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Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Adobe Lightroom Q&A => Topic started by: Eric Brody on June 08, 2013, 01:07:28 pm

Title: copied photos to a new bigger hard drive-how can I tell Lightroom?
Post by: Eric Brody on June 08, 2013, 01:07:28 pm
I just purchased a new, larger hard drive on which to store my photos in my Mac Pro tower. I have copied my images (about 1.5TB) to the new drive. I want to tell LR to use the new drive, instead of the old one. How can I tell Lightroom to do this?
My catalog has not and will not be moved, nor has it changed. I plan to use the old storage drive (just photos), (still in the tower) as a backup drive after I'm sure LR can "see" the new drive. I already have multiple backups, including one off-site so I'm quite comfortable with my current back up system. Seems simple, but when I searched the archives, I kept getting references to moving the catalog or the LR program itself.
I also own Martin Evening's LR 4 book and could not find the answer to this seemingly simple question. Sorry if I've missed something obvious or easy to find.
Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks.
Title: Re: copied photos to a new bigger hard drive-how can I tell Lightroom?
Post by: Eric Brody on June 08, 2013, 02:15:38 pm
Oops, I may have found my answer. In another review of Evening's LR 4 book, om page 104, it explains how to move folders, something I've done many times in the past. I'm now in the process of doing just that, moving folders of images from the old "storage" disk to the new one. It will take some time, of course. Any other aspects of this I might have missed would be appreciated.


Title: Re: copied photos to a new bigger hard drive-how can I tell Lightroom?
Post by: kaelaria on June 08, 2013, 02:16:32 pm
If you already moved the files you just right click on the parent folder and choose locate.  It then is updated for the new location.
Title: Re: copied photos to a new bigger hard drive-how can I tell Lightroom?
Post by: Box Brownie on June 08, 2013, 08:09:06 pm
Hi

Like the OP I am planning on installing a new much larger 2TB drive (I will ultimately be installing two off 2TB drives for redundancy copying/1st stage backup) but I was looking at it differently as follows:-

I was going to copy via Windows Explorer all the folders of images (many have sub folders) which are all in the root of the drive (i.e. not in a Top Level Parent Folder) to the new drive (likely named Q to start with) and once all have been copied and the old drive removed reassign the drive letter of the old drive (this is drive F) using the Disk Management controls.  I hope that makes sense ;)  The old drive is only a 500GB and I may at some stage format it and use it again but for now would store it.

So in the first case does that make sense and will LR see the newly copied HDD with its folders of images because I have maintained the drive letter allocation???

Or would it be better if handled all within LR by adding the new drive(s) allocating drive letter(s) as appropriate and using the "Add Folder" method and once done just simply remove the old F drive?  But everything I have read so far about this method says you need to create a Top Level Folder such as 'My Images'.


Now for the record my drive setup is that my OS is on the C drive, all my programs on E drive and that is where the LR lrcat catalogue file is located and as noted F drive is my images store drive.

Really looking for some specific best practices/methods for what in principal I surmise is a very simple job :D
Title: Re: copied photos to a new bigger hard drive-how can I tell Lightroom?
Post by: Costas on June 09, 2013, 05:22:50 am
..... So in the first case does that make sense and will LR see the newly copied HDD with its folders of images because I have maintained the drive letter allocation???  .......

Just did that myself, moved all my image files from a 1TB drive to a new 2TB drive, reassigned the drive letters so new drive had the same drive letter as previously. No problems encountered, Lightroom just works with the new drive

You need to keep the same folder structure when copying from old to new of course.
Title: Re: copied photos to a new bigger hard drive-how can I tell Lightroom?
Post by: John Caldwell on June 09, 2013, 09:21:12 am
If you already moved the files you just right click on the parent folder and choose locate.  It then is updated for the new location.

This is how I move large amounts of data, in the interest of speed, rather than from a "within" LR move. Renaming the "new"drive with the same name as the "old" drive works too, but requires the same image folder placement wrt root directory as in the old drive, or you'll be left with the same need to "Locate" your image folder(s).

File and folder moves from within LR seem quite reliable, but often slower to conduct in my hands than expected.

John Caldwell