a Mac instead. I’m sorely tempted to take a sledge hammer to the PC, as it would make me feel much better.

The problem is with Album, yours is just the latest of many problems I’ve seen people complain about. Album is not a serious piece of software and I wouldn’t use it to catalog anything more than a couple of hundred family snaps if I had nothing better to do and money to waste.

—

Hecate

veni, vidi, reliqui

I know this won’t help with your corrupted database with Album 2, but this is exactly why I don’t use Image Database programs. I use ACDSee 6 (I ignore the database features of it too) and organize my images files in to folders on my fourth hard drive. This enables me to easily organize my stuff and still be able to quickly browse those images using ACDSee or even Windows Explorer in thumbnail mode. I don’t have to worry about anything getting corrupted or anything else. Best of all ACDSee supports more file formats including most vector images.

Jerry

"David French" wrote in message

Hi group,

I’m using Photoshop Album 2 and have about 1800 photos catalogued. The other day I went to access a particular image through Album and my PC crashed. This appears to have corrupted part of my Photoshop Album database.

Now, each time I click on certain tags, Album freezes and can only be

exited

forcibly (Windows XP). I’ve tried getting the offending image out of the database by deleting the relevant tags, but as one of the tags causing problems is fairly generic, I’m going to have to totally mullah my

database

in order to do this.

I think I know which image is causing problems, now how do I delete all traces of it from the database?

I’ve tried moving it elsewhere and forcing Album to Reconnect it, then

when

it can’t find it telling it to Remove it from the database, but the

problem

persists. Either I’m not finding the right image, or some dodgy corrupted remnant of it is remaining in the index.

Somebody’s bound to say "use the backup" – well, the last CD backup of the database has the same corruption in it, and I’ve not exported the database from Album for a while – my own fault I know, but for some bizarre reason

I

trusted Adobe to write the database well enough that it wouldn’t go round corrupting.

I’ve tried Catalog>Recover but to no avail. After going to all the effort of cataloguing my entire digital collection of 1800 files, I’m having a serious sense-of-humour failure at the prospect of having to do it again.
Any recommendations gratefully received.

Thanks,
David

"Rick" wrote in message

In the process of doing this, my PC locked up twice (totally froze, including mouse pointer) and had to be rebooted. How I laughed. This

is on

a fresh install of XP from 2 days ago. This has galvanised me to get

rid of

the PC and try a Mac instead. I’m sorely tempted to take a sledge

hammer to

the PC, as it would make me feel much better.

Blame Adobe, not Microsoft or Intel. Poorly written software has absolutely nothing to do with hardware or operating systems.

To be fair, although Adobe’s software led to the database corruption, the PC hangs of its own accord. I’m not sure which out of AMD or Microsoft is to blame, but it’s not Adobe-dependent crashing. Although, I’m disappointed Adobe’s database is unable to recover itself from corruption, given there are many fine databases out there in daily use which cope with it admirably.

David

David French wrote:

"Rick" wrote in message

In the process of doing this, my PC locked up twice (totally froze, including mouse pointer) and had to be rebooted. How I laughed. This is on a fresh install of XP from 2 days ago. This has galvanised me to get rid of the PC and try a Mac instead. I’m sorely tempted to take a sledge hammer to the PC, as it would make me feel much better.

Blame Adobe, not Microsoft or Intel. Poorly written software has absolutely nothing to do with hardware or operating systems.

To be fair, although Adobe’s software led to the database corruption, the PC hangs of its own accord. I’m not sure which out of AMD or Microsoft is to blame, but it’s not Adobe-dependent crashing. Although, I’m disappointed Adobe’s database is unable to recover itself from corruption, given there are many fine databases out there in daily use which cope with it admirably.

David

Check the system event log – if you have a hardware or software failure it may show up there as an error message.
—

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
www.geigy.2y.net

"David French" wrote in message

"Rick" wrote in message

In the process of doing this, my PC locked up twice (totally froze, including mouse pointer) and had to be rebooted. How I laughed. This

is on

a fresh install of XP from 2 days ago. This has galvanised me to get

rid of

the PC and try a Mac instead. I’m sorely tempted to take a sledge

hammer to

the PC, as it would make me feel much better.

Blame Adobe, not Microsoft or Intel. Poorly written software has absolutely nothing to do with hardware or operating systems.

