Solved Picture Duplicates 270x200

[Qurillion]

Hey everyone;

I recently noticed that pictures saved create duplicates - small 270x200 images of the original - which is clogging up picture folders, especially when uploading large batches from digital cameras.

Does anyone know how I can disable this? Google didn't turn anything up.

Thanks in advance!

 

[mitchell65]

Hi and welcome to the Forum. Sorry for the delay in responding.
Can you say how you "transfer" the images from your camera (make and model?) to your PC. If you designate a folder to store your images from the camera where do the duplicates get stored and what is the difference between the file name of the main image and its duplicate. Also whats the usual file size of the images straight from the camera and the size of the duplicates?

 

[Qurillion]

Thanks for the reply!

For the record the cameras I'm using are just two basic point and click Kodak easyshare models, but the same thing happens with either of them.

I'm not sure the cameras are the problem as by transfer I just meant copy and pasting via firewire - however it also produces these duplicates with copied files from my external disk, pictures copied from the network, picture files automatically generated by webcams, and pictures copied from card readers and USB drives... even some pictures I save off the internet, or create and save myself in paint/photoshop and so forth - but not all of them.

Pretty much any copied and some created pictures seems to do it, and there doesn't seem to be any correlation with file type either.

All duplicates share the same name and file type with their originals - all duplicates are 270x200 pixels, regardless of the size of the originals.

So I'm a little confused, I'm running two machines with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit and 32bit respectively, if you'd like I can run through the specs and screenshot the "problem" - though it's really more of an annoyance than anything else.

Again, thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[mitchell65]

Well I think we might have a "normal" situation here. Windows 7 has this new filing system and incorporates a "Library" feature. Whenever you import an image it will appear in a number of folders.
ie "Pictures" "My Pictures" etc. The way to check this is to right click on a picture file or icon, click Properties at the bottom of the window and check the path to that file. It might be something like C:\Users\Your Name\Pictures. Check the duplicate of that same image and right click that one, click properties and check the path. It will likely be the same as the previous image. If so all you have is another "instance" of the same file so it wont block up your hard drive space.
This new filing system in Win 7 is new to us all so it is taking a bit of learning. There is a good guide in the help files. If you go to Start, Help and Support, Learn about Windows basics, Programs files and folders, then click "Working with files and folders". I must read this a bit more carefully myself but there always seems something more important to do.

 

[Qurillion]

All right, thanks for the assistance. There does seem to be a few functionalities to get used to in Windows 7, like applications on the task bar instead of the system tray which was something I found to be a bit counter intuitive personally. I'll have a look at what you suggested and see how I go.

Thankfully so far nothing has been as troublesome as some of the Vista features that I found myself at odds with (like prefetch related problems).

Have a good one.