Library module Ssd back up change for LRC back ups

[riamrry]

Lightroom Version Number

14.1.1

Operating System

1. macOS 14 Sonoma

Hi, A while back an IT expert set up my LRC so that I can use my 1 TB SSD drive as my drive whether I am on my laptop or on on my Mac computer. I want to change that to a new 2 TB SSD drive but too scared to do so. So currently I can access all my LRC images on the Mac, or when travelling on my Macbook Air, and want to keep that same option. Any ideas where I start? Sadly the IT lady who set this up is no longer in the area.

 

[Califdan]

Shouldn't be too hard. I'm not a Mac person so maybe one of them will provide better advice, but here's one way to do it. (make sure you quite LrC before doing any of this.

1. Clone the 1TB drive data to the 2TB drive. Many ways to do this but if you can plug them both in at the same time drag and drop should work.
   
   
2. Rename the 1TB drive to something else
   
   
3. Rename the 2TB drive to be what the 1TB drive had been named
   

That should be all that is required. There are other methods that don't involved renaming the drives but do require some changes in Lrc.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

The question is what that IT person did, and what it looks like. If it’s just the drive that Lightroom Classic uses, then renaming the new drive is indeed all it takes. But there may be more. Are some standard MacOS folders, like ‘Documents’ and ‘Pictures’ now located on that external drive as far as MacOS is concerned? Is your entire Home folder located on that drive according to MacOS? “I can use my 1 TB SSD drive as my drive whether I am on my laptop or on on my Mac computer“ sounds that might be the case (although the title of the message suggests it’s just about a backup drive). In that case just renaming the drives won’t do it.

 

[clee01l]

Hi, A while back an IT expert set up my LRC so that I can use my 1 TB SSD drive as my drive whether I am on my laptop or on on my Mac computer. I want to change that to a new 2 TB SSD drive but too scared to do so. So currently I can access all my LRC images on the Mac, or when travelling on my Macbook Air, and want to keep that same option. Any ideas where I start? Sadly the IT lady who set this up is no longer in the area.

An easy solution. Format the new 2TB drive as APFS. Clone your 1TB External Drive to the 2TB External Drive. Your 1TB EHD has a volume name. Give the 2TB Drive the SAME name. Then rename the 1TB drive. Shut down the computer. Do not mount the 1TB drive, instead mount the 2TB drive. Boot the computer. Since the volume names are the same, either computer will recognise the data as being the data it is used to seeing. To be able to use the 1TB drive, give it a new volume name and it is safe then to reformat.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Again, it depends on what the IT person did. Lightroom can be fooled by renaming the disks, but MacOS will not be fooled. MacOS uses a unique drive identification number internally, so MacOS has no trouble with multiple disks having the same name. It will know that this new drive is not the same drive as the old one.

 

[clee01l]

Again, it depends on what the IT person did. Lightroom can be fooled by renaming the disks, but MacOS will not be fooled. MacOS uses a unique drive identification number internally, so MacOS has no trouble with multiple disks having the same name. It will know that this new drive is not the same drive as the old one.

I doubt the IT person did anything at the system level. Renaming volumes is something I have done many times when moving my data to a larger volume.

The process works as expected or it does not. If for some reason there arrest system level internals that make it not work, you still need to clone the old volume to the new. And if you don’t rename the new volume to the old, the catalog can be easily fixed.

I’m thinking the catalog file is probably on the external volume too since no mention was made of the catalog being elsewhere (which would cause other issues)

If the catalog is on the same volume as the images, then the catalog will use the relativePath field instead of the absolutePath field.

No harm can come to the original volume in any case so there is no real danger to cloning to the new volume and trying it out as a replacement.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Johan Elzenga]

It's unclear why the OP needed an IT person if all that was needed was connect an external drive, but maybe it was indeed just to setup Lightroom with the catalog (and the images) on the external drive. In that case the correct answers have been given, but let's make sure they are indeed the correct answers. So I asked the OP to clarify this, and I'm still waiting for an answer.

 

[riamrry]

I doubt the IT person did anything at the system level. Renaming volumes is something I have done many times when moving my data to a larger volume.

The process works as expected or it does not. If for some reason there arrest system level internals that make it not work, you still need to clone the old volume to the new. And if you don’t rename the new volume to the old, the catalog can be easily fixed.

I’m thinking the catalog file is probably on the external volume too since no mention was made of the catalog being elsewhere (which would cause other issues)

If the catalog is on the same volume as the images, then the catalog will use the relativePath field instead of the absolutePath field.

No harm can come to the original volume in any case so there is no real danger to cloning to the new volume and trying it out as a replacement.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thank you all, I cloned the old one to the new one, and all seems to be intact!!

 

[camner]

It’s good that things worked out well for the OP, but if the EHD had been set up as a boot drive, then “clone the drive” is not a simple matter, and, AFAIK, can no longer be done by apps such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! because Apple no longer permits the system drive to simply be cloned.