Happy accident

[sonny_c]

Stick with me while I try to explain what happened and hopefully you can explain to me why it happened.

Here's a quick run down on my hard drives. Hopefully this will help my explanation below.

• 
  [li]C: WD 16'GB - OS and programs ONLY[/li]
  [li]D: WD 8'GB - Photoshop scratch disk ONLY[/li]
  [li]E: WD 5''GB - Temp storage[/li]
  [li]F: Drobo 2TB - External storage for all my photos (business & personal). All LR backups & catalogs are stored here too.[/li]

I received my copy of Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate and now it's time for a clean install. First thing I do is remove my old hard drive and replace it with a new one. The old hard drive will be kept in a safe place for 6 months just in case I may have forgotten to move something over to the new hard drive. On the new drive, I install the OS, drivers, updates, and all my software, including LR 2.'. Next, I open LR to automatically get the 2.5 update. Of course LR is empty because I have not imported any catalogs. <-------This is important! After the update is complete I open LR again to verify the 2.5 update. LR is still empty.

I take the hard drive I removed earlier and use one of these thingies to reconnect it (G: drive) to the computer. Now I navigate to the following locations for both hard drives:

C:\Users\Sonny\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom (new drive I installed)
G:\Users\Sonny\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom (old drive I removed)

I select all the folders listed below from the G: drive and copy them to the C: drive

• 
  [li]Color Profile[/li]
  [li]Develop Presets[/li]
  [li]Export Actions[/li]
  [li]Export Presets[/li]
  [li]External Editor Presets[/li]
  [li]Filename Templates[/li]
  [li]Filter Presets[/li]
  [li]FTP Presets[/li]
  [li]Keyword Sets[/li]
  [li]Label Sets[/li]
  [li]Local Adjustment Presets[/li]
  [li]Metedata Presets[/li]
  [li]Modules[/li]
  [li]Preferences[/li]
  [li]Smart Collection Templates[/li]
  [li]Text Templates[/li]
  [li]Web Galleries[/li]
  [li]Web Templates[/li]

I open LR expecting to go in and change catalog settings, turn off splash screen, change import settings, modify the External editing tab...blah, blah, blah. Not to mention import my one huge catalog containing 63,612 RAW files. That will take HOURS! No biggie, I'll import it and walk away. Here's the happy accident. When LR opens, EVERYTHING is THERE including all my RAW files. I nearly screamed out loud in joy.

How is this possible? How can this be? What the heck did I do so the next time I can do it again?

 

[Brad Snyder]

Sonny, dude, you did great!

Let's presume that during the course of your preparations, your Lr catalog file *.lrcat, and the original image files were located in the same drives and root folders as the old system.

All the catalog settings, preferences, presets, templates, etc, were preserved when you copied the list of items in the AppData folder tree. Included in those preferences was the location of the last catalog opened, and apparently, you had Lr set to open that catalog by default.

Lr opened up, found the new preferences, went to look for the default catalog file, found it, opened it, went to look for the original images files referenced by that catalog, found them, opened them, and there you go.

At any time, there would have been no need for 'reimporting' the old catalog. The preferences know where the catalog is, the catalog knows where the images are. As long as those two relationships remain in sync, it's relatively easy to move all these things around.

Two observations. 1) The only thing you may be missing, is any custom camera profiles (if you had any) beyond the normal installation of Lr. These are stored in a different 'Camera Raw' folder in the AppData/Adobe tree. 2) If you'd have asked, we'd certainly be able to review your proposed process for a sanity check. Perhaps saved some worrying.

 

[wblink]

[quote author=Brad Snyder link=topic=82'1.msg55817#msg55817 date=1256666416]
Sonny, dude, you did great!

Let's presume that during the course of your preparations, your Lr catalog file *.lrcat, and the original image files were located in the same drives and root folders as the old system.All the catalog settings, preferences, presets, templates, etc, were preserved when you copied the list of items in the AppData folder tree. Included in those preferences was the location of the last catalog opened, and apparently, you had Lr set to open that catalog by default. [/quote]

So it would make sens to move all LR related dat (prgms included) to my D-Drive. I am neurotic in making backups and WHEN Windows crashes I only need to recover my C-drive.
Any idea how to reinstall LR to my D-drive without losing anything?

 

[Brad Snyder]

Willem,
I wouldn't move the programs, I don't see anything to be gained.
You can't move the presets, preferences, templates, etc. They are easy to backup however.

If you choose to move the catalog and original image files, I would COPY them first, to verify proper working, before removing them from the C: drive.

Here's a procedure from our Tips and Tricks that Denis Page' prepared.

Start reading there, and let us know if you have questions.