Moving Lightroom to a new computer

[darylmeds]

Actually, it's not really a new computer, just a new HDD. I just bought my new HDD and planned on installing Windows 7 on it because I wanted to move on from Windows XP. I've read some posts here on how to transfer and also read Lightroom Queen's blog on how to do it and pretty much got it in theory. At one point, I accidentally picked "move photos to a new location and add to catalogue" in the middle of my work while importing freshly shot photos. I currenty have around 2' folders in My Pictures while around 6' folders in the original location with 2' folders empty because the contents have been moved to My Pictures. I was trying to figure out how to return them to their original location so that once I transfer my files, it won't be that messy. Right now, I'm copying the whole folder and pasting it back and then updating the folder location in lightroom. It does the trick tho I wanted to make sure that what I was doing isn't harming my pictures nor corrupting any data related to my work during transfer. Can someone please help me and tell me if what I'm doing right now is correct or if there's another way of doing it. Thanks a bunch.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hey Daryl, sorry your thread got missed in the holiday chaos.

Sounds like you're doing just fine. If you were being really paranoid, you could use file sync software with verification to make sure that the files are copied without corruption, but that may be a little OTT. If you're installing onto a new hard drive, it sounds like you'll still have your existing one as a backup in case you find something you've missed anyway.

 

[Msolomon]

Just a follow-up on same question for my situation. Planning to upgrade my PC to windows 7 by doing a custom install. So will need to reinstall LR. But I maintain my photos, the LR catalog, previews, etc ... on an internal hard drive other than C. So when I come up in Windows 7 ... I think I can just reinstall LR then go to this other drive and double click on the catalog and all should be fine. This is as long as the drive letter for this other internal hard drive remains the same. Does this sound correct? Thanks.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Yup.