Delete files but keep in catalog?

[David_E]

This seems like it should be obvious, but I can't figure it out.  I'm trying to remove outtakes from old jobs from my hard drives, but leave records of them in the catalog.  I've got the files on DVDs, and the jobs were delivered long ago, so I don't really need them to be live and local, but having the catalog remain as a complete view of the job makes sense to me.  Does anyone know how I can use EM2 (on a Mac) to delete the originals but leave the previews in the catalog?  Burning the catalogs to DVD and just deleting the files would work, but I wouldn't then have a live and local catalog.  Any ideas?

Thanks,
David

[johnbeardy]

You could write an AppleScript to do it. I can't think of another way.

John

[Paul_S]

This works for a PC not sure about make Mac.
You could delete them from the hardrive in the catalogue but then close the catalogue down and not save the changes then when you reopen the catalogue they will still be there and showing as not available but no longer on the harddrive.

[johnbeardy]

Nice idea! That should work on Mac too.

John

[peterkrogh]

David,
The whole concept of what you propose makes me nervous.  I think of it this way.

Either you want to save the file, or you don't.  "Halfway" deleting it does not do you any favors. You have not made the choice to actively preserve it, so you should resign yourself to its eventual loss.  Yet you want to keep a record of the file, presumably becuase there is some value.

Anything you have only on optical media is something you don't mind losing silently at some point in the future.

So, which is it - are you fine with losing the file or not?
Peter

[David_E]

Thanks, all, for your responses.  Peter, you've got it exactly right:  I'm prepared to lose the files at some point in the future, but not right now.  Basically I've decided to wait a little longer for the possibility that my clients will ask for something ridiculous and unexpected.  As the files will slowly disappear into the past, so, too will the likelihood that a client calls on me for an outtake, so letting those files slip away is just right.

What I've done is create a new catalog called "deleted files" before deleting the outtakes files.  I can still search them, and I'll know where to find them if I need them.  I can't do further organizing work with them, but that's acceptable.
David.

[peterkrogh]

David,
If you want to do that because keeping the images in teh main catalog makes it too big, then I'd say that's an okay approach.  But if number of images in the catalog is not an issue, I'd still say that you were better off keeping all the images in a single catalog. You can mark them for deletion, and purge the archive periodically.

Basically, I think that the two catalog approach is likely to come back and bite you at some point.

Peter