Diva...Look into a program called "System Mechanic" by Ilo. This program came highly recommended by Dell, and seems to have helped quite a bit on my laptop. This program checks everything, and either reports to you what it finds wrong so you can take action, or you can have it automatically fix any problems it finds. I am going to be using this program for my weekly maint. as it not only gets rid of junk files (temp files, internet history, ect...) but it also defrags the hard drive, which I think does a better job than MickeySofts defrag (at least you can see what it is doing). Before I started running this program, I couldn't run LR4 at all, now it runs, a little slow at times, but at least it runs now!

GaryB

Update on this: it only actually does it after I've exported a file as a tif to PS, worked on it, and then start working on it again in LR. Any further suggestions?

A tiff file is pretty big compared to a psd. You might be running into memory (virtual or otherwise) limitations that can kick in before physical ones do.

You can also export as PSD, which should be about the same info, but in a different, more compact format. Is there some reason to choose TIFF. It's not something I do some I'm not familiar with the differences between export tiff or psd to Photoshop.

Also Lightroom has a Photo->Edit in->Photoshop that might be lighter weight if it does what you want.

Originally Posted by divamum Update on this: it only actually does it after I've exported a file as a tif to PS, worked on it, and then start working on it again in LR. Any further suggestions?

Yes, I use the right-click "edit in photoshop" option, but I have to convert since CS3 doesn't recognize the raw files from my 7d. I gather I can also convert to dng, but somebody a while back suggested it was better to work on the tiffs.

In my experience PSD's are usually bigger, but maybe that's because I only use them when I'm saving layers? Not sure.

However, this seems to confirm that it's in some way related to LR and PS talking to each other.

And, of course, the burning question: why does this ONLY do this after the reformat, when I never had a problem with it before? (that's a rhetorical question, btw - I'm not sure there is an obvious answer!!). So weird. :)

Good job and zeroing in on the issue

Flattening all the layers will make both tiff's and PSD's smaller. Once you export to tiff from LR, then edit it in PS, you (I assume) end up adding a bunch of layers. PS then updates the tiff file with all those layers tend make the size of the tiff a lot bigger. Are you choosing compression when the tiff is saved? That might not make any difference because LR will have to decompress it before it can use it, but it is worth a try.

BTW uncompressed tiff's with layers are, I'm pretty sure, bigger than PSD's with layers. You check this out for your images by just saving a few as a PSD, a TIFF (compressed and uncompressed) and compare them.

You could, if you don't really need the layers, flatten the layers in PS before you go back to LR. You could also convert it to 8-bit from 16-bit... I think LR exports 16-bit tiff's by default. You might try doing this just to see if it makes the problems go away.

I didn't realize you were using CS3. It well may be that CS3 doesn't do as good a job at managing memory or maybe tiff's as well as the later versions.

If you want to confirm this you could install the trial of CS6 and see if it is still an issue. Installing CS6 doesn't remove your CS3 install, you will just end up with both of them on your machine. If the problem goes away with CS6 then at least you know the issue.

Originally Posted by divamum Yes, I use the right-click "edit in photoshop" option, but I have to convert since CS3 doesn't recognize the raw files from my 7d. I gather I can also convert to dng, but somebody a while back suggested it was better to work on the tiffs. In my experience PSD's are usually bigger, but maybe that's because I only use them when I'm saving layers? Not sure. However, this seems to confirm that it's in some way related to LR and PS talking to each other. And, of course, the burning question: why does this ONLY do this after the reformat, when I never had a problem with it before? (that's a rhetorical question, btw - I'm not sure there is an obvious answer!!). So weird. :)

All of which still begs the question: why only now, with a re-install of the same OS onto the same hardware, with the same drivers, and the same software... is there a new, not-seen-before problem.

However, I've reset it to 8bit, which I hadn't tried; will be interesting to see if that makes a difference

Thanks for the continued brainstorming!!! <3

My guess would be that there is some difference in the configuration of your system before and after you repaved it. It might be in the configuration of the OS itself or in the applications.

