Importing files from a new external hard drive

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 29, 2019
4 replies
1439 views

my old external 3TB drive was full so I purchased an 8TB replacement. I copied the files as is from the old drive to the new one. I had removed all of my prior LR catalogs so I was starting from scratch (that may not have been the right approach but was what occurred). I have roughly 30000 images including all the side files making the 3TB of image data. My files are organized such that I have one primary folder called “Lightroom” and all the images are under this one as sub- folders as well as sub-sub-folders etc. I then clicked the import tab, highlighted the high level “Lightroom” folder, marked the “Add” tab and the files started loading. When it completed, several folders and sub- folders were omitted. Of the 30000 images, only about 23000 showed up.

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JoeKostoss

Community Expert

Russ001 wrote
my old external 3TB drive was full so I purchased an 8TB replacement. I copied the files as is from the old drive to the new one...

I see this over and over again. When an EHD gets full, there is absolutely no need to put all those files on a new larger EHD. Lightroom works perfectly well with several EHDs. I recommend keeping the files on the first EHD and start adding new files to a new (and larger if you want} EHD. Keep both EHDs plugged in until such time that you find yourself not referring to old files and concentrating mostly on the new. You can then put the first EHD in storage. Pull it out only when you need it. Lightroom will remember!

TheDigitalDog

Inspiring

JoeKostoss wrote
Russ001 wrote
my old external 3TB drive was full so I purchased an 8TB replacement. I copied the files as is from the old drive to the new one...
I see this over and over again. When an EHD gets full, there is absolutely no need to put all those files on a new larger EHD.

There's some very good reasons to do so. One is having all the data in one location (drive), allowing the user to clone (backup/copy) to other drives in one operation. Or moving that external drive to another machine running LR where again, all the images reside. Plus one should seriously consider saving the catalog, the previews and the resets (Store Preset with catalog option) on that one big drive. Scattering this data over multiple drives when one big one will hold all the data serves no purpose and simply confuses the entire issue of finding and using said files.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

JoeKostoss

Community Expert

thedigitaldog wrote
There's some very good reasons to do so...

I agree that there are some good reasons...for some images...but for 3TB worth of images...really? To me, that doesn't seem realistic. In this case, we are looking at 2 EHDs, not multiple EHDs. To me, carrying 2 EHDs to another computer isn't a deal breaker. If some images need to be moved to the new EHD, so be it, that can be done as needed. Moving 3TB to the new EHD makes the available space on that new EHD only 5TB, 62.5% of its full capacity (Looking at it another way, that's a 60% increase in the cost of new storage space, pay for 8TB, get 5). OK, so for a few months, or maybe a year, this might be a little inconvenient, but in a year or so, the old images on the old EHD become sooo last century, and life goes on with the present and the future. What happens when the new 8TB (5TB really) becomes full? Buy a 20TB (12TB really) and copy all images and continue? So, yes there are some good reasons, but I don't think copying all images to the new EHD is worth the problems that this OP (and others in the past in this forum) are going through. For me, the best choice is still to power through the transition...and move on.

dj_paige

Legend

I copied the files as is from the old drive to the new one. I had removed all of my prior LR catalogs so I was starting from scratch (that may not have been the right approach but was what occurred).

Absolutely the wrong approach. No need to import anything. Simply point Lightroom to the files' new location, explained in this document: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

ManiacJoe

Inspiring

Assuming that you mean that the import process skipped some folders that existed on the hard drive, if you do a second import, do the previously skipped files get found and imported? (Turn on the skip duplicates option.)

Yes, you are correct in that deleting the old catalogs and doing a new import was the wrong approach. The correct thing to do was to open the old catalog and "relocate" the "lightroom" folder to be on the new drive.

B

Bill Sprague

Community Expert

Did you delete the catalogs and their backups? Do you still have the old drive?

R

Russ001Author

Participating Frequently

Yes, I had deleted all the catalogs within LR to start over new. I realize now from other comments that there was no need to do that. I still have the EHD original data.

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