2 External Drives, 2 Catalogs?

I have a large number of photos that I store along with my LR catalog on an external hard drive. The drive was getting full so I purchased another drive to move my older files to. What would be the best way to handle the LR catalog (currently just a single catalog) since the photos themselves are in two different places now? Should I create a new catalog to store in the new hard drive for all the old photos and move all the old photos to that catalog? So I would have LR Catalog 1 and on my current drive with my recent photos, and LR Catalog 2 on the other external along with those older photos?
My current drive and LR catalog is the one I work out of, I take it back and forth to use on two computers. The new one (which I've moved older photos to and would create the additional catalog for) I'm just keeping on computer at home and don't need to access that often. I did read the info on LR catalogs, moving, etc., I just want to make sure what I'm thinking is the best way to approach it. I didn't think about it until I saw the "missing" symbol in my moved photos, and I know I could point it to where they are but I know now I shouldn't have one catalog with photos in two different places.
Thanks for any advice!

What would be the best way to handle the LR catalog (currently just a single catalog) since the photos themselves are in two different places now?
Use a single catalog. Do NOT even consider multiple catalogs, as multiple catalogs is a major step in the WRONG direction.
If one disk of photos is disconnected, Lightroom will report that the disk is offline, shouldn't be a problem, whenever you need to work with those photos, just plug the disk back in.
but I know now I shouldn't have one catalog with photos in two different places
I disagree strenuously, one catalog is the best approach

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1. the "extra" LR catalog?
2. the Elements 10 Catalog (which I had previously imported into one of the LR catalogs?
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Thank you so very, very much.
In a message dated 6/17/2010 1:18:10 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
1. Open PSE8.
2. Connect all your external drives/External media. Now the files in your
catalog will all be connected.
3. Now take a full back up of your catalog from File->Backup your catalog
to external drive.
4. Now create a new folder on your external drive and open PSE8 again.
5. Go to Restore catalog option in File meanu.
6. Select the backup that you have taken on the external drive.
7. Select the new folder on the External drive to restore to.
8. Now restore.
All your catalog will be restored to your external drive.
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/402/kb402894.html

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Hello Francinera,
please have a first look here: Activation & deactivation help >>> http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-deactivation-products.html.
Please come back if necessary.
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Hans-Günter

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Moving entire catalog to bigger external drive

...or any different drive external or internal...
A friend just had major problems moving his v3 files. He had one top folder for all Lightroom. He keeps his catalog and photos on an external and now needs to increase the capacity of the external. So he copied them over in Windows with the entire Lightroom folder remaining intact, and reassigned the old drive letter to the new external hard drive, so the path to all photos is preserved.
However, everyhting shows up Missing. "Find this folder" doesn't work. You navigate to the new location but it's not clear what exactly you "do" to relink. Clicking the name of the lost folder in the resulting dialog box (new-but-named-the-same-as-old-drive) didn't cange anthong back at the Library display of that folder..
I know I -- myself -- will be moving to a new internal drive from the one currently storing my photos in the near future. So his problem is relavant to the hassle i can expect.
What step was missing?
jonathan7007

A better way would have been:
Move the entire folder (you call it the Lightroom folder) with all sub-folders and all images to the new external drive. Do this move in your OS (Win Explorer / Mac Finder).
Do not change any folder names or the folder structure at this point. Do not assign a different drive letter at this point.
Open Lr, right-click the folder (i.e. the Lightroom folder) and select <Find Missing Folder>. Navigate to the folder on the new drive and select it.
You wrote: "You navigate to the new location but it's not clear what exactly you "do" to re-link. Clicking the name of the lost folder in the resulting dialog box (new-but-named-the-same-as-old-drive) didn't change anything back at the Library display of that folder.."
This should work - normally. I suspect that something went wrong when your friend assigned the old drive letter to the new external hard drive.
Check in Control Panel >System and Security >Administrative Tools >Computer Management >Disk Management what the actual situation regarding the drive letters is.

