Deleting old LRCATs create a confusing warning WINDOW!!!

vdotmatrix

When I open LR again I get the following message:
The catalog at location (/Volumes/Elements/lightroom backups/2013-06-07 1157/Lightroom 4 Catalog-2-2.lrcat) could not be found. Would you like to locate an existing catalog or use the default one?

USE DEFAULT, QUIT , or CHOOSE A DIFFERENT CATALOG?

How badly can I screw stuff up if I coose poorly?

I left MANY backups from this year so.....

ANY IDEAS?

arodney

The catalog document is moved or gone, LR can't find it. It's asking you to navigate to the location it is stored. Find it and double click on it would be a good start.

basflt

it means that " /Volumes/Elements/lightroom backups/2013-06-07 1157/Lightroom 4 Catalog-2-2.lrcat " was your default catalog at startup all the time .
what you did was remove that catalog .
simply choose one of the many backups you made .

may i ask how you deleted ?
AFAIK its not a LR feature to delete catalogs
if you deleted from Windows explorer it is still in the Recycle Bin .