What is my next step?

I had my computer updated, by having it mostly reconfigured. 3 existing internal harddrives used over, 3 new harddrives added (two of those are SSD).

I have 2 external harddrives connected, one is a backup of old images, another is the backup of this years images.

I had to reinstall LR4.2. When I started it, the folders from my prior install came up, but the image folders are not in the same folders - such as the current LR4.2 is E:, but the folders that are in E: are actually in Folder F: on my harddrive. As you can expect, the are now "missing folders"

I did the locate missing folders and the window that popped up asked me if I wanted to merge, so I did. Well that moved the file (in LR only) to a different folder completely.

All I really want to do is match the folder designations in LR with my computer. I cannot figure it out.
As of now, this is what I have:
LR - E: - computer - F:
LR - F: - Computer - H:

If anyone can understand what I am asking (I am not sure if I explained it well), I would appreciate any help in trying to figure this out before I make a total mess.

**I was going to delete all files/folders from LR and start over (about 45,000 images). If you think this may be easier, I will do that.

* The new computer is very, very fast.

You can change drive letter assignment in Windows under 'Disk Management'.

Brandon
Thanks for the response.

This would be absolutely crazy; you will lose all the editing, years of work wiped out.
Even if you change the drive letters, which is a good idea, the path to the file folders might still be different in some respect, in which case the catalog will still not be able to find them. The solution is simple: right-click on the question mark on the highest parent folder, select Find Missing Folder and in the box that opens navigate to the folder in its new location and click Select Folder. This will update the catalog and should update the locations of all the sub-folders also. If not, repeat the process wherever there are question marks.

tzalman wrote in post #15229075
This would be absolutely crazy; you will lose all the editing, years of work wiped out.
Even if you change the drive letters, which is a good idea, the path to the file folders might still be different in some respect, in which case the catalog will still not be able to find them. The solution is simple: right-click on the question mark on the highest parent folder, select Find Missing Folder and in the box that opens navigate to the folder in its new location and click Select Folder. This will update the catalog and should update the locations of all the sub-folders also. If not, repeat the process wherever there are question marks.

I did that, and it did not work as you mentioned. A popup boxed opened with 1 choice, "merge" the folder, so I chose that and it moved the f: folder on my hard drive into the N: folder on LR. For some reason, I cannot get LR to remove or delete the old folder designations to the new ones that are on my current computer - so I have the computer - F: folder in the LR - N: folder. Now all the files have '?' on them which means they are basically useless to me.

I do have my edits saved to multiple harddrives. I do not have a lot of edits, so I am not even too concerned about that. Not only that, but I am not interested in all the images I currently have on LR, I was going to remove many of them anyway, keeping them on my multiple backups.
I have not been shooting for long (about 3 years). Although I do have a lot of older images from P&S cameras that I have not touched in regards to processing.
I had the computer changes made, because I have finally decided to become more serious and edit some of my images.

If I sound frustrated, I am. But that won't last long, so I do have patience...

When you opened LR on the remodeled computer it couldn't find your old catalog, same as it couldn't find the photos. LR can't be without a catalog, so it created a new one. That's why it later asked if you want to merge the two catalogs. You merged the empty new catalog and the old catalog with the incorrect photo locations, but that doesn't change the data in the catalog so the locations are still wrong.

That's why I wrote "right-click on the question mark".

The backup copies of the old catalog will have the old photo locations also, so you will still have to update them.

pbelarge wrote in post #15229486
I did that, and it did not work as you mentioned. A popup boxed opened with 1 choice, "merge" the folder

As far as I know, there is no "merge" folders in LR, so I'm not sure what you did...

pbelarge wrote in post #15229486
For some reason, I cannot get LR to remove or delete the old folder designations to the new ones that are on my current computer - so I have the computer - F: folder in the LR - N: folder. Now all the files have '?' on them which means they are basically useless to me.

Steps 3 an further:
https://photography-on-the.net …arent+folder#po​st14150710
Some more info on LR
https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=13520338&po​stcount=14
http://tv.adobe.com …lightroom-3/be-organized/

Thanks guys, I will give your recommendations a whirl.

I'll let you know how I resolve it.