Can't edit, open, reconnect photos or media | Incorrect drive letter | Elements 6 or later Organizer | Windows

In version 6 or later of the Elements Organizer on Windows, some or all of your photos and other media files have these unexpected behaviors:

• In the Properties panel, the file location begins with an incorrect drive letter.
• In Folder Location view, the folder paths begin with an incorrect drive letter.
• When you try to edit, open, move, or share a file that has an incorrect drive letter, the message "Searching for missing file" appears.
• If you allow the Elements Organizer to continue searching for the missing file, then the program can appear to successfully reconnect the file. However, you still cannot edit or use the file, and its drive letter remains incorrect.
• If you reconnect the file manually, then the program returns the error "The file exists in the catalog." (You can reconnect the file manually by choosing File > Reconnect or by clicking Browse in the Searching For Missing File dialog box).

Do one or more of the following:

For instructions on how to combine partitions, see the documentation for your partition management software.

To determine whether two or more hard disk volumes that are connected to your computer have the same serial number, use the vol command:

If two or more hard disk volumes do have the same serial number, then change one or more serial numbers so that none is duplicated. For instructions on how to change a disk volume serial number, contact Microsoft or the manufacturer of your computer.



Important: Changing a disk volume's serial number can affect other software that accesses that disk volume. If you are unsure whether any of your other software could be affected, contact the software developer before you change a disk volume's serial number.

If you used a third-party application to create a virtual drive, then see the application's documentation for instructions on how to unmount or delete it.

If you used the subst command to create a virtual drive, then you can also use subst to delete it. For instructions, contact Microsoft or see the subst documentation on the Microsoft TechNet website at http://technet.microsoft.com.

The Elements Organizer catalog tracks where your photos and other media files are stored. Each catalog's database includes not only folder paths and filenames but also the volume serial numbers of each drive from which you imported.

This issue occurs when two or more of the drive letters on your system point to hard disk volumes that have the same serial number. You can encounter this issue in these situations:

• You partitioned a hard drive. (See Solution 1.)
• You connected two or more hard drives to your computer that were assigned the same volume serial number. (See Solution 2.)
• You created a virtual drive on your system. (See Solution 3.)