Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

This question is about re-mapping an external hard drive. I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom photos. Currently 4 of 5 gigs is full I have it designated as D: The other day Windows 10 did a forced update on me. When it was done the computer was a mess thanks Microsoft! Anyways I got it cleaned up but one of the things it did was create a new partition as D: on the computers hard drive. It can not be accessed deleted or the name changed. It is a legit Windows 10 thing I checked that out. So here is my question. How do I remap Lightroom and my photos to another drive designation? I can figure out how to do one folder at a time in light room but there has to be a way to change it so Lightroom looks for those photos on another drive letter I designate. I am using the current version of lightroom CC classic.
Thanks

Bushpilot Loc: Minnesota

check this out http://www.startribune.com/alexander-windows-10-update-creates-fake-drive/489055151/

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Thank you that helped it took care of the d drive issue. I am missing some folders but I think I know how to find those. I am still curious how do you remap where lightroom looks for folders?

Bushpilot Loc: Minnesota

I don't know, I haven't had a problem with that, I use iMac. It was kind of a coincidence, I just saw an article in todays paper, the fellow had the Windows 10 update problem, and I saw your question this morning I thought maybe it could help you so I sent the link.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

It definately helped. Thank you

cmoroney Loc: Pasadena, California

Are you seeing question marks on the missing folders? If so, right-click on them and LR should bring up a file browser to let you navigate to their new location. I've done a lot of (intentional) migrating of photos from one hard disk to another and as soon as I told LR what the new location was, everything was fine.

I've never understood Window's C and D drives. Macs are so much easier as you can name a drive anything you want and it never gets renamed underneath you.

Catherine

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

I'm not sure one can do what you want, without creating a new 'space' for your images, a new catalog and then import from an old catalog to the new one. My best recommendation would be to talk with Adobe.

In the meanwhile, this article may be of help. https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2430919

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

No Lightroom was not recognizing the drive it was looking for the photos in D. They were listed but grayed out. Now I fixed the D drive problem but not all the folders were there. I fixed that by searching for missing photos. But here is the current question maybe someone can answer. Windows does sometimes change for no reason the letter assigned to a usb especially if you use a couple of drives in the same usb and change back and forth. Is there a way for me to go in to lightroom and change the drive location it is looking for. So if Windows changes the drive to E for example can I go into Lightroom and have them find them in E: I know how to change the letter of the drive in Windows but that is not what I am trying to accomplish. In case someone asks why? Let’s say I am using the usb designated as D for something else at the same time I want to access Lightroom photos and need to plug the external into another usb.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Thanks. I know how to do that. The problem was with that new D: drive it was not letting me get to the parent folder they were all greyed out. It was if it knew they were supposed to be there but they weren’t.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

I understand your dilemma. It's an interesting one. I'll continue watching this thread in hopes you find a remedy.

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

You can do that in Windows as well.

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-label-and-rename-any-drive-windows

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

You open Lightroom with the last catalog it used (default) - and it will have a question mark alongside the top level folder. You can then right click and select "update folder location" and you just tell it where it is.
Use diskmgmt to assign a permanent drive name or letter so this doesn't happen again.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

There was no question mark. This happens probably because the “new” drive was a partition on the hard drive and did not allow access. Windows did something to make it inaccessible. It also could not be renamed. However the instructions from a previous reply are to delete it. So that took care of that problem. Now the question is how can you tell lightroom to change the drive it is looking for the pictures on.

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

Using the procedure I suggested. When you open the catalog it won't find any pictures or folders. Updating the folder location will fix that.

One thing I do as a precaution - set LR to write changes to xmp. This will create a tiny "sidecar" file with all of the metadata for the image, for each and every image. This way, even if your catalog blows up, you still have your adjustments. And all of those changes can be read in other applications that can work with xmp files.

https://improvephotography.com/12010/important-lightroom-setting/

I've upgraded my own system several times, and helped others migrate their folders and catalogs to new drives, external drives and new computers.

These two articles essentially repeat what I have suggested as an approach.

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2430919

http://www.photographybay.com/2014/01/01/how-to-transfer-a-lightroom-catalog-and-photo-library-to-a-new-computer/

I hope this helps . . .

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Gene thanks for the help. One thing I don’t think I have explained clearly enough is this. When I opened lightroom the folder tree was shown in the “new” drive D but it was all greyed out. Right clicking on any of the parent folders or sub folders did nothing at all. I could not get to the option to update the location. Windows made that drive D completely inaccessible at least from lightroom.
For anyone who runs into this same problem The fix for that part was to delete the new D drive all together. Then plug in the external drive and rename it to D: in Windows. The tree showed up but many of the folders were missing. So then you have to have lightroom find the missing images and it puts them all back. One word of caution pay attention at this step because lightroom is essentially re importing the old folders and matching them with the changes made previously so even though they show up right away in the left panel tree you need to wait for them to complete importing which can take a while. It’s like they are being imported all over again except they will have any of the changes you already made to them.