To be fair, although Adobe’s software led to the database corruption, the PC hangs of its own accord. I’m not sure which out of AMD or Microsoft is to blame, but it’s not Adobe-dependent crashing.

How do you know? Was your system hanging outside of this problem with Album?

Rick

"Rick" wrote in message

To be fair, although Adobe’s software led to the database corruption,

the PC

hangs of its own accord. I’m not sure which out of AMD or Microsoft is

to

blame, but it’s not Adobe-dependent crashing.

How do you know? Was your system hanging outside of this problem with Album?

Yes. For example, if I use my scanner’s photocopy software, it hangs. If I try to remaster an AVI to burn to DVD, it hangs. It also hangs for the hell of it sometimes, regardless of the application.

When it hangs, it just freezes instantly leaving no messages, log entries or traces of what’s gone wrong. I’ve also tried all manner of diagnostics tools, including memory and CPU testers, which have yielded no clues. I can only think there’s a hardware problem somewhere, but as I don’t have a spare CPU, memory board, Gfx card etc to swap in and out I have no idea what it is.

For good measure, it sometimes repeatedly bluescreens on bootup, with varying messaging to do with IRQs and Stack space. This is why I had to reinstall the O/S and since then it’s not pulled this stunt.

Safe Mode solves the bluescreen problems, but not the hanging.

Now, I made a decision to buy a cheap, generic PC, and no doubt people will say this is the root of the problem, and had I bought a Dell etc I wouldn’t have these problems. But having bought branded PCs in the past, and using a number of different PCs and laptops, branded and unbranded, daily, I have to say I don’t think my PC is particularly worse than others I’ve come across. If I’d spent the extra and bought a Dell, I could have had the same problems, but if I rang Dell I have a feeling they’d point to my scanner, or printer, or drivers, as the source of the problem. Even if they took responsibility, would they be able to fix it, or would they just swapout the machine for another one which could have the same problems? I think I’d have the same problems, but just be slightly poorer too.

Having had PCs for many years, my conclusion is that if you get different people making the CPU, Mobo, Gfx card, O/S, software and peripherals, all with slightly different ideas of how to do things and each trying to be compatible with everybody else, a la Wintel computing, you stand very little chance of the whole lot holding together if you actually try to do anything serious with it.

Do you see why, after 6 months of this PC, I’m thinking of getting a Mac?

David

"David French" wrote in message

"Rick" wrote in message

To be fair, although Adobe’s software led to the database corruption,

the PC

hangs of its own accord. I’m not sure which out of AMD or Microsoft is

to

blame, but it’s not Adobe-dependent crashing.

How do you know? Was your system hanging outside of this problem with Album?

Yes. For example, if I use my scanner’s photocopy software, it hangs. If I try to remaster an AVI to burn to DVD, it hangs. It also hangs for the hell of it sometimes, regardless of the application.

When it hangs, it just freezes instantly leaving no messages, log entries or traces of what’s gone wrong. I’ve also tried all manner of diagnostics tools, including memory and CPU testers, which have yielded no clues. I can only think there’s a hardware problem somewhere, but as I don’t have a spare CPU, memory board, Gfx card etc to swap in and out I have no idea what it is.

For good measure, it sometimes repeatedly bluescreens on bootup, with varying messaging to do with IRQs and Stack space. This is why I had to reinstall the O/S and since then it’s not pulled this stunt.
Safe Mode solves the bluescreen problems, but not the hanging.
Now, I made a decision to buy a cheap, generic PC, and no doubt people will say this is the root of the problem, and had I bought a Dell etc I wouldn’t have these problems. But having bought branded PCs in the past, and using a number of different PCs and laptops, branded and unbranded, daily, I have to say I don’t think my PC is particularly worse than others I’ve come across. If I’d spent the extra and bought a Dell, I could have had the same problems, but if I rang Dell I have a feeling they’d point to my scanner, or printer, or drivers, as the source of the problem. Even if they took responsibility, would they be able to fix it, or would they just swapout the machine for another one which could have the same problems? I think I’d have the same problems, but just be slightly poorer too.
Having had PCs for many years, my conclusion is that if you get different people making the CPU, Mobo, Gfx card, O/S, software and peripherals, all with slightly different ideas of how to do things and each trying to be compatible with everybody else, a la Wintel computing, you stand very little chance of the whole lot holding together if you actually try to do anything serious with it.

