Here are the options:
1. They're probably on different locations on the hard drive depending on which programs he is using. And it sounds like he is very disorganized, so they could be in even more locations than the main ones that the programs save to.

2. They could also be on external storage, like external hard drives or flash drives, although I suspect he doesn't use those.

3. Some of them could be stored on the Internet depending on whether he uses photo storage sites, and/or or whether some of the programs he uses store the pictures there.

If I had to guess, I'd say they are probably in a mess all over the hard drive. There are ways to find them by doing searches, by opening each program and looking at what location they typically save to, by determining what extensions the files get saved in, etc.

Unfortunately, it sounds like neither of you is knowledgeable enough to go in and unwind this in a way that guarantees all of his treasures will be saved. Unless you have a computer savvy friend that can help you figure this out, there is probably no simple way to save them all. Uninstalling the photo programs will cause more problems because many of these programs save the photos in file formats that can only be opened by that one program. So, uninstalling the program will prevent some of those files from being reopened, and could even cause some of the photos to be deleted, depending on how the uninstall worked.

The only suggestion I can give you is to buy an external hard drive that is bigger than your current hard drive, plug it in, and backup your current mess of a hard drive onto a drive with more space. However, this just postpones the problem by giving him more space for a while. How to get him to exercise some discipline is beyond my limited abilities...

"How to get him to exercise some discipline is beyond my limited abilities..." How true!

I did a back-up of the computer. My question is whether the photos in 'photo-programs' will be part of the back-up? Do they exsist somewhere?

Totally confused,
Jane

Your photos live on your hard drive, but they do not live in Photoshop or in any photo program - those programs only LINK to the photos on your hard drive.

Jane,

picFinder is a zip file, at the site click the downlaod. Than save file to Desktop. Once it's there right click the file choose extract, I would extract it to cause your going to get an option where to extract to programs files folder. Then run the program.

You could also search the hard drive, using start >search and search for these file extensions gif, .jpg, .bmp, .ico, or .wmf

Also

Picasa--> this program will automatically search the drive for photos. I have used it for only that reason.

I will not certify that all the pictures are in the same location as edited photos, collages and specialty photos could be in a separate place. Plus, when applications were configured the target location could have been changed.

In general they are all on the H/D in the Picture Folder located in the Windows User folder or the Documents folder. I currently have Irfanview, Picasa, and Windows Photo gallery, and they all find the pictures in that folder.
All these applications have default configuration.

When all else fails, you could always do a search for jpeg, tiff, etc. That would be long and tedious.

DA

" I can't find them on his hard drive. Is it possible to save them if I uninstall those photo programs? "

Jane, I think the reason you can't find them on his hard drive might be because he has transferred them to photo programs and deleted from the HD.

It is my understanding that these photo sites function as web based storage for photos, just like web based email sites (Yahoo!, g-mail, MSN) store your email on their site. Neither are actually on your computer.

I think you could test this by accessing his photo sites with a completely different computer. I don't know about the sites he's using (mine are on Photobucket) but I like to store things that way because I lost a computer to a sudden lightning strike once. Those sites still had my email and pictures. Sandy

Thank you all. I discovered if I R-click on a photo a menu appears 'locate on disk.' I found many pictures that way. Many do not show up.

If the original was downloaded directly to a photo program (Picasa, Photoshop, PictureIt) the original is on the disk. But after he edits the picture, if he doesn't 'save' it, I don't think the edited version is on the disk.

My plan is to uninstall the photo programs, clean up the computer, maybe reformat, add memory and then reinstall the photo programs. If I uninstall the photo programs, will the edited photos be lost? There are too many to 'save' to My Pictures.

What a job...

Jane

Zep, I typed picfinder.com and it took me to a 'racy' page.

Jane

I think maybe zep meant this one
PicFinder

Sorry jane,

Forgot the link. Raven link is it.

Thanks, will try that tonight.

Jane