How to : move all my images to new disk, continue using my current LR4 catalog?

[Morris Taub]

I knew this day would come but haven't thought about it much, until today. I'm slowly running out of space on my current drive, so I bought a new bigger one. It should be here in a few days. Want to copy over all my images to the new drive and use my current Lightroom catalog. What's the best way to do this, please?

Not sure this matters, but I have one main Photo folder. Within that my images are divided into yearly, then monthly, and finally date and subject matter folders.

Thanks kindly for your help with this...oh, I'm using LR 4.1 and I'm on a mac, OS 10.6.8 system....

[john beardsworth]

See this post

[Morris Taub]

See this post

2.In your Lightroom catalogue, in Folders, click the + and add a new folder on the new drive
3.Still in Lightroom, now drag folders from your existing hard drive and drop them on the new drive.

Hi John, thanks...this looks pretty straight forward. Am I adding a new folder to the new drive so LR registers the link to it? And does it matter if i drag my 'pictures' folder to that new folder or can I just drag it to the drive?...

This way lightroom has kept track of the move? When I next open LR will it just go to the new disk to use my images? Maybe this will all be clearer when I actually do it...

thanks for your help John...

[john beardsworth]

"Am I adding a new folder to the new drive so LR registers the link to it?"

That's pretty well it. Make sure you follow step 2 exactly - I've added a bit more detail to that post. Once you add this new folder to the new drive (maybe called "Photos"), the new drive will be shown in the Folders panel with this one empty folder. You can then drag your existing folders over to it, just using LR's Folders panel and not Finder/Explorer. It is simpler than you may imagine.

John

[Rhossydd]

Another, simple, approach is to use disk cloning software. Clone the existing drive to the newer larger one and put it in to replace the old drive.
Keep the old drive safe as a back up.

[Morris Taub]

John, just wanted to report on this 'move' being successful...my new drive now has all my images, nearly 40,000, and my catalog linked to it like before...i did make sure i had back up catalogs saved and also all my images saved to other drives, just in case...

things that surprised me...i thought lightroom would duplicate my images to the new drive, not actually move them to it and delete from the old location...

I also would have liked to have been able to drag my entire folder of images to the new drive and drop it onto the drive...as it was, i had to drop them into the new folder i created on the drive so now i've got my original folder inside a new folder which wasn't necessary...i mean it's just an extra layer of folder for no real reason other than this physical move...

I almost followed Rhossydd's suggestion, i have CCC, but wanted to make sure my catalog was a good, solid, working version so decided to go with your suggestion...

ok, so now i'm set for a long while i think...thanks for your help...

Morris

[jjj]

things that surprised me...i thought lightroom would duplicate my images to the new drive, not actually move them to it and delete from the old location...

Whenever you move folders or images in LR it moves the files. This also includes when moving between hard drives, which is where things get will get copied to second drive if using a file manager such as Finder or Explorer.

I also would have liked to have been able to drag my entire folder of images to the new drive and drop it onto the drive...as it was, i had to drop them into the new folder i created on the drive so now i've got my original folder inside a new folder which wasn't necessary...i mean it's just an extra layer of folder for no real reason other than this physical move...

You simply have copied the parent photo folder over to new HD and then right clicked on folder and chosen 'update folder location'

ok, so now i'm set for a long while i think...thanks for your help...

So that means you have a constantly updating back up disk for your photos and HD. It's not if a HD fails, it's when it fails.

Morris
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[HSakols]

Hi,
I also have switched hard drives.  Before I came across this post, I started importing photos from my new drive but then stopped it halfway realizing that I was doing something wrong.  In the folder module should I just hit (-) and get rid of what I started?  Then I can just drag my image folder from my older drive all in lightroom.  Does this make sense?  I don't what to proceed until I understand what is going on.  And yes I have backups of my images and catalog. 

Hugh

[john beardsworth]

Yes, Hugh, that's how I would proceed. The only detail is that in Explorer / Finder I would remove the files that have been copied to the new drive (see below though). When you're moving existing photos to a new drive, you should never need to re-import anything.

Apart from the recommendation earlier in this post, you have apparently copied the files using Finder/Explorer (and I assume you have copied exactly the the same folder structure - if not, ignore this method). So hit the - , but then another equally-good method would be to right click your existing (old drive) folders in LR, select "Update Folder Location", and point the folders to the equivalent folders on the new drive. Again, no re-importing.