I finally got LightRoom (1.4.1 on an XP Pro machine). I've got several 500GB harddrives-full of image files. They were organized into a consistent folder hierarchy that worked well for me. Now, after poring over Kelby's LR book, which is quite instructive, I realize that my fantasy of just having LR somehow ingest my folder structure and import the files won't work. I need lots of help.
I also have 3 fairly empty 500G hard drives: one for importing files from current shoots, one as a backkup for those, and a third for periodic backups of my internal drives.
My folder structure is as follows: X:\LatestDownloads\Date_Shootname.
Sometimes I have subfolders, as in X:\LatestDownloads\Date_Shootname\MustPrint, or \BestOf, etc.
There are 3 500Gb drives with this folder structure, with Date_Shootname folders from 1999 through the current time.
I have no problem organizing my current and future imported files according to this structure, with files from the CF cards getting copied and renamed yymmdd_Shootname_0001.
What is the best way to get LR to deal with all my pre-LR folders? Would I be best off creating 1 library or more than 1 library? Once I have all my files in LR it would be easy for me to arrange catalogues, add keywords, etc.
I am so poor at organizing that I would really appreciate a step-by-step plan for setting up my LR system.
I wish that there were some way to point LR at the LatestDownloads folder on each HDD, and have it process the folders and subfolders.