Do you see why, after 6 months of this PC, I’m thinking of getting a Mac?

Not sure what to say, David, other than I’ve been running the same installation of Win2K for four years now and have never had a single hang or crash that wasn’t my fault. (This is also a generic PC — Intel P3/BX chipset, homebuilt.)

One thing’s for sure, if your system board has an older Via or Apollo chipset on it, all bets are off when it comes to stability. Most of their older chipsets were absolute junk. Via’s newer chipsets are quite good, and if you’re using one of these it might just be a matter of updating some system drivers to fix your problem(s).

Rick

David French wrote:

"Rick" wrote in message

To be fair, although Adobe’s software led to the database corruption,

the PC

hangs of its own accord. I’m not sure which out of AMD or Microsoft is

to

blame, but it’s not Adobe-dependent crashing.

How do you know? Was your system hanging outside of this problem with Album?

Yes. For example, if I use my scanner’s photocopy software, it hangs. If I try to remaster an AVI to burn to DVD, it hangs. It also hangs for the hell of it sometimes, regardless of the application.

When it hangs, it just freezes instantly leaving no messages, log entries or traces of what’s gone wrong. I’ve also tried all manner of diagnostics tools, including memory and CPU testers, which have yielded no clues. I can only think there’s a hardware problem somewhere, but as I don’t have a spare CPU, memory board, Gfx card etc to swap in and out I have no idea what it is.

For good measure, it sometimes repeatedly bluescreens on bootup, with varying messaging to do with IRQs and Stack space. This is why I had to reinstall the O/S and since then it’s not pulled this stunt.
Safe Mode solves the bluescreen problems, but not the hanging.
Now, I made a decision to buy a cheap, generic PC, and no doubt people will say this is the root of the problem, and had I bought a Dell etc I wouldn’t have these problems. But having bought branded PCs in the past, and using a number of different PCs and laptops, branded and unbranded, daily, I have to say I don’t think my PC is particularly worse than others I’ve come across. If I’d spent the extra and bought a Dell, I could have had the same problems, but if I rang Dell I have a feeling they’d point to my scanner, or printer, or drivers, as the source of the problem. Even if they took responsibility, would they be able to fix it, or would they just swapout the machine for another one which could have the same problems? I think I’d have the same problems, but just be slightly poorer too.
Having had PCs for many years, my conclusion is that if you get different people making the CPU, Mobo, Gfx card, O/S, software and peripherals, all with slightly different ideas of how to do things and each trying to be compatible with everybody else, a la Wintel computing, you stand very little chance of the whole lot holding together if you actually try to do anything serious with it.

Do you see why, after 6 months of this PC, I’m thinking of getting a Mac?
David

I have three things for you to do, firstly update all your drivers, second check your bios settings and finally check the PSU and also your graphics card fan. When a system freezes try pressing the number lock key to see if the light flashes thus your system may not be totally locked up. System freezes are usually power problems and blue screens are usually driver problems. When you have blue screen errors in the future put the error into a search engine and see what you get for an answer.

Your decision to buy a cheap system could have entailed a cheap PSU, can you give more information on the PC including the PSU wattage and make.

Stuart

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 02:47:55 GMT, "nospam" wrote:

I know this won’t help with your corrupted database with Album 2, but this is exactly why I don’t use Image Database programs. I use ACDSee 6 (I ignore the database features of it too) and organize my images files in to folders on my fourth hard drive. This enables me to easily organize my stuff and still be able to quickly browse those images using ACDSee or even Windows Explorer in thumbnail mode. I don’t have to worry about anything getting corrupted or anything else. Best of all ACDSee supports more file formats including most vector images.

On the contrary, if you purchase a proper image database program (like Thumbs Plus) and use a proper back up strategy, you’ll never have a problem. Half the problem is that people can’t be bothered to back up anything properly.

—

Hecate

veni, vidi, reliqui

In article wrote:

In the process of doing this, my PC locked up twice (totally froze, including mouse pointer) and had to be rebooted. How I laughed. This is on a fresh install of XP from 2 days ago. This has galvanised me to get rid of the PC and try a Mac instead. I’m sorely tempted to take a sledge hammer to the PC, as it would make me feel much better.

Blame Adobe, not Microsoft or Intel. Poorly written software has absolutely nothing to do with hardware or operating systems.

Anything that locks the whole computer is most likely hardware or drivers.

Chris