Jodevoy

I usually download my photos directly to an external hard drive (E) and then import them into Lightroom. I am planning a trip and am concerned about not having this external drive with me for a week as I attend a photo tour. How safe is it to travel with an external hard drive? I have a cushioned travel case made for this purpose but haven’t used it yet. I realize it’s another item to pack and half-pound for my weight limit, but otherwise, am I better off to just save my photos to my laptop’s hard drive (C) and move them to the external drive when I return home? I will not erase any of my memory cards until I return and are sure they are on the external drive.

My other concern is accessing the images from my C drive (laptop) instead of my E drive (external hard drive) in Lightroom. Can I just transfer them (their folder) back to E upon my return through Lightroom or am I looking for trouble? I hope this is clear.

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

I can't speak to any Lightroom issues or how changing drive letters will affect it.

The external hard drive is a bit more durable than you think. I usually have one tucked in a random pocket of whatever carry on bag I am using.

ClarkJohnson Loc: Fort Myers, FL and Cohasset, MA

You are concerned about the possible fragility of the mechanical mechanism inside an external hard drive? I don’t think that should be much of a worry for drives from reliable companies that designate their products as “portable,” “passport,” etc. After all, your laptop probably uses the same technology. A simple way to avoid the worry, and save space and weight, is to get a solid state drive, which has no moving parts. I recently used such a device, to save space, on a week long photo trip with no problems.

Have a good trip.

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

I know nothing at all about Lightroom, but I do travel extensively - often to areas with limited internet access. Since I’m a belt and suspenders and garter-belt sort of person , when travelling I back-up to both my computer’s internal drive, an external hard drive as well as keeping the original memory card in my money belt. It’s always a good idea to spread out your back-ups to different pieces of luggage. My husband carries my second memory card in his money belt. My main cameras have 2 card slots and I set one as “back-up”. I never ever ever ever delete pics from either of my memory cards until I arrive back home and complete and confirm the back-ups to my main drives at home.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Do which ever you want. Although, if your external HD is your primary copy of your images, you might consider placing the WIP images from the trip onto your laptop and leave that primary HD safely behind at home. I keep my images on an external HD with a second HD as a duplicate backup. When I travel, I take the back-up HD as the 'travel HD' for the duration of the trip. I tend to capture more images during the travel than can be saved onto the laptop's disk. I sync all the image files onto the primary HD when I get home.

Regarding working with LR and the primary HD when you get home, you can copy the images where they belong onto the primary HD and then import into LR. If you've done some LR edits on the road, you can use LR to move the images between folders within LR. You can also move the files external and just update their locations inside LR, again depending on which is easiest for your needs. You can export from the laptop's catalog and import into the main LR catalog as still another option. The several options really depend on the amount of images and edits to be communicated between the working versions and the main computer configuration.

Properframe Loc: US Virginia

It may be best to keep the same method you are familiar with. If you use an external when at home base then keep the same practice in the field. When you are tired and in an unfamiliar place, possibly with distractions, it is not the time to have a new routine.
I personally download each days files from the cards to the laptop hard drive. Then backup to an external hard drive. XQD cards are pretty expensive to have a dozen on hand. After any remarkable day I will put a third copy onto an SD card and set that aside just in case. Never needed those but it is mental security. I travel with the external in a zipped vest pocket. The weight is minimal.
There was a lengthy discussion earlier in the week about redirecting Lightroom to your files when moved. Search for and read that topic and you will have no issues.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

If I travel by air I do not take my laptop. I have a carry-on and my camera bag is my personal bag. I have nine cards and will usually use one card for a day or two (depending on my stay) to minimize any possible loss on a card. If I were to take the laptop on a plane, the external drive would be in the laptop bag, and I would check the suitcase, carrying the camera and laptop bags on the plane.

If I travel by car I take my laptop and an external "pocket drive" (WD My Passport Ultra) and copy to the laptop and external drive daily.

I always leave the images on the cards until I get home and copy them to the desktop. I'll backup the desktop, and after Carbonite backs up the new files from the desktop, I erase the cards.

Seabastes

If you don't already have a pocket sized hard drive it might be well to buy one which would cost around $100.

Depending on the the amount of images you shoot and if they are jpg, or RAW, an other option that takes up very little space and is reasonably priced would be to buy a couple of 64 Gig SD cards on sale. I bought two for a total a little over $30.

I think the pocket sized Hard Drive is the best investment but if you did the SD cards instead you could download your days image on one of these SD cards with your laptop.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

As has been noted, an SSD, rather than a conventional HD, is a better choice - small, light, fast and immune to shock and hard knocks. My choice would be Intel or Samsung.

Jeff Clow Loc: Iowa and Texas

I would be wary of trusting your photos exclusively to an external portable hard drive. They are prone to failure ....less so if they are the solid state drives. I have lead photo tours for a decade and several of my clients/friends have had brand new portable hard drives fail in the field.

Don’t take my word solely on it. Read the horror stories on Amazon of portable hard drives failing. Because memory cards have gotten so inexpensive...I suggest using a new one every day when you’re traveling and backing them up when you get home to a desktop computer.

Your experience may be different. But I have seen it happen several times to the utter dismay of the affected photographer - including once last month of a brand new portable hard drive unit in South Africa.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Completely agree. If your photos are invaluable,
* write or both cards if your camera has dual card slots
* don’t use huge cards - go for more smaller cards as opposed to fewer large ones (less eggs in one basket)
* carry enough cards (they are inexpensive) so that you don’t need to erase/reuse cards - keep the data on the
cards until you are SURE the data is copied to at least two other storage mechanisms
* copy (not move) onto an SSD external. Or if you have good internet access, upload to the cloud.

Multiple copies of your data is the answer.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I would never take my primary external photo drive off my desk unless my house was on fire.

When I travel I do one of the following things:
1. Take the laptop, download photos into it daily, and use a small portable external drive to back them up. Then manually integrate them into LR when I return home or let Adobe cloud do it.
2. Take the ipad, download the photos to the ipad and keep them on the cards till I get home. Then I reimport them from the cards or let Adobe cloud move them to Lightroom classic on the desktop disks.
3. If there is sufficient internet while I’m traveling, I download to whichever device I’m traveling with and back up to Adobe cloud. In this case, I don’t need the portable backup drive, and all my photos are nicely copied to my photo drive and added to LR Classic upon my arrival home. With the edits I’ve done on the road.

Jodevoy

Thank you everyone for your very helpful comments and suggestions. I currently download my photos to a portable WD Elements drive and then back that up to WD Elements desktop hard drive. Yes, I was primarily concerned about jostling it while traveling resulting in damage or failure. I just returned from a camera club meeting and learned more about the solid state portable hard drives that MrBumps2U and Trix mentioned above which will be half the size and should travel without a hitch since no moving parts. Next I will have to see how much memory I have available on my laptop (which I use only for my photos). That may help, too. I will bring my ipad and will back up there, too, but I use Lightroom on the laptop. I really appreciate everyone’s quick and complete responses!

Jodevoy

One way or another I expect I will bring the portable external HD, I am concerned about my laptop not having enough room since I shoot both RAW and jpeg. I read your second paragraph with great interest. I am aware that you can move images between LR folders but have not had to do that yet. Looks like I’ll have a lot to learn.

I appreciate your guidance.

Jodevoy

The horror stories are exactly what make me so concerned! I’ll be traveling to sub-zero temperatures but not working outside but this is a real concern for me. I’ll be looking into both the Solid state hard drives and also checking the memory available right on my laptop.