Lightroom - Multiple Drives

[Black Pearl]

Just a bit of LR advice if possible.

I'm getting a new iMac next week and I'm hoping to make the most of the SSD's blistering speed. Currently I import everything straight to an external drive and store/work on all my images from there. It works well enough as the speed limit isn't really dependant on it being external as my whole system is a bit sluggish.

I think I'm right in believing I can import to a (temp ?) folder on my internal SSD - do my main processing - export the images I want to share - them move the whole import/working files to my main external storage. If anyone does this and has the time could you give me a quick step-by-step guide as to how best to mange the folders and the move.

Thanks

BP

[ST1]

Robin whilst I don't have a workflow akin to what you're looking for. I thought this blog link may be of use to you as it describes the use of SSD and Lightroom

http://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightr...uter-hardware/

I use my SSD for the LR application, but import my images to a spinning drive I don't have any issues with processing speed using this arrangement. You can export directly out of LR to a folder on your HDD or direct to social media using the Publish Services in LR.
My only advice regarding your wish to move image folders is to do it from within LR and not by the use of the operating system. Doing so ensures that your LR catalog knows where the data is. IHTH

Peter

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

[Black Pearl]

Thanks for the reply and the link.

I may well continue the way I am but I have a nagging feeling someone here is doing it the way I was asking about meaning you get the absolute benefit from the SSD when you first bring stuff in and muck about with it.

[pnodrog]

As I understand it, it maybe simpler than you think. Assuming your LR software, any Catalogs and their associated preview folders are on the SSD the performance penalty for having the image files stored externally is minimal provided automatic write changes to XMP is turned off. At a suitable time you can write the XMP changes to your external image files instead of shifting image files around. The initial import of your photographs will not be any faster but searching, editing, exporting etc should reflect most of the speed improvement the SSD imparts and you will not need to shift folders around.

Here is a LINK to an article that may be useful but it does not answer your question specifically.

[davidedric]

Hi Robin,

I believe that Paul is right. I have followed a number of threads on lightroomforums.net with contributions from real experts, and provided you have the Catalogue, Previews and Cache on the ssd, there is no perceptible performance improvement from putting the image files there, too.

A couple of other points. Lightroom only uses the Previews in the Library module. When you move to Develop, Lightroom reads the image file from disk and then builds a Preview, every time. It is building the Preview which is the main root of any delay before you can start to make changes (of course it is this Preview that reflects the changes you make in Develop).

Dave

[Thlayle]

Just a bit of LR advice if possible.

I'm getting a new iMac next week and I'm hoping to make the most of the SSD's blistering speed. Currently I import everything straight to an external drive and store/work on all my images from there. It works well enough as the speed limit isn't really dependant on it being external as my whole system is a bit sluggish.

I think I'm right in believing I can import to a (temp ?) folder on my internal SSD - do my main processing - export the images I want to share - them move the whole import/working files to my main external storage. If anyone does this and has the time could you give me a quick step-by-step guide as to how best to mange the folders and the move.

Thanks

BP

Robin,

I regularly import into LR to an external drive. However, sometimes I use a temp folder on my Mac hard drive to do the imports there first, process them and later move them to the external drive. I have a folder on the Mac that is dedicated for this purpose and I put any new imports into that folder within a new sub-folder.

When it comes time to move the files to the external drive, I simply drag the sub-folder into the external drive destination. That's the only way I know to do it and it works fine.

Randy

[Black Pearl]

As I understand it, it maybe simpler than you think. Assuming your LR software, any Catalogs and their associated preview folders are on the SSD the performance penalty for having the image files stored externally is minimal provided automatic write changes to XMP is turned off. At a suitable time you can write the XMP changes to your external image files instead of shifting image files around. The initial import of your photographs will not be any faster but searching, editing, exporting etc should reflect most of the speed improvement the SSD imparts and you will not need to shift folders around.

Here is a LINK to an article that may be useful but it does not answer your question specifically.

Paul thats a fantastic link - thank you.

[Black Pearl]

Robin,

I regularly import into LR to an external drive. However, sometimes I use a temp folder on my Mac hard drive to do the imports there first, process them and later move them to the external drive. I have a folder on the Mac that is dedicated for this purpose and I put any new imports into that folder within a new sub-folder.

When it comes time to move the files to the external drive, I simply drag the sub-folder into the external drive destination. That's the only way I know to do it and it works fine.

Randy

Thanks Randy - that is the sort of thing I was thinking about and if its as easy as just dragging the folder from one drive to another within LR its something I might get into the habit of doing.

[NorthernFocus]

As I understand it, it maybe simpler than you think. Assuming your LR software, any Catalogs and their associated preview folders are on the SSD the performance penalty for having the image files stored externally is minimal provided automatic write changes to XMP is turned off. At a suitable time you can write the XMP changes to your external image files instead of shifting image files around. The initial import of your photographs will not be any faster but searching, editing, exporting etc should reflect most of the speed improvement the SSD imparts and you will not need to shift folders around.

Here is a LINK to an article that may be useful but it does not answer your question specifically.

Excellent link. Thanks, Paul. Perfect for my hardware. I upgraded my main editing machine a while back to a 500G SSD and a 3TB disk dedicated to image file storage. I've got about one TB of image files. To-date I've had LR catalogs set up on the disk. But since I'm in the middle of a revamp of my catalog(s) I'll transition to the SSD as described in the linked article.

[Black Pearl]

Quick update and a thanks.

I moved my Library to the internal SSD - the Library panel loads faster and navigation is very fluid - Top Tip
If I leave the external drive switched off and start Lightroom (because the Library is now internal it loads perfectly) it defaults to the Picture folder on my Mac so I can import from my card direct to my fastest drive, do all my editing then simply switch the other drive on and drag the new folder to where I want it to stay on a permanent basis.

This is exactly what I had hoped I could do and its straightforward which is also what I was hoping it would be when I started the thread.

Again a thanks for the above advice.

BP