Catalog getting too big in MyPictures/C Drive, What to do?!

[Phil Indeblanc]

Yes, my catalog is getting too large. Cant we save cats on externals?

Any solution?  I use SSD drives and they are a bit limited in size. Other wise speed would be limiting in usage :-)

[digitaldog]

Cant we save cats on externals?

Of course and you really should. Buy the biggest external drive you can and dedicate it only for Lightroom’s files (catalog, previews) and images. Then, when you need to back this all up it is super easy to do with a cloning utility like SuperDuper, ChronoSync etc. Now you can take that external drive and hook it up to any computer, Mac or Windows with the LR application, have access to all your data. If you take one clone on location, add images and do work, just clone the other direction to back up this new data alone (fast). Pop one clone in a fire proof safe. Tip: Select the preference to store presets with catalog. Otherwise all those important presets reside on the boot drive and that makes taking all those externals far more difficult. And if you use a DNG workflow, even the DNG camera profiles will be embedded into the DNG not on your boot disk. You’ll have nearly everything you ever need on this dedicated (set) of external drives. I say nearly as Adobe still places some items like lens profile back on the boot drive. Someday I really hope they allow us to put everything necessary in one location and better, allow us to sync said files.

[Phil Indeblanc]

thank you DD :-)

Was this something they did after some versions?
Either I'm thinking of something else, or I think in v2 orv3 we couldn't?

[pcgpcg]

The version of LR makes no difference as LR doesn't know if the drive is external or internal.  That is all handled by the OS. Just assign your catalog to a drive that happens to be external.

[Phil Indeblanc]

muchos gracias

[PhotoEcosse]

...I keep my Lightroom catalogue, etc., on a 2Tb external drive and back it up to a second 2Tb external drive automatically daily.

Remember that the back-ups that LR makes are only useful for management purposes, not really for security purposes.

By the way, a lot of the space apparently taken up by the LR catalogue is not necessarily the current catalogue itself but, rather, multiple back-ups (if you are still using default settings). There is no harm (that I can think of) to regularly pruning this so that only the most recent couple are retained.

[Lismore]

This is interesting as I am planning to put together a PC for Photoshop and Lightroom only.

I plan to have the programs a a 80GB partition of a 250SSD, the balance being used for My Lightroom Catalogue. Processed images will be exported to 2 x 2 TB Raid internal hard drives. Backup will be to an External 2TB hard drive.

Are there any speed issues if My Catalogue is on and External hard drive compared to being on the SSD?

Any thoughts on the proposes storage configuration appreciated!!

[Phil Indeblanc]

Right now  I use SSD's for the LR catalogue, and if you have a large one like mine, it can feel sluggish at times. So putting on a spin drive will likely feel slow for me... You will be fresh starting at that point....Relativity Watson!  :-)

If I were you, I would surely keep the 200+gb size for full C drive. With PageFile specially if you have full boat 32gb ram, and swap, plus other apps you might be wanting to test, you'll need it.

I have the Swap on 2 seperate SDD drives, and the PageFile yet on another SSD drive, and still need room. Your needs may vary.

[aphotoguru]

Have you considered moving/using cloud OP? I use 2 Seagate external HDDs (3TB each) and use a cloud also for my most important shoots, although there are spacial restrictions for serious Photographers at the moment; I can see the amount of space increasing to meet demand in the near future.

[huguito]

How do I move the catalog and preview from the MAC hard drive to the external drive with the pictures?
And even more important, how do I instruct Lightroom to keep them there on the external drive?

[Rhossydd]

Have you considered moving/using cloud OP?

The cloud may be fine for backing up data, but would be a terrible place to keep a working LR catalogue. Too slow and unreliable.

OP; Just buy another 250 gb SSD for your LR catalogue. 80gb is only just enough for an OS and apps and SSDs last longer and better when there's plenty of free space.
The cost is very low for drives like this now and keeps things nicely separated, fast and easy to back up.