external hard drives are full--how do I move everything to new larger drive

[damdeziner]

I have two external drives that are full with images. I acquired a three terabyte external drive and would like to move the recent catalog and all associated images etc. to the new larger drive.
I have already copied the images from the old drives to the new one (1.5 terabytes of images took many hours).
What is the easiest way to link the recent catalog to the location of the new drive, images and folder scheme?
I figure there must be an easy way that will not take an overnight amount of time to accomplish?

Any help with this is much appreciated...thanks in advance!

[john beardsworth]

See http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=69182.msg549218#msg549218

But as you have already copied files across, in your catalogue right click folders and choose Update Folder Location

[damdeziner]

Thanks for the link--I will check on that for sure!
I understand the "update folder" "update files" and was assuming that's what I was going to do, the problem is I do not see the folder hierarchy in the new drive.
When I hit the import button (as if to do an import) the folder structure that I placed on the new drive appears.
The new drive root structure (if that's the way to say it) go like this D:\my photos\fromw:\fromf: )f: and w: is the old drives.

Thanks very much.

[fike]

To make this easier and more forgiving, in the future you may want to export metadata to folders instead of keeping it in a centralized database file.  You will still have the central database for thumbnails, previews, and stuff, but if you lost or corrupted your main catalog file you wouldn't lose your valuable metadata.

[john beardsworth]

I understand the "update folder" "update files" and was assuming that's what I was going to do, the problem is I do not see the folder hierarchy in the new drive.

Then right click the folder in LR and choose Show Parent Folder. Update the folders first - once you've done so, you may not even need to update the files.

Alternatively, undo what you've done so far, and do it properly as in the link.

Do not import the pictures again and do not use Synchronize - they are not the way to get you out of trouble, and you will lose some of the work you've done in LR. With a Lightroom catalogue, you don't need to mess around saving metadata out to the files and it is perfectly possible to repoint your folders in the Folders panel to their new locations.

[damdeziner]

Thanks everyone for the tips and advice...much appreciated!

I have been moving the files within LR as per the link that John made available here--seems to be working fine but because of the amount of images is still in the process of the move!
I did not know that the files would be "moved" to the new drive and not "copied" when done as described in John's earlier post.
I ultimately wanted to send the Catalog and images to the new drive and retire the old drives to minimize the resources of the system (I have quite a few usb devices as is).
I will redundantly copy the files back to the old drives for archival purposes and this will take the better part of a night and a day.

Unless I'm missing something I think that Adobe needs to address a better way to facilitate this manner of "changing out data as we grow" scenario.
I couldn't imagine doing this when I have five 100,000 images it would take days to freshen up.

It could simply be done in such a manner that you point LR in the direction of the images, the data gets attached and if left running (LR) the data catches up behind the scenes yet works on a by demand squeaky wheel gets the grease manner. In this way you can still work and when the action has finally completed a real time % progress bar will prompt to let you know all is well or that some images have issues allowing you to follow up and get quick closure.

Cheers!