bettis1 Loc: Texas

I spent yesterday at Dallas Executive Airport shooting the outstanding CAF “Wings over Dallas” show. Last night I began to download +/_ 1000 images to LR and about a third of the way through the process began to slow appreciably. I soon had a message on my MAC Book Pro that I was out of space on my HD. I removed several unused applications and emptied my trash with only marginal improvement.

I have about 20K photos on my internal hard drive and the system is backed up on the cloud, Carbonite, and a Seagate 2TB ext. drive. My immediate thought is to move the 20K photos from my hard drive to another external drive. I KNOW that I have to do that through Lightroom to maintain the LR catalogue but I am not confident in the way to do that. I've moved individual photos from folder to folder but how is the most foolproof way to move an entire internal drive collection to a new external drive? What accomodations will I need to make to my existing backup systems?

Since I will be purchasing another ext. drive, I will probably just buy another similar Seagate to the one that I have but I would appreciate any other suggestions .

Thanks,
Bob

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

Sorry, I'm not being helpful but just had to comment that this is one of the main reasons I don't use Lightroom. I like to move stuff around as needed. Someone will come in and help I'm sure. Good Luck with it.

Dan Mc Loc: NM

You could add a second internal HDD and don't place any OS on it...just make it a data drive only, and store a lot of photos there. (I have three (3) HDDs in my desktop PC.

bettis1 Loc: Texas

Thanks Dan, but I'm not sure that I can add an add'n internal hard drive to the MACbook Pro laptop. I'll have to check with Apple.
Bob

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

You can build a separate catalog for a new hard drive and put photos you are not currently working in the new catalog. Your photos are not manipulated on the hard drive by LR the catalog is strictly a pointer and data catch. If you do add a drive move your photos through Lightroom and it will automatically know where they are residing.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

It is a MAC Book Pro, a laptop in other words.

Either start using an external for storage of images or learn to delete and cull images like crazy. I keep all my images on a desktop with three internal (SSD for programs, 1 TB for files and a 3 TB for images and music) and about 4 externals (redundant backups and archives plus one for images only). My laptop has LR and a few plug-ins and only has the images I have or intend to rework and have either printed or posted kept on it. Otherwise it is a temporary home only for images.

bettis1 Loc: Texas

Thanks Robert,

I do NEED to be more thorough in my culling! But for the immediate need I think that moving the internal photo storage to a new external drive is the best answer. What I am asking is: "What is the procedure for moving that entire set of images from internal storage to external storage through Lightroom?"

Bob

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I have never done that but these instructions come from the Adobe Forum: (should work for moving to another internal drive also, I will find out when I install my new 3TB internal for images and music.)

Re: How do I move my pictures to external hard drive?

There is no need to be terrified. The "dreaded "?" is not that bad.

The best way to go about this is:

1) In Lr / Grid View / Folders panel (left side) put all your image folders under one parent folder. If this is already the case you can skip this step. To do this, just create a new folder and name it descriptively. Then drag-and-drop your image folders on top of this newly created folder. This will make all image folders sub-folders under the one parent folder.

2) Close Lr. In Mac Finder / Win Explorer move the newly created parent folder (together wil all its sub-folders) to you external drive. This is important: Do not rename any folders or change the folder structure at this point.

3) Re-open Lr. In the Folders panel you will see the |dreaded`"?" - do not panic! Right-click (i.e. click with the right - as opposed to left - button of you rmouse) he parent folder that you created earlier and now shows the question mark and select <Update Folder Location>. Navigate to the location of the parent folder on your external drive and select it. Lr will find all the sub-folders on its own.

That's all there is to it.


PS: Actually the text is <Find missing Folder> not <Update Folder Location>. But the procedure is the same.

bettis1 Loc: Texas

Thanks, Robert. That sounds like a possible solution. I'll swallow hard and give it a go as soon as I add a new ext. drive.

Bob

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I use my own file management system. I never, never upload to my internal hard drive. I consider it the work-horse drive. I have 7 external hard drives where I upload all my files based on genre. I carry many extra SD, CF and XQD cards where I store until I can safely upload. The first time I shot an airshow I went through 4 32GB on day one. This year I used 128GB SD card. Good luck.

johnst1001a Loc: West Chester, Ohio

I don't have any photos on my internal hard drive. I bought a "network drive" which is my own hard drive connected to my internet router. I can access the drive from any computer. I am not a professional photographer, so nothing of any particular value. As for security, it has a password. I can reconnect the drive directly to my computer if I want.

