Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?  (Read 5806 times)

rogerxnz

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 526
    • Hayman Lawyers
Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« on: September 16, 2013, 05:15:49 pm »

Pardon my ingnorance but I have a LR 4 catalogue on my MacBook Air and, to date, I have been importing new files into the catalogue by copying RAW files from CF cards. This process also copies the RAW files from the CF card to a designated folder on the MBA's hard drive.

The hard drive is now getting close to capacity and something needs to change!

I think I should now copy the RAW files from CF cards to an external hard drive and then import them into LR by adding them to the catalogue. I would be grateful if someone would confirm this. Also, would my options change under LR 5?

I guess if, after importing the files into LR, I move the RAW files from the present hard drive to a new hard drive, LR will not store their new location and I will have to find it manually. Is this right?

Is there a way to update the location information in LR 4 to show the new location of the RAW files? Any change under LR 5?

Thank you in advance for any light you can share on this topic.
Roger
Logged
Roger Hayman
Wellington, New Zealand

digitaldog

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 20630
  • Andrew Rodney
    • http://www.digitaldog.net/
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2013, 05:31:14 pm »

Why don't you just get a large(er) external drive and transfer all the raws, the catalog and associated files to that?
Logged
http://www.digitaldog.net/
Author "Color Management for Photographers".

rogerxnz

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 526
    • Hayman Lawyers
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2013, 05:45:23 pm »

Why don't you just get a large(er) external drive and transfer all the raws, the catalog and associated files to that?

That is one option but then I could not do any work in LR when on the go (for example, on the train) unless I had the external drive attached?

If this is true, I would quite like to keep the catalogue on the laptop.
Roger
Logged
Roger Hayman
Wellington, New Zealand

PeterAit

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4559
    • Peter Aitken Photographs
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2013, 05:54:14 pm »

What about replacing the laptop internal HD with a larger one?
Logged

digitaldog

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 20630
  • Andrew Rodney
    • http://www.digitaldog.net/
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2013, 05:55:59 pm »

That is one option but then I could not do any work in LR when on the go (for example, on the train) unless I had the external drive attached?

Yes, that's somewhat a limitation but at some point, you'll have to move to that direction as you shoot more images. This is what I do with my MacBook Pro. The upside is you have a drive dedicated to just your images, the LR catalog and finished files. It makes it very easy to clone to other drives for backup and duplication. You could get a 2TB external and if all you place is the associated image files, you'll hopefully be able to use it for quite awhile.

Of course you can remove other data from the internal drive, delete images etc but that's a bigger downside IMHO than just placing all the images in one big drive you have to take with you.
Logged
http://www.digitaldog.net/
Author "Color Management for Photographers".

tuthill

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 47
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2013, 06:31:33 pm »

Pardon my ingnorance but I have a LR 4 catalogue on my MacBook Air and, to date, I have been importing new files into the catalogue by copying RAW files from CF cards. This process also copies the RAW files from the CF card to a designated folder on the MBA's hard drive.

The hard drive is now getting close to capacity and something needs to change!

I think I should now copy the RAW files from CF cards to an external hard drive and then import them into LR by adding them to the catalogue. I would be grateful if someone would confirm this. Also, would my options change under LR 5?

I guess if, after importing the files into LR, I move the RAW files from the present hard drive to a new hard drive, LR will not store their new location and I will have to find it manually. Is this right?

Is there a way to update the location information in LR 4 to show the new location of the RAW files? Any change under LR 5?

Thank you in advance for any light you can share on this topic.
Roger


Ditto on the external drive.

I just have current files on my laptop and when I'm done working on them I'm import them into my external drive that is attached to my desktop.  My copy of LR on the desktop keeps the master catalog organised.
Logged

Tony Jay

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2965
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2013, 08:16:25 pm »

Roger the way to go here is to get a large capacity external hard drive.
With your existing image files transfer them from within Lr to the external hard drive from their current location.
This way Lr knows that the location of the images has changed and all will be well.
Do not use the OS to move your image files around - if you do then Lr will lose track of their location.
With new imports you can specify where they need to go (Lr does not make the decisions for you - you decide and tell it where the files need to be copied).
There are very small external drives that have a capacity up to 4 gB.
I personally locate the catalog on the external hard drive with the images to make backing up easy.
The external hard drive that holds the images and catalog is not used for any other data.

Tony Jay
Logged

rogerxnz

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 526
    • Hayman Lawyers
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2013, 02:34:13 am »

Roger the way to go here is to get a large capacity external hard drive.
With your existing image files transfer them from within Lr to the external hard drive from their current location.
This way Lr knows that the location of the images has changed and all will be well.
Do not use the OS to move your image files around - if you do then Lr will lose track of their location.
With new imports you can specify where they need to go (Lr does not make the decisions for you - you decide and tell it where the files need to be copied).
There are very small external drives that have a capacity up to 4 gB.
I personally locate the catalog on the external hard drive with the images to make backing up easy.
The external hard drive that holds the images and catalog is not used for any other data.

Tony Jay

OK, I surrender and will get an external HD! Thank you all for your guidance.

