Lightroom Catalogue question

[austin_410berry]

So I wanted to move my catalog to an external drive because it was taking up so much room. I moved it over successfully but later figured out that I had to start a folder within the external drive to keep all of the pictures I had taken so that the question marks didn't appear on my thumbnails and I could edit past pictures. I am now figuring out that I potentially don't need that folder to keep every single picture I have ever taken just so I don't have the question marks. Am I correct in saying this? If so, how do I do this? 

[ManiacJoe]

The question marks indicate that the folders being tracked are no longer where LR expects them to be, which is reasonable since you move the folders to a new drive.

To tell LR where you moved them to, in the Folders panel, right-click on the top-most folder, select "find missing folder", navigate to the new location on the external drive. (Repeat as ncessary.) LR will automatically fix all the folders and files below the "found" folder.

[Ian Lyons]

You may find this tutorial useful http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

[dj_paige]

So I wanted to move my catalog to an external drive because it was taking up so much room

Do you mean by the word "catalog" the catalog file, or do you mean the photos?

but later figured out that I had to start a folder within the external drive to keep all of the pictures I had taken so that the question marks didn't appear on my thumbnails and I could edit past pictures.

This doesn't follow from what you said earlier. It is not necessary to have a folder within the external drive to keep all of the pictures. So maybe you should start over and explain the situation and explain in detail, step-by-step, leaving nothing out, everything you did.