Moving Lightroom

Harvey_nikon

Harvey_nikon

Messages
3,749
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all,

I have just installed Windows 7 onto a new 1TB Hdd, I now need to install Lightroom on to it.

How can I transfer all of my existing photos & lightroom edits to my new HDD? I've had issues before with just copying them over and it lost all of changes, I had to re-edit 300+ images! :(
 
Harvey_nikon said:
Hi all,

I have just installed Windows 7 onto a new 1TB Hdd, I now need to install Lightroom on to it.

How can I transfer all of my existing photos & lightroom edits to my new HDD? I've had issues before with just copying them over and it lost all of changes, I had to re-edit 300+ images! :(
Click to expand...

Lightroom stores all the metadata (including edits) in one large database file (in LR terminology - catalog). This will have an extension of .lrdb or .lrcat. Just copy that file and all your photos. After launching LR - open this catalog and on the very first opening re-point all topmost folders to their new location on your new HDD (LR will show all the "missing" photos in red so you'd need to right-click on folder and choose the appropriate option - something like "Update folder location..."). You only need to do it once and only for topmost folders in your catalog. You don't have to copy your previews - there ton's of them and they more likely will be tied to image locations so it's better to regenerate them as you will open your photos on a new disk for editing.

In general, I'd say it is a good practice to keep your photos and LR catalog on a separate HDD. This won't depend from your OS (should it crash) and will be easily movable when you upgrade hardware, OS etc.
 
dalex_257 said:
Lightroom stores all the metadata (including edits) in one large database file (in LR terminology - catalog). This will have an extension of .lrdb or .lrcat. Just copy that file and all your photos. After launching LR - open this catalog and on the very first opening re-point all topmost folders to their new location on your new HDD (LR will show all the "missing" photos in red so you'd need to right-click on folder and choose the appropriate option - something like "Update folder location..."). You only need to do it once and only for topmost folders in your catalog. You don't have to copy your previews - there ton's of them and they more likely will be tied to image locations so it's better to regenerate them as you will open your photos on a new disk for editing.

In general, I'd say it is a good practice to keep your photos and LR catalog on a separate HDD. This won't depend from your OS (should it crash) and will be easily movable when you upgrade hardware, OS etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks, i'll give it a try :)

I am planning on moving everything to my external 1TB drive, then copying that on to my C:. Then set it up so that the external gets automatically backed up! :)
 
I'd keep your catalogue and pics on the external drive - get a second one for bu. :)
 
I'd agree with Harvey. That's the way I did it when I migrated from PC to Mac. You could get Lightroom to move the files and let it automaticaly update the location, however if you have an error in the the transfer, things could get scrwed. ( it happened to me once)
Copying the files, and then "Updating the folder location" is the safest way. Once you are happy with everything delete the orriginals.

Don't forget that as well as backing up your images, back up you Lightroom catalogue as well.
 
The mistake I made, in one of the many transfers of LR to different hard-drives, was not having the folders in one big folder.

This resulted in many happy hours telling Lightroom to relocate a hundred or more folders, one by bleedin one!

I now have My Pictures 2008 with all my folders from 2008 in it.

The same for 2009 (etc. etc).

This makes it a dawdle to change locations when moving Lightroom.
 
Harvey_nikon said:
Thanks, i'll give it a try :)

I am planning on moving everything to my external 1TB drive, then copying that on to my C:. Then set it up so that the external gets automatically backed up! :)
Click to expand...

That's pretty much the same setup I have: Vista 64 on C:, photos and catalog on E: (separate HDD) and all those are externally backed up to USB drive (only catalog and RAW files).

I did actually tried it out - upgraded my PC last year and went from Win XP to Vista 64. Did it as a clean install on a new set of disks, then installed LR and copied all photos and catalog from USB backup back to new HDD and voila - all works fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top