How do you find a lost files when you change hard drives

Desenkov

Please explain this for an idiot, I had Zotero on my laptop that had a small internal hard drive. I kept my documents, related videos, and audio files on an external hard drive that was designated as as "D" drive.
The laptop shot craps but I got a new laptop with a much large internal hard drive. You can probably already see my problem. When I place ALL the files on the new "C" drive of the new laptop, Zotero still tries to find them on the old "D" drive designation.
How can I make Zotero change the old designation to the new designation? When I press the locate button nothing happens. There are around 4000-5000 links involved so please tell me you can save me weeks of time by not re-linking every file.
Thanks for any help.

dstillman

Assuming you're talking about linked files here, if you properly set a linked attachment base directory before, you can just update that to point to the new location.

If not, you can use the Zutilo plugin to batch-change the linked-file paths (and then set up a LABD so this doesn't happen again).

An upcoming version of Zotero will try to locate attachments when setting a new LABD even if it wasn't set properly before.

adamsmith

Could you give the exact filepath where Zotero is looking and where the file actually is?
You can use xxx for your username if you want to -- but if it's part of the filepath, make clear whether the username is the same or different in both cases.

Short version: This might be possible using Zotero's linked attachment base directory option and it's almost certainly possible using the Zutilo add-on, but would be helpful to completely understand the situation before giving advice.

Desenkov

A couple of things here to address. Please re-read my first sentence and dumb down your responses.

Zutilo plugin seems to be incompatible with the new version of Zotero.

The exact path is D:\Intranet\Original Sources\Movies - Videos\(1938) German Propaganda - Wort Und Tat - (Words and Deeds).mp4

for 1 of thousands of files. I want to change the "D" to "C" the everything would be found. I had a small library of documents on the original "C" drive and Zotero had no problems finding them when copied to new laptop.

One thing I forgot to mention is that a copy of my old "library" consisting of all my links is in my account. I synced it here a couple of years ago and it is an updated version, just with the "D" designation.

dstillman

Zutilo plugin seems to be incompatible with the new version of Zotero.

It's not. Why do you think that? Note that, if you're running Firefox, you need to right-click and save the XPI to disk rather than just clicking on it.

Desenkov

You are correct, I was doing something else. How does this wonderful addon change the location for me.

Desenkov

I read some documentation, played with some directories I was willing to destroy and rebuild; but I got it figured out. Thanx for help guys. You saved an old man a lot of time.