Photoshop elements 11and finding missing files

Question

I had a problem with an account on my photoshop so had to open a new account on my imac. I had spent quite a bit of time editing my Alaska pictures and somehow now they wont let me move them to my new downloaded photoshop.  it says they are missing files and if I try to find them it will search forever and not find them.. is there another way to get them to my other photoshop or even if i could put them on my external hard drive.  that is where the problem started in my old account is when I bought that.  I kept getting the beach ball spinning and couldnt get it to stop so apple just suggested I open a new account.

Answer 1

I am sorry:  There was a word misprint that could be confusing.  Please ignore my previous post.  Here is the corrected version:
The Missing Files thing is very difficult.  I found a pretty easy way around it.
My newest photos are in a folder (windows folder) called 2013.  I have other folders, such as 1990s, 2000-5, etc. The trick is to make a new empty folder called Temp, in the same location as your other folders. For me, this temp folder, and those other folders, are located within a folder called Adobe, which is within another folder called "my pictures".  I import all new photos into this temp folder. Then I add them to the catalog by selecting File, and choosing search and finding the temp folder. Then I choose "get media" which seals the deal.
When you choose Get Media, the organizer only displays the new photos you've just added to the catolog. Once you see these new photos,  immediately add them to any albums within photoshop.  The next thing I do is move the photos to a folder where you really want them, say 2013 for example. This gets them out of the temp folder. YOU HAVE TO DO THIS WITHIN PHOTOSHOP ITSELF--IF YOU MOVE PICTURES THE TRADITIONAL WAY FROM FOLDER TO FOLDER, THIS CONFUSES THE ORGANIZER. On a windows version of photoshop, I highlight these photos within photoshop and choose file/move on the organizer menu and select the folder.  This moves all of the photos from the temp folder into the folder that you really want them to go into. You're done.
I've done this hundreds of times with no missing files problem until yesterday! A glitch happened, whereby I chose to delete the photos and selected the option to also delete them from the temp folder.  When I tried to back up elements, it warned me that there were missing files. Since they were originally in the temp folder, I knew where to look. The beauty of the temp folder is that if you ever get the "missing files" notification, it will be easy to find them. If you hadn't used a temp folder and instead had thrown the pics in a folder with a thousand other shots, it would be really tough to find them.
Since I knew the temp folder was involved in all this, here's how I found the "missing files": I used the "my folders" area of photoshop, which is directly under the albums and has a yellow icon. I clicked onto the arrow to the left of this folder, found the temp folder, and all of the missing pictures were suddenly seen in my organizer. However, I knew that the temp folder on my computer was empty. This was confusing to me. Why would the organizer think these photos were in the temp folder, when they were actually in my recycle bin?  I clicked on all of the photos that were supposedly in the temp folder, even though I knew they weren't there. Clicking highlighted the photos in blue. Then I right clicked and chose "delete from catalog". Problem solved. No more missing files.
All of this stuff took me 8 hours to figure out on my own.  I hope I save you some time.