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A couple of comments here. First, moving stuff to an external hard drive does not free up PC memory. If you thought that would happen, you are mistaken.
Raw files not appearing properly in the Organizer is probably a PSE6 bug; see http://www.adobe.com/go/kb403728
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Newbie question on managing catalog files & external drives

I'm new to Lightroom and just downloaded a trial version of LR4 earlier this week. I'm an amatuer photographer (and I really mean amatuer ) ... and serve as a volunteer for a local summer baseball team (college players). I've taken - on average - 5,000 photos per summer for each of the last 5 years. In addition to posting the photos of each game to my Phanfare.com site (where players and families can download them), I create a keepsake DVD with video clips and a slideshow for the players and coaches at the end of the season. If I decide to become a LR4 user, I would be organizing those photos from the past...as well as on a game-by-game basis this coming summer and into the future. In addition to backing up all of my photos to DVD and Phanfare.com, I have a designaed external hard drive for these photos. On the external drive, I have a different folder for each year and subfolders for each game. In the past, I've kept the current year photos on my laptop and back them up to the other locations as the season progressess.
As I map out my plans, I'm trying to figure out the best way to manage the past years photos, current year photos and the related catalog file(s). I won't always have the large external hard drive with me....and I don't have enough room on my laptop for all years. There are times I need to search for photos across multiple years; there are times only in the current year...although I have no problem restricting myself to using the large "master" external hard drive for those multiple year searches. I do have a portable 160 GB hard drive at my disposal that I can use and take with my laptop at all times if needed.
Would appreciate any advice on how best to set up the catalog files so that I can manage current year and past year photos...meet my mobility requirements for the current year...as well as the master external hard drive.
Thanks in advance for your help. (Hopefully my explanation and question makes sense)
Ralph
(PC / Windows 7)

Advice #1: use one catalog -- don't even think about multiple catalogs; multiple catalogs will not help, this will only hinder you in your work. Inside of Lightroom, you can easily organize different years, different teams, different players, different sports, and anything else you want to organize.
With regards to travel, you can export portions of your catalog to whatever HD you want to take with you.

I am trying to export photos and keep receiving an error message. I tried relocating my catalog to see if that would help since I am saving to an external drive, but now I can't find my catalog at all either.

I am trying to export photos and keep receiving an error message. I tried relocating my catalog to see if that would help since I am saving to an external drive, but now I can't find my catalog at all either. I am a newbie at this and don't know what I'm doing wrong or if I can even use an external drive for my photos and catalogs (I did enable smart previews so I do know how to do that part). Help!

You can use an external drive with LR but I recommend only using it for
image file storage while keeping your catalog on your internal HD for
performance. If you moved files outside of LR (Finder or Explorer) you will
have to clue LR in on where they are now. Use the left-hand folder panel in
Library mode to navigate to the location on your external drive and use the
find photo option get LR to reconnect them. If you moved the catalog and
now LR can't find it you should get a window allowing you to select a new
one where you can navigate to the new location and select it. You can also
just start LR by clicking on the Lightroom 5 catalog.lrcat file to open it
and start LR.

When backing up LR catalog to an external drive, what do I copy?

Hi,
Let me explain what I'm doing with back ups for the LR catalog. First I backup the catalog to the same drive my photos are on, simply to allow LR to access the catalog without having to power up an external drive. That LR folder contains 1.) the LR catalog, 2.) a previews file (lrdata), and a backup labeled with the date of the backup. At least once a week, however, I copy the LR file to an external hard drive, to another LR folder. I notice when doing this that the entire catalog is transferred to the external drive each time I do the copy.
Question 1: When doing a catalog backup to the photos folder, should I delete the previous backup? I.e., I did a back up today; on Saturday I'll probably do another. Should I just save the last dated backup and delete the earlier dates?
Question 2: Should I just copy the updates to the external drive? Or is it more appropriate to copy the catalog, previews, and latest update? It seems to me the latter is the best alternative, but perhaps it's not necessary.
Thanks much in advance,
BAB

