I am considering upgrading to lightroom 5. But first can I talk to someone to fix a major issue. My catalogue has disappeared and a new one without my chosen images has taken its place.I need to retrieve my original duplicate/ changed images?

Question

Hi there,
I am considering up grading to lightroom 5. But first I need to be sure I can retrieve my original library, which has been replaced by images from iphoto I hadn't slected. I currently use a lightroom 3 and have spent countless hours as a professional photographer improving my original photographs. Can I speak to someone regarding this matter?
I would really appreciate your help in resolving this matter asap.
Kind reagards
Pablo

Answer 1

Morning Geoff,
Hope you slept well. I have been busy looking into many of the things you
have told me.
Where should I start so much info.
There are 7 Ircat folders. Some empty some contain approx 7000 images. Some
of the images /altered on lightroom are here few maybe 50. Although they
are missing or offline and now in the CR2 format ( photoshop elements),
which is very strange. I think this an issue as to why it may have all
gone, changed? In another Ircat folder many images are in the condition I
left them although not all of them, the latest 2013 are missing. Also in
another extension Ircat folder many of the images are there I imagine the
same 7000 but cant be seen?
On my hard drive there is a folder I cannot open, it reads in progress and
says no App to open document, search App store for Application. Perhaps
this is the key, I also have little storage space on my hard drive.
Many images under 2012 on hard drive have the tiff image, with altered
version created on lightroom some now show as CR2 version to view the photo
photoshop elements opens up automatically, which I never use. I do feel
this is a major reason/ issue?
Also under certain folders with dates my images appear pixelated or blurry.
Under another heading the jpg version is great approx 73 some are missing
the latest and most important, unfortunately I want in Tiff.
Under another folder on hard drive I have many of the images I am chasing
approx 60 but the size is a concern 2-2.5mb, should be around 40mb?
In another folder all are in CR2 photoshop elements.
Time Machine, which I'm sure was inactive tells me it could not back up
disk?
Under thumbnails it looked promising all in DNG many missing and in CR2
format.
I thought I would let you know in case I haven't already that the memory on
the imac is very low, hence why I began trashing/ deleting images yesterday
thet are saved on my hard drive this is when all this mess occured.
Are there short cuts I can use to remove images that are duplicates without
lightroom becoming tempermental?
Were too next? I am hoping the originals can be found and installed in
their original form.
I really appreciate all of your help and time, please help me
Cheers mate
Pablo
On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 8:06 PM, Pablo Hughes <[email protected]>