Changing Local Storage Options - Are Existing Catalogs Updated?

[ImagoX]

Hi all,

I just loaded up Lightroom v.3.3 and Imported a number of photos from a camera media card into different custom Albums. I did NOT change any of the Local Storage settings from the defaults. All seems well and good (I see images in the Albums and can make edits), but I have some questions I hope someone can answer:

1. The tutorials say that full-rez copies are stored on my local hard drive in a folder inside the AppData folder of my Users sub-folder. Inside THAT folder, I do see an 'Originals' folder, in which are a number of sub-folders organized by year/date (the full path I'm looking at is: C:\Users\bombs\AppData\Local\Adobe\Lightroom CC\Data\560360fe7dd84fe5a6bffbf766a4c01f\originals

HOWEVER, when I open those dated sub-folders, there's no files inside that I can see - they're empty. So.. where are the copies of the originals that Lightrooom says it's making?

2. I have a pair of external 5TB SSDs attached to my laptop that I'd like to use for the Local Storage repository instead of my laptop's hard drive. I can see how to change the location in the Settings area - my question is: If I change the setting now, will all my existing imported images, Libraries, and Catalog be updated automatically, or will only NEWLY IMPORTED images go to the external hard drives? I want to have everything go to the new location, so if changing the Local Storage path does NOT update existing Libraries/Catalog, how do I make Lightroom re-map existing entities?

Thanks a million in advance for any assistance!

[ImagoX]

PS - I just looked closer at my Local Storage settings, and noticed that the box for 'Store a copy of all originals at the specific location' is UNCHECKED: 

What's strange though is that the dated sub-folders at the Local Storage location are showing that there are things inside them, even though no actual files are displaying - some take up upwards of a gig worth of hard drive space (using 'Properties' on the sub folders), but File Explorer says there are 'No Items To Display' inside.

What's going on? 

[ImagoX]

UPDATE: Choosing a new Local Storage location (in my case, an attached external HDD) seems to have seamlessly updated my Catalog and all existing Libraries. I'm still a bit fuzzy on where changes to my images are tracked and stored, and this new version of Lightroom does not seem to have an option to to a Backup, but I'll ask that in a separate thread.

Hope this helps someone...