I've broken the link to my Lr catalog, double clicking the .lrcat file does not

[Bill Koenig]

I rearranged my files in my internal drive, now I've broke the link to my catalog. Its my understanding a right double click of the .lrcat file is suppose to fix this, but it doesn't work, when I do this it just opens up a window with file options (win7)
What am I doing wrong?

[kaelaria]

There is no such thing as a right double click.

Open Lightroom, open the catalog from inside the program, don't try and launch lightroom from a catalog file in windows explorer.

[Bill Koenig]

Sorry, I meant right click. I thought I tried a double click as well, but I can't remember.
This worked for me when I moved the catalog to my internal drive, is there any reason why a double click won't work now?
OK, so I double click on the .lrcat file, Lr is suppose open, is this all I need to do? or, are there other changes that need to be made in Lr?
I thought I understood this, I'm not in front of my PC right now, I'll try again tonight.
Thanks.

[john beardsworth]

Double clicking the lrcat file will open it, and will set it as the catalogue LR will open by default (assuming your preferences are set to "open last catalogue").

When you open the catalogue, check the folders are there. If they've got question marks, right click them. Also run the Library > Find Missing Files command. If any are missing, click the question mark on them. Do not re-import. Do not synchronize.

John

[luxborealis]

I'm with kaelaria on this - when you are next on your computer, open LR by clicking on the application icon, not by clicking on the .lrcat file.

Normally you can simply double-click on the .lrcat file, bu tif you've been having trouble, start at LR itself this time.

[Schewe]

I rearranged my files in my internal drive, now I've broke the link to my catalog.

What do you mean you "rearranged my files"? Did you move folders and files to different folders so that the locations of the image files are different than what Lightroom expects? That's kinda a bad thing to do...if however you simply moved the entire folder where your images and the Lightroom catalog were located, then it's a somewhat easier fix.

If you want Lightroom to use a different catalog than what it's been using (or if the catalog has been moved) then you'll want to hold down the option/alt key when launching Lightroom. This will allow you to navigate to a new catalog (or old catalog that has been moved).

On the other hand if you've moved files and folders all over the place from the finder, getting Lightroom to know where the files have been moved to is gonna be a chore depending on how you have the images stored and what the new folder hierarchy is.

We need to better understand what you've done...

[eliedinur]

Its my understanding a right double click of the .lrcat file is suppose to fix this, but it doesn't work, .....
Sorry, I meant right click. I thought I tried a double click as well, but I can't remember.

It is done with a double-click on the left button, not the right.

[wolfnowl]

You can also hold down the Alt/Opt key when starting Lightroom and it will ask you what catalogue you want to open.  If you only have the one catalog, in Lightroom go to Edit/ Preferences (Win) or Lightroom/Preferences, and on the General tab, specify the Default catalog.

Mike.

[Bill Koenig]

I have 3 internal drives, one for the OS, a second drive for data, a third for scratch. I have a eSATA external drive for backup and that drive gets backed up to 2 more drives that rotate on and off site, so there is ALWAYS one drive off site.
All I'm doing right now is more or less experimentation. Lr lives inside one folder which for now is just pictures taken on Thanksgiving at a family gathering, I haven't even deleted the SD card yet. I've have backed that folder up to my external.
I didn't like the way my file structure was setup so I changed that on my internal drive, and then I deleted my Lr folder on my internal just to see if I could try to recover my Lr folder from my backup, sort of a dry run. I need to have a understanding of how this all works before I commit my self to the real deal. There's no way I'm going start working with Lr "for real" until I know how to recover from a disaster, this is very important with any kind of backup.
I will go though recovering my backup at least one more time until I get it right, and I don't have ask anyone more questions about what I'm trying to do.
This was a very good learning experience, I going to try out all of the suggestions all of you have given me. 
I thank all of you for your input.

I'm getting closer.