there's really no right answer, but these are my recommendations
Do not make a backup of your catalog file to the same folder as the photos unless it is on a different physical hard disk than your working catalog. You can save as many backups as you want, the amount of insurance that you take out (the number of backups) is entirely up to you. I keep at least one month, and then some older catalogs as well.
I don't know what updates you are referring to, but there is no reason or benefit to copy/backup previews
Additional comments ... I strongly prefer an automated backup approach, that doesn't rely on a human being remembering and having the time to make a manual backup. Thus, I would recommend you have Lightroom automatically place the catalog backup on the external drive. I don't really know why you are opposed to powering up your external HD, that's what it was made for, to be used! Mine is powered on 100% of the time. Furthermore, if your backup to the photos folder is on the same hard drive as your working catalog, I would strongly recommend you not do this ... because the day that this disk fails (and it is 100% sure it will fail at some time in the future), you have lost your working catalog AND most recent backup and thus it is possible that you could lose nearly two weeks of work when this disk fails (and more if you just so happen to have forgotten to manually make copies to the external HD).
Additional comments 2 ... Nowhere have you mentioned making backups of all of your photos. I assume you are doing that, and if you're not, stop what you are doing, do not celebrate Hanuka or Thanksgiving, and make backups of all of your photos immediately. Of course, you might have been asking only about the catalog backups and you have done a thorough job of making backups of your photos, in which case ignore this paragraph

How do I merge external drive images to desk top drive within the same master catalog?

I have about 900 raw files on an external drive. I edited those files using my master catalog using a laptop while still travelling. When I got home, I copied the master catalog from the external drive to the desk top, then opened the master catalog on my desktop. I can see the edited images on the external drive. So far so good.
I want to copy (add) the edited images to my desk top. I tried to export the images as a new catalog and then import it into the desire location on my desktop drive. However, LR5 does not allow that. I get this message: "There is nothing new in the catalog you have selected. All of the catalog's photos are up to date in this catalog." Yes, but the edited images are not on my desktop.....
I also tried to Import from the external drive and then Copy the files to the desktop, but then I lose all of the work done in the develop module and the keywords.
I watched Kost's LR 3 video on merging catalogs, but she dodges the question of how to deal with this issue since the "merge" is within the same catalog.
I'm using LR5 with Windows 7.
Any suggestions would be immensely appreciated as I've spent hours trying to resolve this problem.

Okay, so I would copy (not move) the folders/photos to the internal HD, keeping them in the same folder hierarchy as they are in now on the external HD. Yes, of course the drive name will be different, but other than that the folder path and file name should be the same.
Then, open the LR catalog that indexes the files and Update Folder Location (details are here: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm, scroll down to the "Update Folder Location" section)
Then, once that is complete and everything is working in your LR catalog, with no question marks on the photos or folders, optionally delete the photos on the external HD.

SHARING A LR4 CATALOG/PREVIEW VIA AN EXTERNAL DRIVE - A FAST ONE

Does anyone have experience sharing a LR4 catalog via an external drive. My stuff all come in at different times so we would not be accessing it simulteaneously. Trying to keep the maintenance time down as I spend a lot of time working on my catalog then having to syncronize and import the catalogs on the other MACs to reflect my changes to my local catalog. My thinking is to use an external drive and when the other team member comes in to use the external to work off of. We pass it back and forth.
Any pitfalls or problems I should be aware off???

Any pitfalls or problems I should be aware off???
See similar threads in this forum http://forums.adobe.com/message/4858802
Also, similar comments apply to those in the replies to your previous post about sharing an LR catalog. It can be done but a meticulous workflow is required.
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1148937

2 External Drives, 2 Catalogs?

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