As it happens, I have a separate LR catalogue on my desktop Mac. I see there is an option to import from another catalogue so that should allow me to combine the two catalogues? I guess I will import one catalogue into the other or should I start with a third catalogue and import the two existing catalogues into that?

Getting an external HD, will also mean transferring the RAW files from my present laptop and desktop to the external HD. I see Jay's comment about using LR to transfer the images but I cannot see the menu option. Which mode should I be in to see this command? What is the top level menu item?

Looking ahead, what happens when my external HD fills up? Most of my images are 60MP and quite large (about 60MB each)!
Roger
Logged
Roger Hayman
Wellington, New Zealand

Manoli

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2296
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2013, 03:08:34 am »

I haven't read the whole thread, but I remember that this blog post gave some useful advice on moving files within Lightroom. Hope it helps.
http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/moving-images-in-lightroom.html
Logged

Tony Jay

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2965
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #9 on: September 17, 2013, 05:57:03 am »

Roger, the Library module is where you get to play.
If you scrutinize the R panel in the Library module you should see all the drives currently attached to your system and the folders within them.
If you want to move a folder with images in it from one drive to another it is just a case of drag-and-drop!
Simple as that.

On another note a suggestion is to create a new catalog called TEST.
Import just 5 images into the new catalog and then experiment with what I have explained.
When you are confident with how things work then that is the time to apply the lessons learned to your main catalog.
Any mistakes made in the TEST catalog are just part of the learning experience however the same errors applied to the main catalog might be disastrous.

If there are any matters arising just post the follow-up questions.

Tony Jay
Logged

hjulenissen

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2051
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #10 on: September 17, 2013, 07:21:40 am »

I believe that LR5 supports some kind of "reduced resolution database on-the-go" that might allow you to do editing using only the internal HD?

-h
Logged

john beardsworth

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4755
    • My photography site
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #11 on: September 17, 2013, 07:28:15 am »

It's known as "smart previews". You can generate them at any time and they are about 7-8% of the size of the raw file. With the catalogue is on the internal drive, and all the raw files on the external drive, you can then unplug the external and carry on working on the pictures. It's good enough for a wide range of uses.
Logged

Iluvmycam

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 533
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #12 on: September 17, 2013, 07:47:55 am »

I only have a 500 gig desktop. So I am full as well. I use desktop external HD's. But I try to trash the majority of my work that is not museum, portfolio or 2nd tier portfolio quality. I have no use for all the crap that does not have any use for me.

I do use mem cards like film, so I have an archive of all the deleted work. This has helped me a number of times when I deleted an important pix by mistake and had to recover the RAW from the cards. On top of this are numerous hard drive and DVD back ups.
Logged

tuthill

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 47
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #13 on: September 17, 2013, 01:17:39 pm »


Looking ahead, what happens when my external HD fills up? Most of my images are 60MP and quite large (about 60MB each)!
Roger


You add another external drive and continue on with it:-)
Logged

rogerxnz

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 526
    • Hayman Lawyers
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #14 on: September 22, 2013, 03:32:57 pm »

Roger, the Library module is where you get to play.
If you scrutinize the R panel in the Library module you should see all the drives currently attached to your system and the folders within them.
If you want to move a folder with images in it from one drive to another it is just a case of drag-and-drop!
Simple as that.

. . .
Tony Jay

Tony, what are you calling the "R panel"?

Initially, I thought you meant the panel on the right side of the screen but, on my MBA, the Folders panel is on the left of the screen.

Or did your "R" mean something different?

What I seem to be doing presently is using LR to export the MBA catalogue and image files to the external drive with a new catalogue name. I will then import the catalogue from the desktop Mac. After that, I will try to link the new catalogue to the files that went missing when I moved folders from my MBA to another external drive to free up space temporarily.

Hopefully, this will work out OK?
Roger
Logged
Roger Hayman
Wellington, New Zealand

john beardsworth

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4755
    • My photography site
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #15 on: September 22, 2013, 03:50:12 pm »

R means "right"
Logged

Tony Jay

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2965
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #16 on: September 22, 2013, 04:10:13 pm »

Tony, what are you calling the "R panel"?

Initially, I thought you meant the panel on the right side of the screen but, on my MBA, the Folders panel is on the left of the screeen...
You are absolutely correct (right!!) - that information is found in a subpanel on the left.
Apologies for the mix-up.

Tony Jay
Logged

Eric Myrvaagnes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 22814
  • http://myrvaagnes.com
    • http://myrvaagnes.com
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #17 on: September 22, 2013, 04:14:50 pm »

On my PC the folders are all in the L (Left) panel, not the R (Right) one.

(Just missed Tony's response.)
« Last Edit: September 22, 2013, 05:22:16 pm by Eric Myrvaagnes »
Logged
-Eric Myrvaagnes (visit my website: http://myrvaagnes.com)

Dinarius

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1212
Re: Basic question: running out of HD space—what to do?
« Reply #18 on: September 30, 2013, 03:26:49 am »

I've just ordered one of these....

http://www.lacie.com/ie/products/product.htm?id=10601

I will probably use it for RAW files only.

D.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up