Process images of an SSD?

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542
Name
Joe
Edit My Images
Yes
Evening all,


I’m going to be installing Lr Classic on my iMac's internal fusion HDD, but wanted to know if there would be any benefit to me using an external SSD drive to house my photos/catalogue etc so essentially processing off of the SSD as apposed to the internal drive?


My thinking behind this is if processing image that are on an ssd would be quicker?


Many thanks.
 
Assuming the HDD is your system drive with the OS and programs installed, yes there would be a benefit. You'd take the work away from the system drive which will keep everything smoother.

If the HDD is not the system drive, then it depends on how fast the HDD is vs the SSD, but it would likely be faster on the SSD.
 
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Assuming the HDD is your system drive with the OS and programs installed, yes there would be a benefit. You'd take the work away from the system drive which will keep everything smoother.

If the HDD is not the system drive, then it depends on how fast the HDD is vs the SSD, but it would likely be faster on the SSD.

Thank you Andy, the internal HDD is my iMac's 1TB fusion drive & so yeah holds the OS & programs.

I find images read off a SSD to open and save faster than those from HDD.

Thanks Toni for the tips.

In that case I might look into getting an external SSD drive then for that side of things.
 
I have my o/s, programs, and LR catalogue on my Mac’s internal SSD and pictures stored on an external spinning disk. There’s little or no noticeable slowdown, so I imagine an external SSD would be even better. Just waiting for the costs to drop before I do this myself.
 
I have my o/s, programs, and LR catalogue on my Mac’s internal SSD and pictures stored on an external spinning disk. There’s little or no noticeable slowdown, so I imagine an external SSD would be even better. Just waiting for the costs to drop before I do this myself.

It funny because ill be totally honest since creating this thread I have actually looked into the cost of a reasonable sized SSD for me (2TB) and I didnt realise the cost! At £300+ I think I might stick with using my iMacs internal fusion HDD drive for things and just use standard HDD's for back up for now, yeah until the price comes down!
 
I have actually looked into the cost of a reasonable sized SSD for me (2TB) and I didnt realise the cost!

2TB bare drive here <£180 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YFFJK2Q?th=1
They've been coming up recently around £150ish on offer.

m2SATA drive for £188 new https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B073SBW3VD/

Add a caddy for £14+
 
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2TB bare drive here <£180 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YFFJK2Q?th=1
They've been coming up recently around £150ish on offer.

m2SATA drive for £188 new https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B073SBW3VD/

Add a caddy for £14+

Thanks Toni, I will have a look at this.
 
Catalog should be always on SSD. I found a major speed difference between them. The photos themselves... not so much, particularly if you have 5-10GB worth of data I can't see how it will work.

In any case you absolutely need to upgrade that slow and clunky main HDD. There are so 2010.
 
Just to add a minor negative to that - when they fail, it's often utterly so that there is no possible recovery AFAIK. HDD the data is usually still there on the platter if some other part of the drive fails.
Agreed with the SSD bit, however don't make the assumption that just because its not an SSD you can always recover the data... All hard drives should also be backed up.
 
IMHO Doesn't matter what you save to I would strongly recommend you always back up. Stuff breaks down or has an accident or worse gets nicked.
 
I have a small 250Gb SSD as my main drive and run the LRc program with my catalog on it from that, but I store all my original photos and exports on an external USB3 HDD. Works good for me. I then copy a backup of the catalog over to that external HDD and run RichCopy to backup all of that HDD on to another external USB3 HDD. So all in all my catalog is saved on three drives and my photos on two, both external to the laptop. I keep thinking of a RAID NAS but never get round to it.
 
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Thank you everyone for your comments, advice & tips, all very much appreciated :)
 
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