How do I find where projects are stored

[Les Brooks]

I am new to this software although I have had older versions for some time. I am currently using the latest version. After setting up 20 min of slides, I selected "Save As" with a date as a project number. I closed the program (running Win 7-64 bit)and went off listening to some music to add to my slide show. I started PTE again, my slides were still present, previewed the music selection with the slides and closed the program. The program asked if I wanted to save the changes and I clicked "No". I started the program the next day, my slides were missing and I could not find my project listed anyplace.

I have the slides copied to a DVD but I would think the program would save the files. Help, if possible.

Much thanks!

[Lin Evans]

A good way to start would be to just pick one of the slides that you are certain was in the show and do a Windows search to see where it turns up. When it's found, right click and look at properties to see which folder it's found in.

The user has the choice of where to save project files such. PTE has also a feature "File" "Open Recent Project." You access it from the "File" in the tool bar on the upper left of your screen when you open PTE. That would be the first place I would look.

Be absolutely certain you are opening the correct version of PTE. If you have downloaded both 7.5x and the version 8.0 beta, the icons look identical. Hover your mouse cursor over the PTE icon to see which version the icon calls.

Best regards,

Lin

[Barry Beckham]

I am not sure, but it sounds like you may have used the images directly from the DVD.

If that is the case and you have now removed that DVD from the player, PTE will not know where your images are. It does not save your images when you save a project file, just the location of where they and your music are located on your computer, along with your settings in PTE. If I am right and you place the DVD back in your drive your slide show may re-appear.

Most slide show enthusiasts copy all their images and music to a dedicated folder before starting the creative process.

If I am right and your slide show re-appears, there is a simple way you can move forward using save to zip, but best you confirm if I am right or not first.

[Ronniebootwest]

Sounds to me as if you are not creating a proper file structure before starting work on creating your slide shows. You really ought to take a little time to learn this simple process of making a series of folders that will hold such things as, copies of original images, jpeg images for your show, sound files, project and backup in zip, together with some other stuff. It will certainly help you and prevent you not being able to find your images at a later date.

If you would like some help with this, please email me (ronniewestdigital@ntlworld.com) and I will send you a pdf sheet on how it is done.

[harbrimar]

Its just happened to me too!!!

I have been working on a sequence for the past week (saved it many times) and went to play part of the sequence to check on slide transitions and nothing happened. I could manually move the slider and slides were visible in view screen as I moved it across. I decided to reboot computer and opened up PictoExe but to my horror the sequence was nowhere to be seen. Not visible in recent projects either. Just prior to the problem I tried to rename a slide but error message came up to say not permitted or something similar. I have searched for the title of the sequence on my computer and it cannot be found.

Further to the above, I have used Recuva to search for any deleted files and found these files shown below. Unfortunately my last save was overwritten. What I don't understand is that I did not delete these files and why are they in the 'RecoveredProjects' folder despite me saving as I went along? I am also not sure why these should be shown a s recovered files as I had been saving them all the way through.

[Lin Evans]

Did you add or remove any external devices from your computer such as a USB flash device, external hard driver, external DVD player, etc.?

First, do a wild card search on all your attached devices for all PTE files. For example, let's say you have a C: and an E: drive. Search for *.pte on these devices and see if the pte file name shows up. If it does, right click on it and look at "Properties" to see where it is located and on which device.

PTE does not save images, but rather creates a PTE file which tells the program where they are located. Anything which could alter the source of the files such as unplugging a device or plugging in a new device which might change the cascading device structure could effectively hide these source files from PTE. So the first order of business should be to search for the all PTE files on all devices attached to see whether or not your PTE file is actually somewhere you don't expect it to be.

Even if the PTE file has been inadvertently "erased," unless you have added or deleted a significant amount of data since, it will still be somewhere even if the file name is not visible. Look in your deleted folder. Right click on the "trash" and make sure it's not in there. If all else fails and you can't find the PTE file anywhere, use a file recovery software to search for it on the hard disc before saving or deleting anything else.

Best regards,

Lin

[harbrimar]

Hi Lin

Thanks for the response, I was editing my original message when you responded. In answer to your suggestions:

• I did not have any external devices attached
• Did the wild card search and negative for any *.PTE files on any of my drives (apart from older sequences)
• Recycle bin was empty.
• Went down the file recovery route and found the files shown my attachment.

All very strange and very similar to the OP experience (I too am using Win 7 64). I think I will save my files onto an external drive from now on but it would be useful to know what is happening .

Regards

Brian

[Les Brooks]

First, much thanks for everyo

Much thanks to Harbrimar for posting as well.

