Hi Michel,
Thanks again for your reply. Concerning the two photo libraries, I have been trying to make the catalog look in only one for it's files. I have searched for missing files and then gone through the reconnection procedure. This works ok so long as I don't select too many of the catalog images at one time, otherwise the program "hangs" So a small proportion of the catalog now has links to the correct "library."
It is a pity there isn't a way to set the global location for the image files to which I could point the catalog. At the moment the catalog insists on looking under the Photo Database when I want it to look under the Photo Library both identical in structure and content apart from the name of the root directory.
When a group of disconnected files are found, I have to point each time to the new folder and select reconnetc. Although this works for 35k files, as you rightly say, that is a "long task."
Concerning "create a full backup on an external drive." I am a little confused about this because if I do a back up will this not also contain all the links to the old "Photo Database" and will I not still therefore have to go through the reconnection process? The prime problem is not duplicates but it is to get the catalog to interact with the correct Library, in which are all my 35k photos.
One other thought, I have moved the library that got formed from under the working folders. I wonder if this was a mistake since most of its images were linked to the catalog. If i move it back and reconnect all the files however, I would still want to move the library to another place on the drive and I guess that I would then have to reconnect everything again.
Regards, Jim