The only drawback is speed. It takes more time for the computer to access the drive, as it has to find it first, but that is only a matter of a couple of seconds. So one thing I did do is to copy any picture or group of pictures on a second external SSD connected to my base computer. This is very quick. Once done I can put them back on the network drive. I actually have a third external drive I use for automatic backups. The good thing about this is if I take a bunch of pictures, put them on my SSD for editing, they will be saved to my backup drive. Once I'm done, I move them to my network drive. I never put any on my internal hard drive.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Lightroom is pretty good with images on an external drive but it may not like the catalog on there, it refuses to work with a catalog on a network drive for certain. So you will need to keep the catalog on your internal drive (its understandable in lightroom the catalog is a database thats written to all the time losing connection to it would be liable to corrupt it). If you have been taking backups of the catalog as lightroom prompts you to there can be a considerable number i think mine are about 250MB each, you could delete some of the older backups.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I hate working on files and folders in LR, and I usually don't. I find it much easier and more convenient to go straight to the appropriate folder and organize files there. It seems that most people who use the MBP for processing use external drives. If you want a good, reliable drive, look at the HGST Deskstar or WD Black. Seagate is facing a class action lawsuit because of its numerous failures.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3028981/storage/seagate-slapped-with-a-class-action-lawsuit-over-hard-drive-failure-rates.html

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-q1-2016/
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/
http://improvephotography.com/31924/best-hard-drive-for-photographers/
http://lifehacker.com/how-long-will-my-hard-drives-really-last-1700405627
http://www.zdnet.com/article/solid-state-disks-lose-data-if-left-without-power-for-just-a-few-days/
http://the10bestreview.com/top-10-best-external-hard-drives-in-2015-reviews/

Billy Bob

Flash drives I them from 1GB to 2TB. Yes 2TB no bigger then my finger. I file them in a card file. And take them out and use them for LR, PS, and external hard drives Also put your images in 2 or 3 places.
The way I buy them...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272105657586?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-10-1G-16G-USB-2-0-Flash-Drive-Non-Slip-Swivel-Flash-Memory-Stick-Thumb-Drive-/262613737928?var=&hash=item3d24ffa1c8:m:mkATzm8P8XRfIT6n4kTvVww
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cool-Mini-black-Camera-model-USB-2-0-Memory-Stick-Flash-pen-Drive-8GB-Thumb-FE-/112003520377?hash=item1a13ee1779:g:MsQAAOSw1h5XP8Ka
I use this for weddings slide show, video, and pix.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Luxury-64-32GB-Key-USB-2-0-Flash-Memory-Stick-Pen-Drive-Storage-Thumb-U-Disk-LOT-/131974245364?var=&hash=item1eba472bf4:m:mP1uFYdjN3tGq5GNRAhxikQ
http://www.ebay.com/itm/32GB-Vintage-Metal-Gold-Key-USB-2-0-Memory-Stick-Flash-Drive-Pen-Drive-Storage-/282108859042?var=&hash=item41aeff92a2:m:mkOsQUPNjATtMjrs2sop96w
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Retro-Metal-Heart-Key-8GB-32GB-USB-2-0-Memory-Stick-Flash-Pen-Drive-Thumb-Drive-/282021774378?var=&hash=item41a9cec42a:m:mUu-mT4cJjlzlc5ldPiv_FQ
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-8-16-32-64GB-Guitar-Design-USB-2-0-Flash-Drive-Pendrive-Memory-Stick-U-Disk-/252530653711?var=&hash=item3acbfffa0f:m:mVPK0lfa_efKd0vT2kAKWDw
If you fill one up let me know the number of images you have on it. www.bbnpb.com

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

How about no bigger than a fingernail? I have a few of these (8, 16GB) that I use in my car for music. I insert them into the USB ports and then close the cover over them.

https://smile.amazon.com/Samsung-128GB-Flash-MUF-128BB-AM/dp/B017DH3O5A/ref=sr_1_35?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1477914253&sr=1-35&keywords=flash+drives