Catalog conversion error PSE 6 to 7

Question

I am running Windows Vista and I am in the process of upgrading from PSE 6 to 7. I have 3 catalogs; 2 converted just fine, the third will not convert. It is "My Catalog". It fails instantly upon selecting the convert button. As instructed, I went back to PSE6 and repaired the catalog multiple times with and without optimizing. I cannot find a coversion error message as other posts have referred to. It also continues to show up on the regular list of catalogs; I do not have to check previously converted catalogs to see it listed.
I was also able to create a new catalog and import some photos with no issue. If anyone can offer suggestions on how to get this last catalog converted, I would certainly appreciate it. I have even un- and re-installed PSE7 twice to no avail.
I expected this upgrade to be simpler than going from 5 to 6 which was complicated by switching to a new computer and changing from XP to Vista but this is proving to be equally as frustrating!
Thanks for any advice and Happy New Year!
-Barb

Answer 1

Barb,
Glad you got it converted. I reread the thread and did some tests you were right that it was a disk-space problem. Its another bug in PSE, and youve still got some careful cleaning-up to do.
Your PSE 6 catalog is stored in the folder:
C:\Program Data\Photoshop Elements\Catalogs\My Catalog
You appear to have your photos stored in subfolders of My Catalog. Most likely this occurred when you used backup/restore to move from XP/PSE 5 to Vista/PSE 6 last year the restore will place all your photos within the catalog folder.
When PSE 7 converts a catalog, the first thing it does is try to make a copy of the entire catalog folder, including any subfolders containing your photos. As you discovered, this will fail immediately (with no helpful error message) if there isnt enough free disk space.
However, if the copy succeeds, it then converts the PSE 6 catalog database file (catalog.psedb). But the new PSE 7 catalog still refers to the
original location of your photos, in your PSE 6 catalog folder:
C:\Program Data\Photoshop Elements\Catalogs\My Catalog
The copies placed in your PSE 7 catalog folder arent being used they were needlessly copied by PSE 7. So you most likely have 56 GB of disk space consumed by unused copies of all your photos.
To clean this up, you can first verify the locations of the photos in the PSE 7 catalog by using the Organizers Properties window. Do they indeed refer to the location of your PSE 6 catalog folder?
If so, then use Help > System Info to find the location of the PSE 7 catalog folder. Then you can delete all the subfolders of that folder containing the unused copies of your photos. To be extra conservative, I would first move those folders somewhere else on your disk, and then in PSE 7 give the File > Reconnect > All Missing, to verify that they indeed arent being referenced by the PSE 7 catalog. Once youve verified that, you can safely delete them.
I'll file a bug report with Adobe.