For example after the repave did you do a bunch of Windows updates? Do you know if the last Windows update you did on the system before repave was the same as the last one you did after?

Doing all the Windows updates at once can result in a slight system config difference than what you would end up with if you did them one at a time, over time, as they occurred.

Normally these differences would be trivial and not affect anything. But if a system is on the edge resource-wise (like memory) they could push it over that edge. That's just speculation on my part, tracking something like this down is hard, but as that great computer scientist Thomas Wolfe noted "You can't go home again."

Originally Posted by divamum All of which still begs the question: why only now, with a re-install of the same OS onto the same hardware, with the same drivers, and the same software... is there a new, not-seen-before problem. However, I've reset it to 8bit, which I hadn't tried; will be interesting to see if that makes a difference Thanks for the continued brainstorming!!! <3

It is entirely possible the updating has been different since it was done en masse. That said, I typically only do security updates - Windoze "improvements" are almost invariably a disaster!

What's also interesting is that with this reinstall I'm experiencing my first driver conflicts, the kind so many complained about when Vista first came out. When I got this machine I had ZERO problems with it - I may be the only person I know who didn't curse Vista to the skies when forced to switch. Until now

Alll that said, this machine is running almost like new since the reinstall; even with only 4g memory (I love that "only" - I remember running our first computer which had 4MB or RAM!) it's handling pretty much everything I throw at it and relatively quickly too.

I do want to upgrade to CS6 - badly - but I'm a little concerned that it may overtax this system (thoughts? Typical 2008 machine with Vista Home Premium 32bit; Intel core 2duo T5750 @2ghz; 4g ram; ATI Radeon 3400 series - can't remember how much vid mem). I'm definitely holding off on LR4 for a while given the reports of slow performance - LR3 is a great program and should keep me going until I jump to a camera it can't read (eg I'm not sure if they're adding 5dIII compatibility to it or not)

Adobe claims it will run in 1G of memory (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/tech-specs.html) so maybe 4G will be OK. Your video card supports Open GL (http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...fications.aspx) which is also one of the requirements. Adobe actually don't list Vista as a supported OS, but I am running it on Vista with no problem, but I have lot's of memory.

A lot depends on the images you work with and how much editing/layers you do with them.

However in the end not matter what system you have and what Adobe says the only way you will know if/how well it will work is to download the trial version and try it out.

Dan

Originally Posted by divamum I do want to upgrade to CS6 - badly - but I'm a little concerned that it may overtax this system (thoughts? Typical 2008 machine with Vista Home Premium 32bit; Intel core 2duo T5750 @2ghz; 4g ram; ATI Radeon 3400 series - can't remember how much vid mem).

I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's the XMP sidecar setting for "other programs to view LR changes". Picasa was constantly updating the thumbnails as LR redrew = sloooowww and annoying glitch.

The good: I've found it and can switch it off (you have no idea what a relief it is to edit without that!)
The bad: I'm still stuck with only xmp's in my catalog instead of next to the files.

Hmmmm....

Great job zeroing in the real bug

In LR you can do a right mouse button on a folder in folders pallet and output the metadata of the images in that folder into sidecar .xmp files. Just remember to do this every once an a while and you will have your .xmp files next to the image file.

Originally Posted by divamum I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by divamum I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's the XMP sidecar setting for "other programs to view LR changes". Picasa was constantly updating the thumbnails as LR redrew = sloooowww and annoying glitch. The good: I've found it and can switch it off (you have no idea what a relief it is to edit without that!) The bad: I'm still stuck with only xmp's in my catalog instead of next to the files. Hmmmm....

Not true. You can select the photos and press command-S (control-S on a PC) and it will manually write the XMP metadata out. That way you can do it on your schedule.

I really consider the XMP files to be a "backup" to what's actually stored in the catalog. I don't tend to use other tools that are reading from the RAW files directly. I would ALWAYS manage them through Lightroom.