Old computer died, I am trying to restore my pictures from a Windows Backup

Question

My old computer overheated to the point that the D: drive, where I kept my data, virtually melted.  Fortunately, I am religious about backups, so I had a local computer shop install a new D: drive and restored most of my data from a backup on an external hard drive.  Unfortunately, that drive also failed - the local computer shop was able to get some data off of it, but none of my pictures.  I had a fairly recent backup that did include all my picture files (created with Windows Backup and Restore).
I was able to find the Catalog folder and restored it to the default location (C:/Program Data/Adobe/Elements Organizer/Catalogs).  The Organizer does find that catalog.  It contains 2 folders (BreezeData, which contains 422 files in the format breeze-1.xml and a file named BreezeSession.dat) and (syncdb, which contains only a file named .pref).  It also contains the following files:  backupCt.dat, catalog.pse9db, collstatus.dat, face.thumb.9.cache, itemData.mk4, tagstatus.dat, and thumb.5.cache.  However, none of my tags appear in the Organizer.  I have tried repairing the catalog, got the message that there was nothing to repair, and clicked on "repair it anyway", which didn't improve the situation.
Is there another file I need to find and restore to make this work properly?
I have restored some of my actual picture files to the same location and file structure they were in on the old computer.  However, PSE 9 can't find them.  I have tried "reconnecting" files, and get the message that there are no files to reconnect.  If I "import" the files to the Organizer, I lose all of my version sets (and I have a lot of them).  I realize I can stack the original and edited versions of the same picture, but the Editor does not recognize them as versions.  In addition, I lose all my tags.
Is there any way to get the pictures back into the Organizer without losing the version sets and tags?  The Organizer does find the captions i have assigned.
I have already purchased PSE 12, but I thought I would have greater success if I got PSE 9 properly restored, then did the upgrade.
Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

This isn't really a reply, just an update.
I was finally able to fix the problem!  I uninstalled PSE 9 (I should have used Revo Uninstaller, but I forgot to do that, I just used the Control Panel, Programs & Features, Uninstall a Program.)  I then went into the ProgramData directory and removed everything that appeared to relate to Adobe PSE, including the Catalog folder (there was a lot of it).  I restarted the computer and re-installed PSE 9 (I had already recovered all the picture files using Backup and Restore).  This time, when I did Reconnect, All Missing Files, the program itself found almost everything!  I still had a little bit of cleanup to do (mostly duplicates), and I have to re-transfer all of the pictures I have taken with both of my cameras since the backup just before this disaster occurred, but at least I have (I think) recovered the majority of 7 years of photographs.  I noticed while I was doing the cleanup that not every filename (I just leave the IMG_#### assigned by the camera) was there, but I am assuming the missing filename numbers are photos that I either deleted or moved to a folder I call "Trash" for photos that are going to take a lot more time to fix than I have immediately - if they can be fixed at all.
The recovered photos retain the version sets and tags that were originally assigned!
Having been through this, I would encourage everyone to backup their files regularly, and don't forget the directory where the catalog file is stored!  If the catalog file is lost, you are toast!
If anyone has a similar problem, feel free to let me know and I will try to help with a more detailed explanation.
For what it's worth, Adobe was of no help (fortunately we got disconnected before I gave them my credit card number for the $39.99 they wanted to even talk to me about the problem).  Similarly, I have successfully used JustAnswer.com for other complicated problems where HP (the destroyed computer) or Dell (my new computer) couldn't help, but they were unable to help with this problem.
I think I have a little more work to do, including loading my recent pictures, but I plan to start on converting the recovered files to PSE 12 soon.