# Help on Viewing all RAW files on Hard Drive



## ottor (Aug 18, 2010)

How would I view _thumbnails_ of _*all*_ of my RAW Cr2 files on my hard drive at once? Its is possible without going through all of the directories individually? 

I can 'search' for the file extension in Explorer, but I get 3463 items and no images... 

I really have to learn better origanizational skills .... and I suck at Lightroom! I'm an investigator for a large State Agency, and it's my job to interpret complicated laws and policies, and impliment them - so I'm not really a dummy - I just feel like one with it comes to Lightroom.. I'm looking for a one/one tutoring program in my area... 

Anyway....

I have to delete a ton of RAW files, and I really don't know where to begin...  I'd even consider a shareware program that would do what's needed..  

tks,


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## Robin Usagani (Aug 18, 2010)

YOu have to use the software that came with your camera or adobe bridge


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## Robin Usagani (Aug 18, 2010)

Do you have adobe bridge?  You can easily show only CR2 files in all subfolders!  So you can select MyDocuments (assuming this is where you put all of your photos) and it will show ALL thumbnails.  It may take forever to populate though.


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## Steve01 (Aug 18, 2010)

Schwettylens said:


> Do you have adobe bridge? You can easily show only CR2 files in all subfolders! So you can select MyDocuments (assuming this is where you put all of your photos) and it will show ALL thumbnails. It may take forever to populate though.


 
I don't think that's right. 
It will show you any images that are the MyDocument directory and the sub directories only but not the images in them.


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## 786soul (Aug 18, 2010)

Steve01 said:


> Schwettylens said:
> 
> 
> > Do you have adobe bridge? You can easily show only CR2 files in all subfolders! So you can select MyDocuments (assuming this is where you put all of your photos) and it will show ALL thumbnails. It may take forever to populate though.
> ...



Hm?!
That's not right.

I use bridge every day to view RAW files. You can get it's a better file explorer from Adobe. You'll see thumbnails of all the images and you can filter what it sees by file type (i.e RAW, Jpeg, TIF...) or by ratings you've given images and such.

Really a useful program, I wouldn't be as organized without it.


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## Steve01 (Aug 18, 2010)

786soul said:


> You'll see thumbnails of all the images and you can filter what it sees by file type (i.e RAW, Jpeg, TIF...) or by ratings you've given images and such.


 
How?

I basically use Bridge as a front end for Tools|Photoshop (Batch, Photomerge, etc.) or to get a quick look at some files so I'm not very familiar with it.

I can't figure out how to view thumbnails in a directory and all subdirectories without opening each one. 
Search doesn't seem to accept wild card searches.
Steve


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## Robin Usagani (Aug 18, 2010)

there is a setting somewhere steve where you can see everything in that folder and all the sub folders in it.  I am at work and I dont have bridge here..  I will tell you later when im home.


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## Steve01 (Aug 18, 2010)

I did discover one thing in the search window.
I was entering **.CR2* which didn't turn up anything.
Entering just *CR2 *without the **.* turned up all the CR2 files as did JPG, and TIF when I tried it.

Anything you can add to that when you get a chance would be appreciated *Schwettylens. *

Steve


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## Robin Usagani (Aug 18, 2010)

Steve, the OP had no problem listing all the RAW files.  His problem was, he could only see CR2 logo thumbnails, not a preview of what the photos look like.  All you see are bunch of blue symbols.  So he has to manually open it to see what photo it is.  

If he uses RAW, it will show the preview what photo it is.


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## Steve01 (Aug 18, 2010)

Right.
*Ottor* did a search in Explorer and found all his RAW files but no previews of course.

He has Lightroom though not Bridge.
Bridge would do the job but he needs LR help or a shareware program.


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## Flash Harry (Aug 19, 2010)

Is there not a file browser in LR as in PSCS, all my raws are in the "raw" folder and subfolders a double click brings up thumbnail images of the raws in each. H


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## Robin Usagani (Aug 19, 2010)

LR seems to show ALL KINDS of picture files.  If there is a way to seperate the raw files, you have to create a catalog first adding thousands of photos from all sub folders.


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## Steve01 (Aug 19, 2010)

Well with my new found knowledge of Bridge I started playing around.

It seems until you opened a subdirectory those files will not be found in a search of the parent directory.

The parent directory is PHOTO and has 3 directories named Photo1, Photo2, Photo3.
If I haven't opened Photo3 in bridge its files don't show up in a search.


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## reedjam99 (Aug 20, 2010)

Steve01 said:


> Right.
> *Ottor* did a search in Explorer and found all his RAW files but no previews of course.
> 
> He has Lightroom though not Bridge.
> Bridge would do the job but he needs LR help or a shareware program.



If you're just looking to quickly review the RAW files and delete those you don't want, Picasa from Google will do the trick.  The price is right (free), and it's very easy to use.  Just install it and add whatever folder(s) might contain RAW files to it and give it a few minutes to build thumbnails.  You can then browse through them at will.  Depending how you tell it to display you may see the various folders/subfolders, or not, but it will show the images from all of them.


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