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valentina26596696prnh
Participant
October 14, 2022
Question

LR catalogue on external disk (Mac Studio) fastest workflow

  • October 14, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 619 views

Hi, I have a mac studio max, with 64gb ram and 2 tb of disk space.

 

I'm searching for a fast external drive to work my files, where i can put both the catalogue and the RAW files (canon R5). 

 

I use a NAS for storage and back up, but I'm looking for a fast disk with a fast workflow where I can work the files and catalogue as well, then when I'm done I'll trasfer them on the NAS (i have months where I have to work on 2000/3000 pics a day for weeks and I need lightroom to be as fast as possibile and not slow down)

 

I've done some good fast work on the Sandisk ssd but I was wondering if anybody have some better solution (it can also be a desktop solution, not necessarly portable)

 

Thank you all! 🙂

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2 replies

TheDigitalDog
TheDigitalDog
Inspiring
October 14, 2022

This may be worth viewing: 

https://www.computer-darkroom.com/blog/will-an-ssd-improve-adobe-lightroom-performance/

And of course:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/optimize-performance-lightroom.html

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    October 14, 2022

    Perhaps this question will help me understand the issues here: what parts of your workflow are slow now?

     

    As far as I know, just about any SSD ought to be fast enough if everything is working properly. I say that because disk speed is almost never the bottleneck causing preformance problems (again assuming everything is working properly and the disk has a reasonable amount of free space).

    V
    valentina26596696prnhAuthor
    Participant
    October 14, 2022

    since my mac studio is new, for now everything is smooth, but I do have the catalogues on the mac SSD (both from LR and CaptureOne) and after a while they tend to occupy a lot of disk space, reducing the overall performance.

    That's why I'm thinking of using another disk to for catalogues and such, in order to avoid getting my OS disk full byt he end of the year 😄

    I also use Da Vinci and was thinking of using an external drive for the same reason, but it has to be a fast one.

    Thunderbolt is faster then UsbC right?

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    October 14, 2022

    I do have the catalogues on the mac SSD (both from LR and CaptureOne) and after a while they tend to occupy a lot of disk space, reducing the overall performance.

     

    Ok, stop right there. You are assuming that you will have future problems because of disk space, which could of course happen. The solution is simply to get more disk space, usually no need to move the catalog, but you probably want to move the photos. For LrC, the method to move photos is given here in "Part 2 — Updating Folder Location" of this document: https://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm .


    As far as your question about Thunderbolt and USBC, and about which drives are fastest, the speed of the disk and the speed of the transfer from disk to memory is almost completely irrelevant. If you had the fastest disks possible, you might notice only a very very tiny improvement in Lightroom Classic speed, as disk speed is almost never a bottleneck.

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