Hello, Lin! I used to post on OLP some years back.

I too did full system searches for both project(s)*.* and standalone with (*.pte & *.ptv) files/extensions. Could not find any links to projects from Oct 2013. I found some oldies from 2006.

Does this program delete all (Project) references after your project is published? (I have a DVD copy of my slide show without my music. So I will re-create my settings in PTE then add my music files and finalize this effort.)

Again, much thanks.

Les

[Lin Evans]

Hi Les,

Nice to see you over here! It's definitely been a while - I gradually stopped going there after Jimmie Burton passed away - he was a Facebook friend - Dave Thomas still is...

PTE doesn't delete any project files - they "shouldn't" be deleted unless the user does it intentionally. It could be that something is going on which hasn't yet been documented since there are two examples and both with the same OS and configuration. When Igor gets back (He's away for a couple weeks) he will look into it I'm sure.

It's probably a good idea to save the project in a couple places just for added insurance until this issue get's resolved. PTE has been really pretty much free of strange occurrences such as this. Actually, I have PTE project files from the late 90's from even before Igor first published PTE which still reside where I first put them so this is a new wrinkle which will need looking into.

Best regards,

Lin

[PGA]

Hi folks,

So I am not alone. I have had this experience, too!

A week or so ago I had worked on a sequence for about an hour. I did a File > Save As and then closed PTE. I then left the computer for a couple of hours to watch a TV programme. I came back to the computer and launched PTE. Instead of opening my last saved project, PTE presented me with an empty project. I hunted high and low but there was no sign of the previously saved file. I would add that, whenever I have tried to find any file using Win 7's Search feature it comes up blank. I suspect it looks only in the users "Libraries" and ignores all other folders and drives. I haven't yet found a way to get to an "Advanced Search" that allows me to specify multiple filters: e.g. date range, drive letters, like I could with XP and with Vista.

@Harbrimar/@L Brooks,

To try and build up a pattern of behaviour for this problem I would like to know a little more about your situations:

- What operating system are you using?

- What anti-virus software do you use?

- Do you save your PTE project files on your internal drives (e.g. C:) or on external drives (e.g. connected via USB)?

- If on external drives, do those drives "go to sleep" during extended periods of no activity with a consequential delay in performing file saves?

- Does your computer perform background anti-virus scans or background disk defrags?

My answers to the above questions are: Win 7 64-bit Home Premium SP1, Microsoft Security Essentials, External USB drives, Yes, Not that I am aware of

regards,

Peter

[harbrimar]

Hi everyone!

In response to @PGA, my system is as follows:

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1, Intel Core i5-2500K CPU @3.30GHz, 16GB Ram, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650Ti
• 128GB Crucial M4 SSD where PicToExe and all other programsare stored (C:/). All of my files and images are stored on a separate internal3TB NTFS Hard Drive. (F:/).
• My PicToExe project files are saved to my internal F:/ drive
• PicToExe Deluxe 7.5.10
• Virus scan no threats found

I am using AVG Internet Security but have turned off theirfirewall and am using the Windows Firewall as I cannot use my scanner (part ofEpson XP750 three in one) through the AVG Firewall (another ongoing saga!). I have not set upmy anti-virus to do background scans and I do not use defrag as I have an SSD.

Just thinking back to when the issue occurred, I had bothLightRoom 5 and PicToExe open and was exporting some images into the folder formy AV sequence. I then tried to rename the file name of one of the newlyimported images within PicToExe by right clicking on image, clicking on 'RenameFile' and it was then that I got an error message stating it was not permittedor something similar. From then on I could not save or play the sequence byclicking on the inverted triangle but I could move the slider on the timeline.What I don't know of course if the issue occurred before I tried to rename theimage.

Regards

Brian

[Les Brooks]

Since my reported incident I have not been able to recreate this issue. Now everything seems to work correctly. If this helps, my system info is as follows:

Win 7 64 bit Pro, Service Pack 1

ASUS Sabertooth Motherboard With AMD Phenom II X4 955 CPU

16 GB Ram & Samsung 256 GB Solid State drive as C (PTE software storage)

My PTE project files are stored to another internal hard drive and backed up to external drive.

I am using McAfee Antivirus software

Thanks again everyone!

Les

[wideangle]

I appreciate that my input is not going to help with solving any current problems, but it will certainly avoid them happening in future.

Make it a golden rule to use "Create Backup in Zip" which is under the "File" option, whenever you produce a new project.

This will collect together a copy of all the files which have been used, together with the project file, and save them in the zip folder.

Hence you have an instant backup for security, but also, you can unzip the file to any location and run it from there.

Regards

wideangle