LS Loc: Montana

Happy Day! I just set up a new 2020 iMac (Catalina). My old old iMac (2011 Mavericks) was outdated and although it works amazingly well, it is full due to me saving so many photos over the years. I do not want to transfer everything, including 60,000 photos, from my old computer to the new one since it would almost fill up my 1TB HD, but I do want a good sized selection of photos, Bridge, Portrait Pro, Panorama Maker, Topaz Products and my Font Book transferred to the new machine.
#1: Is there an organized way to put and keep photos on an external drive so they are easy to find if I don't want them all on the new computers HD? Is it possible to put photos in folders directly from the old iPhoto so I can import them into Photos and have them stay in folders?
#2: How about Bridge: how do I copy folders from my old Bridge and import it to new Bridge?
#3: I assume for Panorama Maker, my Topaz products and Portrait Pro I will need to locate my keys, but will the old programs work with the new computer?
I have a 2 TB WD external drive to use for transferring. I really want to do this myself, since the closest computer store is 165 miles away and they will charge me $150 and won't guarantee they can do it in one day. ($150 + mileage + possible hotel room=I really want to do this myself!) Please be specific and concise with advice/instructions. I am not overly techie.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I would make 2 independent copies of all my stuff (protection if one fails or get damaged) and not work so much about it till you going a way. I always use 2 since I had a drive fail.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Do the photos have any kind of organization now???

LS Loc: Montana

Yes, instead of an event for each date I have them organized by type in iPhotos: Senior Portraits, Family Portraits, Clouds, Flowers, Braidings, Ranch Events, etc. I have over 100 events like this, and also have quite a few albums. The way they are organized in Bridge is mostly in folders, but also some individual photos and documents.

LS Loc: Montana

yes, I have two backup copies beside the HD on the old computer.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

If your organization method works for you, can't you simply copy the existing directory (folder) structure to the new drive?

dyximan

I just did something similar to what you're trying to accomplish, And found the best way to do it, Create the new destination folders on your new external hard drive, Then open each folder on your existing drive and you will have to drag and highlight all of the photos with in that folder, And then drag them to the new location on the external drive. I found the Max I could do at any one time was about 10000 photos but you're often better if you can keep it in the 2000 to 4000 range. But if you exceed the limit that you computer will do, it it will tell you.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Just put all of your images on an external drive. I can see no reason to want to have them cluttering up your primary drive and potentially slowing down your system.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

It is a little late now but before you got the new computer I would have told you to get more and bigger drives. Is it a desktop that you can add more drives or a laptop/all in one that can't have stuff added?

My desktop (Core i9-32GB RAM going to 64 when the spirit moves me to open the case and install the simms) has:
1. C drive = 512GB SSD just for OS and Apps
2. D drive = 1TB just for data (word, excell etc, I also scan and keep family papers and documents here-plus all my old lesson plans I still have after 12 years of retirement)
3. P drive = 6TB for photos and videos (If I didn't cull and delete regularly I would be approaching 70,000 stills alone and I still have about 8 storage boxes of slides and negatives to
scan-that is boring so I only do it in spurts, next is my two boxes of photos from my two years in Vietnam.)
4. E drive = 8TB External drive for back ups - I have Acronis do a full then 6 incremental then repeat on a daily basis so 1 week for a cycle and I keep last week and the current
week plus a full backup of everything from my old i7 machine the i9 replaced. Well not really replaced, the mother board had developed a fault so I got the parts and I
had a tech put in a new mother board, CPU with cooler and a bigger power pack.

I am running Windows 10 Pro with all the updates weekly.

Plus I have some older, smaller external drives with other stuff in storage or extra copies of important things. One for my wife's computer, one for our special needs son's (can't lose his train simulator stuff).and two with miscellaneous stuff.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

A few ideas for you. Don't put any photo files on your iMac ssd. Save that for applications and things that move on and off your desktop. Get a hard drive just for picture. Mine is called Main Photos. When all your apps (they have to be 64bit) are on your new computer, just tell your organizer app, whatever it is, to look at that hard drive for the pictures. The pictures on that hard drive will not be available to see on other devices but if you use lightroom (I'm sure other organizer tools allow this) you can put files you want to see elsewhere into the "All Synced Photographs" catalog and they will be available on all your devices, until you remove them from that catalog.
All my photographs are on three hard drives. My 'Main Photos', drive which the computer looks at, and two backup drives, that I swap in and out all the time.
Don't move a big group of folders around with drag and drop. Inside your computer that can be much messier than finding a good cloning program, which keeps everything neat and tidy behind the scenes. On my iMac I use Carbon Copy Cloner. Very easy to use, but there are other programs.
You don't need to hire someone to do this for you. This is not really fixing a problem, but just basic stuff when setting up a new computer. For each step you can check out some Youtube videos. There are a lot of geeky people out there who would love to explain this to you. If you do go for videos, make sure you are looking at current ones that match your system and not videos that are ten years old.
Finally, don't do any of this without backing everything up first.
...Cam

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

1. Absolutely yes.
2. Bridge is a browser, like Finder. You don't import or export into Bridge.
3. Yes, I think.
4.Ship the computer save yourself the time and gas and hotel stay.

You'll be better off if you figure this out on your own. You don't have to be a surgeon to enjoy a good steak. You similarly you don't have to be a "techie" to do simple file management. You may want to consider joining a local photo club - there will be people there who can help, and others who are at your level of comfort with computers and file management - you'd be in good company.

LS Loc: Montana

Probably, if somehow can instruct me how to go about it.

LS Loc: Montana

This sounds exactly like what will work the best. Thank you, thank you!

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

If the new destination folders have the same name as the old destination folders, the easiest thing would be to go into finder and drag the folders from the old disk onto the new disk. If all the folders are subfolders of one folder, drag the primary folder and everything will follow.

Ron 717 Loc: Pennsylvania

I would suggest that you contact Donald N Gallagher a member on here, he is very knowledgeable on IMacs and photo storage. He will most likely see your post and reach out to you.