petercbrandt Loc: New York City, Manhattan

I just bought a 5 Tb external hard drive for the purpose of dupping from other old hard drives so that 'age' and advanced technology doesn't interfere with keeping those images.
Next week I will start and I'm hoping that as I transfer each H.D. icon onto the new H.D., that each old H.D. will stay independent. My expectation is to see 6 different icons on the first page of opening the new H.D.

I have never tried this before. Over time I kept buying a newer backup drive.
When searching for an old photo, rather than attaching every h.d. independently looking for an image, they will all be on one drive.

Do you guys think my logic right ?

PS: I do not like the cloud stuff. I've heard so many people complaining that loading up is OK, but downloading back to your computer is a pain, a long time pain.

nervous2 Loc: Provo, Utah

Can't advise as to whether your logic is right, but will look forward to hearing about how it all works out.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

I just purchased an 18T external hard drive for storage of images. I'll be transferring all images to that drive and using the existing drives for back up and maybe storage of items other than images. The 18T is a Raid 1 so I'll only have 9T of actual storage space, my existing drive, also a Raid 1 system, with an 8T drive, so only 4T of actual storage, is full. I don't like to let my external drives get too old as I suspect I might then have some sort of problem. If someone is planning this approach with a Mac be sure to carefully read if the external drive is Thunderbolt 2 or 3: Thunderbolt 3 uses a different connector, much like the USB 3 connector. Apple is the only one, or so it seems, that sells a connecter to go both ways from 3 to 2 or 2 to 3 for Thunderbolt. I bought a G Technology drive and also have Western Digital drives. So far I have not had any issues with any of my drives. Now waiting for the connector to arrive before transferring about 100,000 images. I think it's kind of a never-ending process if someone wants to stay current. My drives are a daisy-chain and all show up on the Finder.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

To put it bluntly: no, it's not going to work that way. There are things you could do to somewhat accomplish what you've described, but the effort might not be worth it. Just merge the drives into one new, combined and master copy of your images.

What's unclear from your description is whether the images / files overlap in the individual component drives? Do you have multiple copies of Some-Image-9001 on Drive-A and Drive-C? If yes, how do you know which is the master / final version of Some-Image-9001? You'll have to resolve that question.

If it is really important to retain knowledge of the component drives, on this new 'Combined-Drive', create folders that identify the component legacy drive. Something like:

Combined-Drive
Drive-A
\all old folder & files of Drive-A

Drive-B
\all old folder & files of Drive-B

Drive-x
\so forth

You'll need to create the target folder structure on the new drive and then drag and drop the legacy drive into the correct target folder. To be 'successful' in this migration / merge, you're going to need to get closer to the technical details than 'icons'. You'll have to understand the folder organization and the operation systems view of these folders.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

And be careful how you copy the stuff to the destination drive. Some drag-n-drops are "MOVE", you don't want to do that! A move does not keep the files in the original place.

rck281 Loc: Overland Park, KS

Another but more complex way is to partition the new drive into separate drives that represent the old drives.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

I believe you CAN DO it. I would use a backup software like SyncBack. As an example, if you designate the new drive as Z: you could then set up backups from C:->Z; and D:->Z: etc. That way each older drive is backed up on the new one. You can set up unattended scheduled backups that only affect newer copies of files if they have been modified.

While cloud backup might be a "pain", there is no substitute for it following a major disaster. We have tornadoes here, and fire, hurricane, earthquake or whatever can destroy any local backup.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

petercbrandt Loc: New York City, Manhattan

Thank you for your input ! I understand the folder system, seems logical.
Peter

petercbrandt Loc: New York City, Manhattan

Rubin,
I think I understand your advise, but this new 5TB drive will not be used to 'add to' in the future, only to have a more modern drive of the old photos. I think of it as taking my old floppy disk info onto a newer medium.
Then, I'll get another (call it "2021 and up") drive for backups to add new shoots.
Peter

petercbrandt Loc: New York City, Manhattan

Rubin,
So far we've been lucky in the northeast (NY) to be without tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, or forest fires and i certainly don't want to push my luck. Our winters are milder than before and our summers are becoming sub-tropical with lots of rain to make moss and licken growing on the Oaks.
Thank you sincerely for your advise.
Peter

petercbrandt Loc: New York City, Manhattan

Hi Longshadow,
I will look into the difference between a "drag n drop" and a 'move'.
I could not imagine what I would do if the files were not in proper order.
Peter

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Not sure what you are saying that an 18TB becomes 9TB with RAID 1 or that an 8TB becomes 4. RAID 1, or simple mirroring, requires two separate drives, and the usable capacity of a RAID 1 system is equal to the capacity of one of the drives.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Yes, the drives are sold as being for storage or for configuring into a Raid 1 setup. So, I've got the 18T, which will be 9T of storage and 9T for the mirror drive. The other one I'll continue to use as a Raid 1 setup is an 8T drive, so 4T storage and 4T mirror.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

No, unless you bought TWO 9TB drives. You must have 2 drives to mirror (RAID 1) and the usable capacity is the capacity of one of the two drives.