Where is my catalog?

Under PSE 5 I kept my catalog in the same folder as my photos so that it was backed up at the same time. I migrated to PSE 8, used the catalog migrate function and all is working well. But the date stamp and size of my catalog are unchanged since Nov 09. I've searched for *.PSA files but none appear with a recent date. "File", "Catalog" reports my catalog (with a very distinct name so as not to get mixed up with the delivered one), as being the one in use. So where is my catalog?
Everything is working fine so it's no big deal but I'd really like to know where the catalog is, or has Adobe got a sneaky way of using the catalog without altering the date? Incidentally the various .DAT and .CACHE files all show the same symptoms, no change of date or size recorded since the November upgrade.
Thanks,
JH

Thanks Barbara (and John who has also replied). I was barking up completely the wrong tree looking for the .psa file not to mention wasting my time preserving a copy that is not being used!
I'll read the links you've posted. As long as I know where the catalog is I can make sure it's being backed up regularly. I do back up the whole disk from time to time (and I use the PSE "Export" too - belt & braces) but that's a bit ad hoc.
Thanks for your help.
John

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Where are my catalogs?

I recently upgraded from PSE 6 to PSE 9. At the time of my upgrade, it automatically converted my PS
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1. When you previously created the PSE9 catalogs, were they created as catalogs "Accessible by All Users" or as catalogs "Accessible by the Current User"? In Win7, the catalogs are stored by default in directories which are considered "System" directories and are hidden. To view hidden directories (and files), in Windows Explorer click on "Organize...Folder and Search Options...the 'View' tab" and deselect "Hide protected operating system files".
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Where is the Catalog?

Greetings,
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My first post. Greetings all!
Using PSE7 to 'catalog' my pictures. Have about 400 gig worth. I use drive c for my apps and data and all my pictures are on a different internal hd. Back them up every 3 mo or so onto external drives. But...........
I've added some since last backup and my drive c took a dump!. Drive still works but can't boot up. So my pictures are intact on the other internal hd.
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toots101

"Restoring" to a new drive using Backup, which Catalog is active now?

I have PSE 5 and just added a new internal hard drive because the original drive (my C drive) is nearly full. I read some posts here about moving the files using the Folder View, etc. (I got the memo on DO NOT move using Windows Explore, so I am at least somewhat coachable) and I successfully moved a few individual folders from the C dirve to the new drive, but then couldn't figure out how to do a mass move. I have 34k photos occupying 146 GB of space with hundreds of folders. So rightly or wrongly, I decided to populate the files to the new drive using the "Restore from Backup" command using a current Full Backup that is on my external hard drive that I use strictly for backing up. That seemed to go just fine. When I open the Organizer, the file locations map to the new internal drive as desired. I've disconnected the external drive now to keep it safe.
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Thanks Barb. I do find the Catalog Folder on my C (original) drive. I do not see it on the new drive near where the new Catalog is. This is supported by what I said in the earlier post that when I moved the Catalog Folder (containing the thumbnail cache) from my C drive to my desktop and then opened the Organizer, I got the "hourglass" and could tell the thumbs were being (slowly) recreated. I moved the file back, re-opened the Organizer and they populated normally.
I am very curious (more like concerned) to know how to get it all files working from the same place on the new drive. When I check Edit/Preferences/Files, the "Save Catalogs In:" option is still mapping to my C drive, because I never changed that; I just restored from backup to a new drive. Could that mean that as time goes on I'll be writing Catalog updates to certain folders on the C drive, and other files (like the main Catalog) will be updating on the new drive? I sure don't want that. My goal is to DELETE everything related to PSE from the C drive (i've already deleted all the actual photo files) but I can't tell if that'll wreak havoc with these Catalog Folders. I wonder if I need to map the Save Catalogs In to the new drive. What's odd is that I know the program is accessing the main Catalog from the new drive. I moved that file to my desktop and when I opened the Organizer I got the message saying the Catalog wasn't there and asking for me to point to it. I moved the Catalog back to the new drive and it worked fine.

Restore catalog to new hard drive on same PC

I am using PSE 5 on Win XP.
I had an unexpected (aren't they all)Win XP Op. Sys. problem that required my technician to install a new hard drive with Win XP Op Sys.
The old drive is still in the computer and all data is accessible. (It was drive 'C' and is now drive 'F'. The new drive is now 'C')
All my pictures (5000+)are still there and on drive 'F'.
I re-installed PSE 5 on the new drive 'C'.
How can I get my catalogs ( there are 4 of them) from Drive 'F' to the new PSE 5 on drive 'C'? Is there a drag and drop method? If so, where are the catalogs data located and what file name?
I do have an old backup from last April on an external hard drive but as usual it is missing my latest photos. If possible, I would like to recover all my old catalogs from the old drive but will use the backup if necessary.
A second question is, if I use the restore feature from the external HD, it asks if I want to restore to the "original location" or a "new location".
Does this mean that the "original location" would be the external HD or the original location on the computer which is now drive 'F'?
Thanks
Dave Mason

Paige:
I found the .psa folders in the hidden files just where you said they would be.
So now I was thinking, can I just move/copy these .psa catalogs to the "C" drive and then reconnect all the album photos back to the "F" drive where they are stored? This may take some time but I don't like to do any unneccesary moving.
Thanks
Dave Mason
Paige,
I don't know what happened to your post. Forum is really acting quirky but below is a partial copy of your reponse.
Your catalogs are .psa files on what is now your F drive. Search for them. You may have to make folders unhidden for them to be found. When you find them, move them to your C drive anywhere where you can find them easily.
Also, you need to move your photos from F to C. The folder names, the folder tree, and the file names, should be *exactly* what they were before. You can do this via drag and drop, or copy and paste, in Windows. If they were in C:\My Pictures\Some_Stupid_Folder_Name before, then that's exactly where they should be after you copy them to the new C Drive.
Then, double-click on one of your catalog files, and you should be up and running. The catalog may have to rebuild thumbnails, which takes quite a long time if you have a lot of photos, but it will work.

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