splitting lightroom folder up

[gwlco]

My catalogue has reached over 9''GB. Backing up is becoming a problem. I have organized by Year. I would like to split the actual folders into two sections
2'''-2''6 section 1
2''7-present section 2

I want to put the section 1 and section 2 folders in two different locations (hard disks). Do I 'move' them? Or what?

But I still want the catalogue to have all the folders.

 

[clee01l]

I have my images stored on three HDs. Two are a network drives. The other is local. Any image files older than about three months get moved in LR to the Archive folder located on the Network Drive. I do all of this inside of LR.

I just recently went back in time and pulled together a collection of my best photos from 2''7 to present. The collection spanned all three drives. As I reworked these older images, it was transparent that they were not local.

I only have 45'GB of image files stored in these three drives but I am able to do this in one catalog. My images are backed up as a part of a system-wide (Network wide really) backup process that is automatice and transparent. Only master image files that change will get a new backup. Since my RAW file are DNG, that means my metadata is stored in the DNG and not an XMP file. So, anytime I make changes (like the above scenario) the file will get a new copy on the Backup drive.

As a part of an ongoing process, I am revisiting my older work and severely pruning the tree. In the last two months or so, I have probably eliminated 1'-2' GB and could eliminate maybe 1''GB if I can get through the complete inventory.

 

[dj_paige]

[quote author=gwlco link=topic=889'.msg597'6#msg597'6 date=1263228862]
My catalogue has reached over 9''GB. Backing up is becoming a problem. I have organized by Year. I would like to split the actual folders into two sections
2'''-2''6 section 1
2''7-present section 2

I want to put the section 1 and section 2 folders in two different locations (hard disks). Do I 'move' them? Or what?

But I still want the catalogue to have all the folders.
[/quote]

First, let me provide a technical piece of clarification on your statements. Your photos are 9''GB. Your catalog is a separate and distinct file that is much much smaller.

You can easily move some of your photos to another hard disk by using the Lightroom Folder Panel. Simply drag and drop in the Folder Panel, and Lightroom will continue to have proper links to all of your photos. In fact, its a good idea to use Lightroom for all of your photo management (i.e. don't do it in Windows).

 

[Denis Pagé]

gwico, do you actually have your folders appearing in Lightroom (and or on disk) as this:
2'''
2''1
2''2
2''3
...

or as this:
Photos/
2'''
2''1
2''2
2''3
...

 

[gwlco]

Sorry I have not responded. I had a couple of HD failures (including the LR folders). It took some time, but i finally got everything back.
I have the folders as:

2''1
2''2
2''3 etc.

So from the responses I just need to us LR and "move" them to another HD. That should be easy enough to do.
@djpaige - thanks for the clarification. That makes it much easier for me to visualize what is happening.
Gary

 

[dj_paige]

Hi, Gary. Glad you recovered from your hard disk problems.

As Cletus mentioned, splitting folders isn't really an answer. But I'd like you to start thinking about two separate concepts, storage, which is where your photos are located, and organization/search, which is how you find the photos. In the past, you used the same tools (folders) for storage and organization/search. With Lightroom, you still use folders for storage, but you have other, more powerfull tools, in Lightroom for Organization/search, so I would strongly recommend not using folders any more to be organized or to do searches. I wrote more about this here.