Moving from several external drives to one new external

[NormSc]

All Lightroom CC image files (Windows 11) are located in four external drives all USB connected to desktop in one catalog. I intend to move all from the four to one large external drive also to be USB connected. How can I acomplish this globally and not face the dreaded "..could not be found.." message necessitating locating over 5000 files in the new location.  The hieracy of the current catalog is Library-Folders-drive letter of each of the four externals-multiple folders by year within that drive-multiple named folders withiin each year-the image files. 

By moving globally, I mean not moving each of th 5000 files separately. Moving within LR by the drive letter of the external drives would suffice if it can be done.

[NormSc]

To clarify my initial post, I can easily move from the old to the new using Windows Explorer but then the could not locate message will appear. It there a way to globally locate the old ? 

[dj_paige]

See Figure 4 here — it allows you to reconnect entire hierarchy of folders by reconnecting the parent folder.

[JohanElzenga]

Move the folders using Windows Explorer, and then do not 'reconnect' the individual images, but reconnect the top folders. 

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

[Conrad_C]

And just in case it isn’t already clear…if you plan to reorganize the folders after the four volumes are combined into one, reconnect all files before changing any folder hierarchies.

In other words, the cleanest first step in combining the four volumes is to copy each of the old volumes so that each exists in a top level folder on the large new volume. When done, the new volume should look like this:

Large Volume top level

Folder 1: Contains all folders, copied unchanged, from USB drive 1

Folder 2: Contains all folders, copied unchanged, from USB drive 2

Folder 3: Contains all folders, copied unchanged, from USB drive 3

Folder 4: Contains all folders, copied unchanged, from USB drive 4

Once that is done, you can open the Lightroom Classic catalog, and in the Folders panel, select the top level entry that corresponds to each USB drive, and reconnect it to the new top level location. So start by selecting USB drive 1 in the Folders panel, and reconnect it to Folder 1 on the new large volume. That should reconnect all photos in the hierarchy under it. Repeat for each of the other three volumes until they are all reconnected to their folder on the new large volume.

After you verify that there are no more disconnected (missing) files, you are free to use the Folders panel to reorganize the folders, and the changes will be applied to the folders on the desktop.

[NormSc · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for the comments. The process has begun and should be successfully concluded in a day or two (so I hope) as the moving from first old disk to new external disk consumed 11 hours using Windows Explorer, Each old disk contained 4 TB,

[NormSc]

I did a trial of reconnecting (prior to reading dj_page and the use of "Update Folder Location") following  the LightroomQueen method of renaming the old. Rather than renaming each old folder,  using Disk Management  changed the drive letter of the old disk resulting in the "Missing folder" icon leaving all files in tact on the old..