Changing USB disk letter.

[Pselo]

I am working with all my pictures in the USB external disk F. I have problems with the assignment of the letters because Windows sometimes gives this letter to other external devices. This is why I would like to change my disc to Z letter and I can do it but my problem is the Lightroom:
Who can I change the program settings in order that it can recognise the pictures in Z and not in F?
Thank you very much

 

[jbi]

I have images and a catalogue on the same external drive. I can plug this into computers where it appears as a different drive letter. If I point lightroom to the catalogue it finds the associated images without further input.

If the catalogue and images are on different drives, lightroom will highlight the unfound images. If you manually find one within lightroom using the browse/search function it will save the new path to all the images.

 

[Pselo]

Jbi, thanks.
I follow your advice and change the disk letter. After that, I launch the LR from the disk with the new letter and I find any picture but the folders are red highlighted. I do not know what this colour change mean. In any case I try to follow the second part of your advice but I cannot find the &#822';browse/search function it will save the new path to all the images”.
Please, could you tell me the way to do it?
Thanking in advance

 

[Brad Snyder]

Pselo, Welcom to LR Forums.

The red font/type means LR can't find the folder (of course, because it's on a new drive,now). Right click on a red folder, at as high a level as possible, then select 'Locate missing folder' from the drop down list.
This will open a browser to navigate to the proper folder. That folder and any 'child' subfolders should then be found and the color should change back to normal.

 

[erding]

If you go to Windows Explorerer and in the left hand panel right click on my computer, from the sub menu go down to Manage, from the sub menu click on Disk Management.

In the window that appears scroll down in the bottom right hand panel till you see your external USB drive listed, select that drive and right click on it and from the sub menu select Change drive letters and paths, from the dropdown box & select Z & click apply.

This will now have the USB drive to be recognised as drive Z.

 

[Pselo]

Thanks for the answers.
Brad, your solution run but I need to transform more than 3'' folders and the way that you suggest needs one click for every folder. I would like to mark the new path for all folders in one click.
There is another way to perform it: select a picture from a red folder and click on the &#822';show in explorer”. It does not find it and you can choose the new path to the folder. All pictures in such folder change but you need to click for every folder again. I think that it is the advice of Jbi.


Erding, the problem is not about Windows, my problem is about Lightroom. I change the letter in the disk but the LR is waiting the old one.

 

[Pselo]

Nobody could help me?
Thanking in advance

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi Pselo, welcome to the forum!

Ok, there is a solution to this, and a preventative measure for the future.

What drive letter is Lightroom expecting? Firstly, temporarily, change the drive letter of the USB stick to that letter. When you've done that, restart Lightroom. Lightroom should then find the files ok.

Then lets prevent the problem in the future.

Put a temporary file in the root of the usb stick and import it into Lightroom. Lightroom will now show the folders as their hierarchy.

Once Lightroom shows the full hierarchy of parents and subfolders, it won't matter what drive letter is, as when the folders turn red, you'll only have to relink the parent folder and all of the subfolders will sort themselves out.

 

[Pselo]

Victoria, thank you very much.
I have read carefully your instructions but I can not follow the steps.

1. What drive letter is Lightroom expecting?

It is expecting &#822';F”.

1. Firstly, temporarily, change the drive letter of the USB stick to that letter.

As I returned to my previous situation this is the letter that the USB disk has: &#822';F”.

1. When you've done that, restart Lightroom. Lightroom should then find the files ok.

LR is running fine.

Then lets prevent the problem in the future.

1. Put a temporary file in the root of the usb stick and import it into Lightroom.

I understand that to import a file in the LR such file must be with pictures inside.
Do you mean that I must import pictures? Is it in this step when I can change the USB disk letter to &#822';Z”? Really, from here I am lost.


Please, could you clarify me the steps to perform it?
Thanking in advance

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Yep, you've got it. What you want to do is set Lightroom to see a hierarchy instead of a long list of folders.

For example, if your photos are in F:/Pictures/Holiday1, f:/Pictures/Holiday2 etc, and Lightroom is just showing Holiday1, Holiday2 in the folders panel, we want to set it so that it shows a top level folder of just 'F' or 'Pictures' - that way, if the drive letter changes, you can right click on that single top folder, relink it, and everything below will sort itself out.

Remind me, Lightroom 1.x or 2.x?

 

[someothername]

Victoria, thank you very much.
I have read carefully your instructions but I can not follow the steps.

1. What drive letter is Lightroom expecting?

It is expecting “F”.

1. Firstly, temporarily, change the drive letter of the USB stick to that letter.

But your problem is that sometimes when you turn on your computer, the drive gets a different letter. If no other device has F, you can change the drive letter: control panel -> admin tools -> computer management -> Disk Management -> right click on the drive and a choice should be there to change the drive letter. You need admin rights to do this.

As I returned to my previous situation this is the letter that the USB disk has: “F”.

1. When you've done that, restart Lightroom. Lightroom should then find the files ok.

LR is running fine.

If Lightroom was running while you changed the drive letter, it will not know that has happened, which is why you'll need to restart it.

Then lets prevent the problem in the future.

1. Put a temporary file in the root of the usb stick and import it into Lightroom.

I understand that to import a file in the LR such file must be with pictures inside.
Do you mean that I must import pictures? Is it in this step when I can change the USB disk letter to “Z”? Really, from here I am lost.

No, you need to change the drive letter first.

To prevent this problem, I have found that placing the catalog on the same drive and opening lightroom by clicking on the .lrcat file will automatically find the files for you, changing the drive letter for you.

In other words, when you create the catalog for the files on USB drive X or Z or whatever, put the catalog in a folder on USB drive X or Z or whatever. Then when you want to open that catalog, either use lightroom to go find the catalog, or use the explorer in windows (I don't know if this will work with MAC finder, but most likely so) to navigate to that drive and the catalog folder and double click on the .lrcat file.

You can also copy or move the catalog from whereever it is now to a folder on the USB drive. However, don't forget to move the preview image folders too, the folder called "catalogname Previews.lrdata" And if you store your settings with the catalog, there will be a settings folder too.

Size can be a problem if you have large previews or a lot of them.

Please, could you clarify me the steps to perform it?
Thanking in advance

 

[Pselo]

Victoria, thank you very much for your quick answer.
As I am using the “import from device” with the format YYY-MM-DD the folders in the USB disk are in the way:
F:\2''6
F:\2''7
F:\2''8
F:\Lightroom
Inside every folder the organization is the same:
F:\2''6\AAAA-MM-DD
with a folder for every different date and the pictures are inside of such folders.
This is why I answered above to Brad Snyder that “your solution run but I need to transform more than 3'' folders and the way that you suggest needs one click for every folder. I would like to mark the new path for all folders in one click” because the LR show me a folder for every day because there is only a folder level.
I using LR 1.4
Thanking in advance

 

[Brad Snyder]

Pselo, then I emailed Victoria, and asked her to explain the Parent Folder method, by adding a folder like:

f:\images\2''6
f:\images\2''7
etc.

so that in the future you only have to find "f:\images" and not all the rest.

I know how to do this on my own system, but Victoria is a much better explainer of this method, so I asked her to help.

Are you understanding what to do now?