Can't see what's on a new HD with backed up images - just get "already in catalogue''

[I Simonius]

I recently bought a new external 3TB HD and copied my images to it and then asked LR to import the images ( so I could browse the images on that HD)

However LR just tells me they are already in the catalogue and doesnt show the images as on that HD , as it does with my other HDs.

So I tried setting up a new catalogue but that does the same and now Ive losts all the keywords I assigen to the images ( I think? My 'Bluebells, Blickling woods,' are lost)

So

1 - please can someone explain what Im doing wrong trying to get LR to show me whats on this new HD?
2- is there a way to get my previous collections into a new catalogue? ( do I need to?) &/or is my best bet to go back to my previous catalogue to get my collections back
3- are keywords transferred to new catalogues or not - do I need to do anything to make that happen?



many thanks
:grin:
NB: I'm on LR version 2.7
(and before you ask - no - I can't afford an new Intel Mac to upgrade to LR3)

 

[erro]

What you want to do is to move your photos, inside Lightroom (using your original catalog), from the old disk to the new.

Or, copy them, outside of LR, then inside LR (using your original catalog) rightclick on a missing photo and select "Find missing photo" and point to the new location. This asumes you have kept the same folder structure while copying from old to new hard drive.

 

[I Simonius]

thanks but not sure I understand if that will give the result I want - I aim to use my main image internal HD (big second non start up HD) of rimporting to and file I intend to keep whilst the external has all those copied to plus old images that I have deleted elsewhere but might just want back one day

will that work for me?

also what I really dont understand is why on the left panel it does show HD 1 and HD2 (internal) and HD3 external, but won;t show HD 4 (external) I still dont understand why this is

Oh and can you tell me - do the keywords stay with the images or are they just in the catalogue
thanks

 

[erro]

LR is a database. When you import photos to LR the photos are not stored in LR. LR only updates it database so that it knows about the photos, where they are stored, creates previews, read metadata and so on.

So the photos you have already inported are thus known to LR. LR knopws where they are stored.

If you then move those photos outside of LR (using Mac's Finder) you will break the link in the database. LR still think the photos are stored in the old location, and this is indicated by a questionmark on the thumbnails shpwn in LR, and a text saying "Photo is offline or missing". Now you have to update the links in LR's database. This is fairly simply done by just right-clicking a photo, selecting "Find missing photo" and then telling LR where that photo is now stored.

If you instead do the moving of photos from inside LR, using LR's folder panel, LR will move the photos and at the same time update the database with the new location.

If you copy the photos using Mac Finder, you will now have two originals. LR will still know about the old originals since they are still stored where they used to be. The new copied originals have nothing to do with LR. LR doesn't know about them.

LR's folder panel will only show you the drives and folders it has been told about, that is drives and folders from which you have imported photos. If you want to display some other folder anyway, just click the + next to the Folders title.

The question is: what is it you actually want to do? And where are al your photos stored? You seem to have four hard disks? How are you using them?

 

[I Simonius]

Sorry my previous reply seesm to have disappeared

I know already what you say, to a point, i.e. I have shown LR where the images are and for two Hds it clearly shows the folders with the images in and the numbers of images on each HD . I though perhaps I think using the 'import' button was a mistake, I see from what you have said that I should have used the +Folder button, but using that makes no difference to what I was getting before. Anyway - what you suggest is in fact what I had already done, it was the first thing - copy the images to the new HD them LR into LR - so the old folders are still intact as the images have bene copied not moved
Just to underline the fact that images are not missing or lost. they are still there on the old Hds , it's just that I recently bought this new external HD and copied the images to there, but they dont sow on the new HD at least not in any hierarchy , unlike the other HDs which are also duplicates of each other

What do I actually want to do? Good question: initially I just wanted to 'see' the new Hard Drive images in LR as I believed there was some extras on there (only one as it turns out) - I had wanted to set tis HD up as aback up but check also it's contensts against my main internal photo HD.Originally I intended to have it as my back-everything-up HD and use others for saving just photos I had worked on etc,

So what Im trying to do is to start using the new HD as back up for all and once Im confidennt that there are no problems with it I'll use it as my RAW archive and the old HDs will get relegated to keeping works and projects in hand on

what I really cannot understand though is why HD1 (internal) and HD3 (external) do show the folder hierarchy with the images in whereas HD4 wont show that even after importing/+Folder. i.e. why are they showing differently

thanks

 

[erro]

If you want to use HD4 as a backup then you don't want to import those photos to LR. Those photos are already in LR, in their original disk.

So HD4 isn't showing in LR's folder panel? Do you actually have any imported photos that are stored on HD4? I thought it was a backup?

 

[I Simonius]

OK crikey - I think I may be using the wrong terms

Yes HD4 does show in LR panel, but with only one folder (RAW 2011) with only one folder onside that (date of image import originally)

IMPORT/Back-up - OK I see Im using 'import as the completely wrong term here- how embarrassing!

Yes, right, I import images (off the CF card right?) using LR to copy them to the hard drive and to display them (imported into LR?)

Sooo- not a good idea to work with images at all on the back up disk - yes I see- Ok I was thinking of occsionally dipping in there for images I had deleted from elsewhere ( not happened yet) so I could trim down my other image folders, yet have soemething that would let me come back to images that I hadntt deemed any good, as soetimes I find a great photo for B+W that I hadnt thought of before etc. - so best to copy out of the backup before doing any work on it - makes sense to me

as you can tell Im rather disorganised and this new HD was bought as part of the attempt to get my images better orgainsed

 

[erro]

Of course, I can't tell you what workflow suits you the best... it is up to you.

But me personally, I like to have all my photos stored in one place. I use Windows but it is the same pinciple with Mac. I have three disks:
1 - C: is a fast internal ssd-disk where I have Win7 operating system, all my programs, and also the LR catalog file (LR's database)
2 - E: is a normal internal storage disk where I store "everything" (photos, movies, Excel spreadsheets etc.)
3 - Z: is an external USB-disk used for bakup of the entire E:

When I import new photos to LR, I use one of the automatic folder templates in LR's import window, which automatically creates date based folders by the date each photo is taken:


So, a photo takn today gets stored under the folder E:\foto\bilder\2012\01\01

This gives me a nice structured folder hierarchy like this:


All my photos are stored under the top level folder E:\foto\bilder and under that I have a YYYY\MM\DD structure. Very easy when it comes time to backup, or move all photos to a new computer for example.

I then make a backup of my complete E: to the USB-disk. This backups everything, not just the photos, but also everything else I have on the E: disk.

Now, I don't do any work of any kind from the USB-disk. It is only a backup, in case something happens to the files on the E: disk, or the E-disk itself. In case a file becomes corrupt, or if I delete a file by mistake, I simply copy it back from Z: to E:. Then everything is back on track.

Of course, I make this backup not only once, but perhaps every week. In fact, I have three USB-disks that I backup to in a rotating scheme, so I always have three generations of backups.

 

[I Simonius]

Thanks for the info