Lightroom problems opening NEF files

Question

I used Lighroom 2 and CS4 with no problems for a very long time and then decided to upgrade to Lightroom 3 and CS5 which was a big mistake.
I have had so many problems and don't know what to do.
Lightroom has trouble opening NEF files that I would like to edit in photoshop. I have spent so much time with Adobe Tech support with no improvement, tonight a senior tech spent three hours working with the program and cs5 and I still have problems. They make changes, things seem to be fine and when I restart the computer it goes back to the same issue. Tomorrow another tech will call but the days are going by and I'm not getting any work done. A program that is supposed to improve my workflow is turning into a major inconvenience.
Tonight the program seemed to be working fine for a while, I edited several images and just realized now that they are all corrupted and aren't usable.
In the past few days we trashed lightroom preferences, cs5 preferences, made sure Lightroom and Photoshop and camera RAW are updated. One night I uninstalled cs5 and installed a fresh copy (didn't install any plug-ins to make suer they are not the ones causing the problem), it was working great then I quit both programs and restarted the computer and back to square one, not being able to open a NEF file.
If the Adobe technician cannot solve the issue what are my options, should I go back to Lightroom2 or should I try Lightroom 3 with CS4?
Thanks,
Barbara

Answer 1

Barbara,
The purpose behind setting up a test catalog and new user is to try to find out where things are going wrong.  If you do end up needing a new catalog, there are ways to keep your past work.  You can import from your old catalog into your new catalog.  You can save many of the settings directly into your images (JPEGs or TIFFs) or sidecars (raw files) by using Metadata>Save Metadata to File.  If you do it the second way, you will lose things such as collections that cannot be saved.  But before worrying about that, try the new user and we will work from there.
You may already know this, but no matter what you do, when you retouch an image in PS, you will be creating a new file.  LR does not modify the originals, so a new TIFF will have to be created to save the retouched image.  There is no way to save the retouching to a raw file.
As far as the number of catalogs to create, most people will be best served by having only one catalog.  If you have more than one, you have to be organized and careful not to mix them up.  We have seen a lot of problems caused by people accidently importing images into the wrong catalog and then getting concerned when their images disappeared. Also, it is difficult to search for images when they are in multiple catalogs.
I do use multiple catalogs.  I have to be sure I don't show the wrong images at the wrong times.  I do boudoir and glamour photography that is private and I have to be sure I don't show the images accidently to other clients.  I set up a separate folder for each job and keep the catalog and images in that folder.  After about a year, I burn a DVD of the images and catalog and archive it.  I rarely have to return to a client's file after a year and never have to search across client files.  I also have one large catalog for stock and personal work.  I do need to search across all of those images.  Until you are well-versed and comfortable with using LR, I would recommend keeping it to one catalog.  You can easily split it up later if needed.
Since I have multiple catalogs I keep each catalog with its images for the sake of organization.  My stock images (and catalog) are on an external drive.  I have another external drive for client work.  Each client job has a separate folder on that drive.  The images and catalog for each job is kept in their job folder.
John
John G. Blair Studio
Occidental, California