What the heck?! My .nef files are gone?

jeb

New member
I always shoot in RAW and when I travel I download to my pc and an external drive as a backup. I use Lightroom (Classic). I had intentions to build a new photography PC once we finished building a new house, but that took 3 years longer than expected, so I simply kept filling my hard drive and external drives. Now I have a new system built (with RAID 5) and I'm transferring everything over. But the majority of my files are jpg only! What the heck? Where are my .nef files? I use 3 camera bodies (D4, D810, D500) and ALL are set to RAW + jpg. I am in no way a novice to photography or Lightroom, but I just don't understand what could have happened. I have since bought a Canon R5 and my RAW files are always there. I don't see any issues with my Nikon cameras, and I find it highly unlikely that I would miss RAW files from all 3 of them equally. I don't see that I've screwed up any options in Lightroom either. Is there some grave error I have made? And yes, I'm sick at losing nearly 3 years of RAW files (I do have the jpgs).
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Are you saying that you can't see the nef files on your hard disks or that LR doesn't see the nef files? Since you have a new system, it's possible that lightroom catalog has been confused. Try to go into the import menu to find out if you could then see your nef files. Maybe you have to build a new catalog or re-import the whole thing.

I'm curious as to what you'll find, keep us informed if you please.
 

jeb

New member
Yes, when I originally downloaded them, they were there. I'm wondering if when I moved them to external drives, I only moved the jpgs (I shot in Raw + jpg), however, the photos are jpg photo next to its corresponding nef photo in the file on the hard drive so I don't see how the raw could "disappear" from a file they are both shared in.
 

BeegRhob

Senior Member
Have you tried searching for them? Normally, in the lower left of a Windows machine, with no programs (apps) running, next to the start button, there is a search box. Type in:
*.nef
That is asterisk period NEF. Click on the one that says photos. If you hover the mouse arrow over the files, the directory the file is in will "pop up". Hover over all of them to see where they are located. There is also an arrow that you can click on to see the info. FYI, I can only see a list of about 20 files there, which is strange!
There is also the Nikon codec, so the computer can read or see the files. Nikon | Download center | NEF Codec If you just got the computer together, the codec may not be installed.

More FYI: In doing the "research" on my PC, I have discovered that if I click on Pictures in the file manager, all the pics in my D: drive do not show up. I have an SSD for my C: drive, and my D: drive is for programs and storage. I remember a while back I tried to move them around, and somehow they are not showing up! Maybe this is the issue for you. So D:\Users\Purple\Pics is where my NEF files are. Purple is my username, so yours will probably be different. Now, I am not sure how to include the pics in Pictures.

Does any of this help?

Rob
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