ACDSee thinks files on different drive than they are.

[7Dave7]

I’ve been having all SORTS of strange problems with ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2023 and now same in version 2022. Have found a work-around, but NOT a solution. Hoping Grey Fox or other members might have an idea.

I’m using Windows 11 (if it matters). have MANY external hard drives. I’ve assigned a different drive letter to each, so Windows has no problem telling one drive from another. One particular drive (P) is used for photo data only. One other particular drive (V), is used for video files only. Catalog file is on C drive.
Starting from fresh install of the ACDSee software and NO catalog, I go to drive P and select a particular folder with 40 or so images, which ACDSee automatically catalogs as I access the folder. Exactly as I would expect – all seems fine. If I then go to Database Maintenance, there is no record of drive P, but a record of drive V. That is where ACDSee’s database SEEMS to think the files are located. Hence, if I search in any manner, it finds the records and thumbnails, but if I then click on any thumbnail, ACDSee reports it cannot find the file in the system. Obviously, it is looking for the files on drive V, instead of on P.
The work- around – I disconnect drive V from my system. Everything to do with the software then functions just fine. Checking Maintenance, the software is showing records in the P drive – as it should.

Note: - this is with the 2022 version. I have yet to test the 2023 version, but expect same cause, as the 2023 software has the same problem.

Another note: - in case anyone is thinking it’s due to relocating files other than by doing so via ACDSee, it is not. I’m well versed in how databases can loose track of files if some other software moves them. Actually, no files moved, added, or deleted during testing.

The two drives do happen to be identical. In fact, I have 8 of the same drives – Western Digital My Book (5 Terra byte). I also have some other brands / models of drives. Never had ANY issues with drives before, apart from having to add them one at a time initially and assign a different letter to each.

I can live with having to unplug the V drive when using ACDSee, but hoping there might be a fix for the problem.

My thanks in advance to anyone who may offer assistance.

PS – note to Greyfox. I’ve only done one test, but I THINK this is why I could not copy if I filtered and then selected (my question of a few weeks ago). Seems to be OK now, but more testing needed.

[Regor250]

Could your V and P drives possibly have the same drive ID? As I understand, ACDSee doesn't rely on drive letter mapping, but rather drive ID. If so there may be a way to change the drive ID. Just a thought worth investigating.

[Regor250]

An old 2013 post with very similar issue traced the problem to the following; hope this help:

I appreciate your suggestions. However, I have identified the source of the problem:

Both drives involved in this problem had the same volume serial number. I thought I had already ruled this out, but I was apparently looking at a different volume at the time. I am not sure why this occurred - it shouldn't ever happen except in cases of cloning, and I do not recall ever cloning the drive or know why I would have. Perhaps the drives came pre-formatted from the factory and they were not very careful about assigning unique volume serials.

In any case, this is very likely and understandably why ACDsee got confused. There is a more bulletproof drive identifier available in Windows called the drive signature, but I'm not sure there's much real-world reason for them to go to this level of identification. I changed the volume serial on the backup drive using Windows Systernals VolumeID (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...rnals/bb897436) and I am now able to have the backup volume mounted without any errors.

So, to sum everything up: make sure each hard drive on your system has a unique volume serial number (if drive comes pre-formatted, re-format before first use). If you clone your drive as a backup method, don't attach the cloned volumes at the same time.

[Greyfox]

7Dave7

As Regor250 has pointed out, ACDSee uses "Volume Serial Number" to identify hard drives.

If you connect your individual drives, one at a time, and using the command line, switch to the drive (using its drive letter), then type in Dir and press enter it will show a directory for that drive. At the start of that display the Volume Serial Number is shown. In the example below, I've changed to Drive D: and run the "dir" command. That shows the Volume Serial Number of that drive is "8085-F85C". (its in hexadecimal)



Make a note of all of the Volume Serial Numbers, and if there are any duplicates, you will need to change them so they are all individual.
You can do that with SysInternal's "VolumID" https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sy...loads/volumeid

[7Dave7]

My thanks to you, Regor250 - some of my hard drives do indeed have same Volume Serial Number, so working on changing them to be unique. Confident that will solve the problem. My very appreciative thanks to Greyfox - most wise guru. I'd read Regor's suggestion and started chasing solution. Was lead to a utility called Hard Disk Serial Number change (which actually changes the Volume serial number, as opposed to the hard disk serial). Worked fine with some drives, but was unable to write to other drives. More research and there's a couple reasons why that can happen. another utility, which works at the partition level was suggested. It shows a hexadecimal number, but not in the ***-*** layout, so a little more research needed. Subsequent to that, I received your reply. Have downloaded the utility you referred to ,but not yet used it. I'm confident between the two utilities, I can change the rest of my drives to unique Volume serial numbers. I'd done a little of this YEARS ago - so long ago, I'd forgotten about volume serial numbers. Familiar with DOS and or command line use, but VERY rusty. LOL Probably going back to days of Windows 98 since I needed such. My sincere thanks again.