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Heirloom Bob
Heirloom Bob
Inspiring
February 28, 2023
Question

Lightroom Catalog and SSD question

  • February 28, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 2517 views

My Lightroom Catalog is about 7gb and is stored on an external mechanical drive. My images are stored and backed up on a Synology unit. Contemplating buying an external SSD for the catalog OR moving the catalog to my internal SSD that has 350gb of free space. I suspect I would see an apprciable increase in speed with the catalog on an SSD but is the internal or external SSD going to make any significant difference?

{Windows 10)

 

Bob

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4 replies

T
Thor Egil Leirtrø
Known Participant
February 28, 2023

I would never dare place my catalogue on an external disk. That puts you just one tiny cable glitch away from a corrupted catalogue, and it is slower than any internal disk. Lightroom writes all your editing opertions to the catalogue. It's the most write intensive part of the system, so put it on the fastest internal disk available.

 

Thor Egil LeirtrøFreelance concert photographer - thoregilphoto.com
dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
February 28, 2023

Is there a tiny cable that could "glitch" when the catalog is on an internal disk?

    Keith Reeder
    Keith Reeder
    Participating Frequently
    February 28, 2023

    Huhh?

    The unreliable cable would be a problem with an external disk only.


    @Thor Egil Leirtrø wrote:

    Huhh?

     

    Not sure what's confusing you: the inside of your computer has fallible cabling too - that's DJ's point, and he's absoutely right.

     

    Oh - and from the community guidelines:

     

    * Website addresses or links in signatures will be considered spam and a breach of the community guidelines, which could lead to your account being banned.  
    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    February 28, 2023

    What is the actual concern here? Is your concern speed? Some things in Lightroom Classic can be sped up by a faster disk, while other things in Lightroom Classic cannot be sped up by a faster disk. If the concern is speed, please state clearly what actions in LrC are slow.

     

    Or is the concern disk space? (you said you have 350gb free, so that doesn't sound like it).

    Heirloom Bob
    Heirloom BobAuthor
    Inspiring
    February 28, 2023

    Speed primarily, LR is sluggish in spite of a good video card and sufficient RAM. With use, responsivenes diminishes although it is restored by closing and reopening LR. Just thought moving the catalog to an SSD might be an improvement.

     

    Bob

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    February 28, 2023
    quote

    Speed primarily, LR is sluggish in spite of a good video card and sufficient RAM. With use, responsivenes diminishes although it is restored by closing and reopening LR. Just thought moving the catalog to an SSD might be an improvement.

     

    Bob


    By @Heirloom Bob

     

    I specifically asked what actions are slow in Lightroom Classic. I don't see an answer to that question. As I said, some problems can be fixed with a faster disk, other problems cannot be fixed by a faster disk.

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 28, 2023

    Agreed. Moving the catalog from a spinning disk to an SSD will indeed make a significant difference. External SSD or internal SSD much less.

     

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
    Jim Wilde
    Community Expert
    Jim WildeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 28, 2023

    Based on my own experience a few years ago, I would say that while you might be able to notice some difference, I doubt very much that it would make a significant difference.

     

    What might be an issue, however, would be the size of the catalog and it's previews folder(s). Have you checked the size of the total catalog folder to make sure it fits comfortably within say 250GB, as you'd need to keep at least 100GB free for working space. In my case, the reason I moved my catalog folders from the internal SSD was because I couldn't keep enough free space on the SSD to allow LrC to operate smoothly, so I moved them to an external USB3-attached SSD and I don't recall any particular problem. Depending on your system specs, of course, you might be able to connect an external SSD via a faster port, which would be even better.

    Heirloom Bob
    Heirloom BobAuthor
    Inspiring
    February 28, 2023

    Total folder size is under 9gb so working space should be fine. Is the best way to "move" the catalog to my internal SSD, to simply export from Lightroom to the new location?

    Jim Wilde
    Community Expert
    Jim WildeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 28, 2023

    9GB seems low, especially if the catalog file itself is 7GB. 

     

    However, you don't export the catalog to move it....simply copy the catalog folder to the chosen location on the internal SSD (typically within the user Pictures folder), then double-click on the catalog file to launch LrC and it should "set" the preferences to ensure that it uses that catalog on future restarts (you should check the Preferences>General tab to verify that the correct catalog has been set in the "Default Catalog" section).

     

    See this article for more detail: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/find-move-rename-catalog/

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