I have dozens of the SAME photos using diff photo organize software!?

I recently used PICASA to organize my photos and there are literally dozens and dozens of duplicate photos, over 49,000 photos on my HD. There are so many, in fact, that I cannot backup my data. It happened using Windows Live Gallery, too. I have not intentionally made 15 copies of any photo, or album ... yet there they are!

I tried deleting one of the library photos, just to see what would happen, and it deleted the photos alright --- EVERYWHERE on the computer! They did go to the recycle bin so I was able to retrieve them but ... why do I have so MANY copies of the same photo?! I cannot figure out which one is the "real" one and which ones are the "copies" but I noticed that some have labels like "8efencyene88335cad" .. an alphanumberic title! I've used the "Open at File Location" and it does show there is ONE photo there but then, when I upload to ANY, so far, organzing software, I'm getting a million copies uploaded along with .. I assume... ONE original.

Anyone know anything about this? Had the computer for about a year, an HP win WIN7 Home (32 and 64 bit), 4 G RAM, 250 G HD, and I bought an external Iomega HD 250 G and it won't even hold JUST photos - there are too many. Except when I look in MY PHOTOS, not the library one, but the "real"one .. I certainly do not have that many photos to eat up that much space. What's going on. Should've asked months ago but got busy. Now, I am almostout of room on my HD and cannot save it allto my Iomega ... I'm confused!

TERRY

Wow!

My instinct says the duplicates are actually hardlinks to the original photos, and they're not actually taking up extra space although they will appear to do so.
We need more information...when did you first notice this starting, and did that coincide with you using any new software at the time? (Picasa?) Where do you usually put your original photos, and where are the duplicates located?

I FIXED IT! They were "shadowfiles" and they do take up room! I went to the Tutorials on this forum, and found what I thought might be the answer, and when I performed the function, suddenly my entire C: drive was like 1/4 used instead of over 3/4ths! Going to try to at least delete everything on external HD, then just save what is on my C: drive now. There will be room! Yippee! My photos are my life, almost literally my memorybank!!

I don't know if the same is true of the Recovery drive D: but it's just as full. I wish I had a complete system image before I try cleaning THAT up though. It will have to wait until I get some DVD's and manually create an entire image. I read somewhere on this forum too not to 100% trust WIN 7's image recovery. Sometimes it does not work! Soooo ... I wll wait til the DVDs get here (am out, and live remote Alaska - no quick drive to Best Buy!).

THANKS FOR ANSWERING SO QUICKLY! I REALLY APPRECIATE IT!

HermitWoman said:

I wish I had a complete system image before I try cleaning THAT up though. It will have to wait until I get some DVD's and manually create an entire image.

I would strongly urge you to avoid using DVDs for imaging purposes. It often leads to unanticipated problems.

Use an external hard drive instead.

You might also consider something other than Windows to make the image. Macrium Reflect Free Edition is widely recommended here.

All the more so because you state that your pictures are extremely important to you.

Actually, if it were me, I would also make simple copies of all the pictures onto the external drive (and also maybe onto DVDs as well) WITHOUT using an image. Just make ordinary copies by drag and drop or copy---to more than one destination ideally--so you have multiple backups.

Thank you, IGNA and BARMAN .... I will heed all warnings and do as you both suggest. I really appreciate the feedback!