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Storage workflow - with removable storage

Explorer ,
Apr 28, 2018 Apr 28, 2018

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How to manage storage of photos?

My ideal general approach might be: (but I welcome discussing other methods for interest)

  1. SDcards for the prime originals - we only add to these and buy cards as needed. Never delete. No, not even total dross. They live (usually) offsite (in my work drawer). I already do this.
  2. Treat some sort of removable storage (USB-C flash sticks or fast SDcards) as the "working originals" that I keep nearby at home. We freely delete complete dross via "Flag as Reject" from these.
  3. Adobe Cloud as "backup+sharing2family". Ideally I'll shove up only "Flagged as Picked" and maybe even "Rated 3+ stars" or something.
  4. Adobe Cloud is also useful for "I have some phone pics that I'd like to share back to my Mac and ultimately put on other storage".

I have just bought a Macbook Pro with 512GB of local SSD. I don't want this to be clogged up with my entire collection and I cannot let it sync down everything that might end up on the cloud, as that's going to grow. Use of built in SSD for caching and catalogue and previews would be preferred.

  1. Am I going to need to work off a big external disk/NAS that can always hold my photo collection and expand this as my collection expands?
  2. Or can I work off multiple flash devices, plugging them in as required?
  3. Something else?

2 is preferable as I can work on the train, taking a small subset of work with me.

2 is also more organic - run out of space, buy another device.

Small USB-C flash devices will also be faster than my NAS because I'll buy the good ones.

  • But I'm not sure if it fits with LR's handling of storage?
  • Is LR happy with subsets of photos being available intermittently under one catalogue?
  • Will it prompt me to insert the correct storage flash (stick/drive) if I try to work with a particular photo?

Sorry if the question seems dumb and confused - I'm starting with LR(web/CC+Classic) from cold and I'd like to get organised with the right storage workflow straightaway (processing workflows are easier to evolve).

Thanks folks

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LEGEND ,
Apr 28, 2018 Apr 28, 2018

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Well, I'll be 75 years old next month. Sorry, but I ain't going to change now.  I watched my aging brother-in-law make the switch and watched his frustration. Don't want to go through that. Life really is too short at this point.

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Explorer ,
Apr 28, 2018 Apr 28, 2018

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I'm 50 - but I work in IT, so I still have a bit of the "w00t - new things!" left in me

But I will not give up using perl, much to the disgust of my colleagues!

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Explorer ,
Apr 29, 2018 Apr 29, 2018

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As a follow on I was wondering:

So your external disk is old and/or too small and you want to move your photos (original full) to new storage. How do you do that without messing up the metadata and work in LR?

Found this, which is most useful and worth mentioning here:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/move-photos-another-hard-drive-leaving-catalog/

I did see the option "Find Missing Folder" whilst messing around yesterday.

This means, however you start with managing storage, it can be changed later. Disk too small - no problem... Stored on internal drive and want to move to external - I don't see why that wouldn't work too.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 29, 2018 Apr 29, 2018

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I am always amazed with the desire by photographers to keep all images ever created on a single disk.  If a disc is full, why do they want a larger disk to store these images plus all the new images in the future?  Lightroom is perfectly happy playing with several disks.  If the one you have is full, so be it, get a new one and move forward.  Within 12 months or so, you will find yourself referencing the old disk less and less until it becomes another storage item sitting in you desk drawer.  Why spend the $$ for a new larger disk only to fill half of it with old images, leaving only enough room for half of your future work?  I for one do not do this;  looking to hear from those of you who do to give a valid reason.  What am I missing here?

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Explorer ,
Apr 29, 2018 Apr 29, 2018

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I'm not sure if you were addressing me or the thread in general Joe: but I said as one thing: "So your external disk is old " which is a scenario you would want to move stuff off it onto a new disk (even SSDs don't live forever).

The main reason I posted that link is that it is useful to know you can move stuff around, which means not having to fuss too much to get it right first time.

It's a real pain, with systems that don't make it easy to change your mind, to have made a fundamental architectural mistake and have to live with it forever. I design and run IT systems - I am forever having to try to make sure systems don't have basic errors in their setup and have room to grow/expand/evolve (within reason).

LR is new to me - so I needed to see how much I needed to "get right" from the start. Seems, it's reasonably forgiving - so less worry

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Community Expert ,
Apr 29, 2018 Apr 29, 2018

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Hi TimJWatts​,

The question itself was addressed to the forum in general, not specifically to you.  I do agree with you that it is important to know how to move stuff around.  I also don't want to get caught up in a situation where it is difficult to recover. 

I have seen this single disk idea in several different threads throughout the year and it has always puzzled me.  I do keep a cloned backup disk incase the main disk should fail.  I would not expect both disks to fail at the same time, but if a disk is both full and old, perhaps the better solution would be to get another disk of the same size and transfer the images to it just for peace of mind.

Moving forward, I would get a new disk for future images.  The new disk might be the same size or a much larger one, but I really don't have the urge to keep all my images on a single disk.  New disks can also fail, and if it does, and I had all my images including the old images, on that new disk, I would now have a bigger job ahead of me as I would have to recover not only my new images but all my old images as well. 

Some of the images on my disk go back to 2010; I seldom go back to them.  If the occasion should arise where I would need an old image on the old disk, Lightroom is smart enough to tell me what old disk that image is on, so it would be an easy task to pull that out of my desk drawer and simply plug it in.

Hence, in my opinion, part of getting it right from the start does not include trying to keep all my images on a single disk.  That being said, with your images spread out over several memory sticks and HD cards, I guess I would gather them all together onto one EHD and, if there is enough room, add new images to that EHD or, if not, store that EHD and move forward with a new EHD for future images.  I have been using USB-C G-Drive Mobile 7200 RPM EHDs which I find to be fast and reliable, but the choice of storage devices for your needs is, of course, up to you.

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Explorer ,
Apr 29, 2018 Apr 29, 2018

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Indeed...

If I may make a recommendation (from the IT side) to anyone in a similar position: I would probably as a rule of thumb, consider recopying stuff on any disk >5 years old to new media as a matter of course. Consumer grade media isn't really archival grade (CDs rot, disks get stuck, flash in any format - who knows, too new).

There's also "eggs in one basket" to consider. If you juggle a dozen external devices, then you might lose 1/12 of your material if one blows up. OTOH if you have one big external disk, you might be better placed to manage consistent backups to a 2nd location. The number of people who *don't* have any backup regime in place is worrying though...

Me? Well - I'll probably start, after considering this thread, with a 500GB Sandisk EHD (robust, small, should be reliable and at the sweetspot for cost/GB).

I have my backup regime to a wallet of SDcards - I'll keep doing that.

And once I get my collection straight and onto that EHD, I'll sync it to Adobe's Cloud - but freely deleting dross (which will remain on the SDcards).

That's pretty bombproof and I'll have my stuff in 3 physical locations which meets the very best of best practices for data security.

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