Hey folks,
There are a few spots left open for the Thursday day-long workshop.  Great opportunity to ask specific questions and solve individual problems.
Peter

Reolof,
The program I'm doing is today and tomorrow.
Sorry about the miscommunication.
Peter

Raphael,
None of the recovery software should be altering the images on the card, so you should be able to try multiple software if one does not succeed.

This software will generally first look for directory information that has been discarded, to see if it can tell them what is there. (When you erase an image or format a card, you are generally not actually erasing the bits, just telling the computer or camera not to pay attention to what's there. THe bits only get reased when you shoot new pictures and the card needs to space.)

If directory information can't be found, then the programs will scavenge through the bits, looking for stuff it recognizes "oh, here is some data that looks like a particular file type, let's follow these until we see a typical end of that type of file".  If the software does not know the structure of your camera's filetype, then it will have a much harder time doing this.  The small images it has found may be embedded JPEG thumbnails. Can you see the size of these photos in megabytes?

THe bottom line is that I would try with different software until one can find the files.  If no shooting has been done since the format, then likelihood of recovery is very good.

Peter

Patrick,
Yes, that is interesting looking technology. The biggest problem here is that long before that we're going to get something much better and cheaper (better in capacity, rather than in longevity.)  There's simply too much economic incentive for better solutions for something not to show up.

And a big part of getting from here to there is doing it economically, so that you still stay in business.

Peter

Greg,
Thanks - they just went up today.
Here's the link:

http://www.phaseone.com/en/Software/Expression-Media-2/XM-Tutorials.aspx

Mine are the ones running up the right side of the lower part of the page.
Peter

Vaughn,
So you are burning to Blu-raay and wiping from the hard drive?
I generally don't do that, and I suggest that optical disc should be used for backup only, rather than as primary storage.
Peter

Sue,
What program did you edit the files with?
Peter

Holger,
Yes, you're on to the solution.
I have created a preset for the times I know I'll want to reingest and rename.  That preset does not put the filename in the title field.
Peter

Charlie,
I have gone ahead and done so.
Peter

Great to hear that Tom, thanks for following up.
Peter

Mark,
Are you trying to install on a new machine?
Peter

Charlie,
I had not noticed that this had been removed.  Bummer.
I asked to see if there is a workaround.
Peter

Chris,
I'd say to keep the catalog for a short while. You'll want to be sure that everything came over okay.  Ideally, you do this at the time of migration. Keep a note of some important totals and make sure they  match. - How many images total, how many of each star rating, how many on each drive.  If they match, then you can toss the LR2 catalog.

If you did the migration a while ago, and there's no way to do a good comparison, I'd feel fine about getting rid of the old catalog. 

Peter

Mike,
The information you provide is a little thin to make much of a recommendation.

Personally, I would first try to use metadata toe differentiate the images, rather than a folder structure.

You don't say if you use DAM software, or if the images have any tags or naming conventions that would be able to help here.
Peter

Back to the original question...
Neil, why do you want the Smart Collection? (As opposed to simply selecting the Keyword on the right).

Are you using it in a combination with another keyword, or some other metadata? 

In the case of "just show me all pictures of Anna Haugen" it seems like the keyword is sufficient.  For other tasks where collections might be better (slideshow, contact sheet, web), I think it would be better to make a collection *by intent* where you decide which of the Anna pictures are worth including, and you set up a sort order.

Just wondering what the use case is.

Peter