Advice re: linking to a new location

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dougsturgess

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I currently have my archived photos (all tagged via Lightroom) on an external drive and am now in the process of copying all that data to another external hard drive for backup.

Questions:

1. Once all the files are copied to the new external drive, how do I tell Lightroom that they're in a new location?

2. Do I have to reimport everything from the new external hard drive into Lightroom?

3. If I want Lightroom to keep track of the same files on both external hard drives, how do I do that?

I really like Lightroom but it does confuse me a bit sometimes when it comes to linking, moving files, etc.

Thanks.
 
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In this case, you don't need to tell Lightroom anything about the new location, since they're just copies -- the originals still exist in the "primary" location.

In the event of a failure of the primary drive, you'd rename the backup drive to match the current name of the primary drive. If the folder hierarchy is the same on both, then Lightroom will automatically find the backup copies, because they're named the same way as the current primary.

This is exactly how I backup my files.
 
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Mark Sirota;2726' said:
In this case, you don't need to tell Lightroom anything about the new location, since they're just copies -- the originals still exist in the "primary" location.

In the event of a failure of the primary drive, you'd rename the backup drive to match the current name of the primary drive. If the folder hierarchy is the same on both, then Lightroom will automatically find the backup copies, because they're named the same way as the current primary.

This is exactly how I backup my files.
Click to expand...

Just to follow up, the drive I'm transferring the images to is a Drobo and I will want it to be my primary drive from now on. In order for the files on the Drobo (which are identical to the ones on the other drive, at least they are now after copying them) and show up in the Lightroom "folders" section, what do I need to do?
 
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The easiest way is:
(') Shut down Lightroom.
(1) Put a dummy image in the top level folder of your hierarchy on the Drobo.
(2) Disconnect the old external drive.
(3) Import the dummy image into Lightroom. The Drobo will now show up, and all of your old folders will have ?'s next to them (or if you're using 1.x, they'll turn red).
(4) Right-click on the highest level "missing folder" and choose "Locate Missing Folder..." from the context menu. Navigate to the new location for that folder on the Drobo, and click the button. If you have multiple top-level folders, repeat for each.
(5) Remember Rule #5.

(It may help to create a signature block for Lightroom Forums that includes your operating system and Lightroom version, so we don't need to keep asking those questions in the future. Click on the User CP (Control Panel) in the blue bar at the top to get there.)
 
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What's wrong with just right clicking your existing drive in Lightroom, and choosing Update Folder Location?

LR2 also has a right click command "Add Parent Folder".

John
 
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