External Hard Drive Workflow

Hey, everybody.
Does anyone know a good workflow for compressor used in conjunction with an external hard drive?
I keep having my files go offline - annoying. My project is stored on my external hard drive G Raid2. So, I send the clips from there to compressor, and I've tried setting the "target" as desktop, source, and I've also tried setting the target as a folder in my G Raid.
I'm really lost because I can't settle down on one path over the other. Some of these paths, and I'm not sure which ones, are causing my files to go offline. They also seem to go offline when I try to move them from one area to another.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Trey

Hey, thanks for writing.
I accidentally hit submit on my first post - didn't double up on purpose.
No worries. It just gets really confusing posting answers to the same questions in multiple threads.
Yes, they are showing as offline in FCP, not compressor.
Is this consistant? Are you able to reconnect your offline media? Does this happen only with your G-Raid?
Can you please describe your workflow for me? Especially what your "target" is once you submit your clips from compressor. I think this is what's holding me up.
Sure. I use Compressor in my workflows in a couple of different ways. I normally create a Master Quicktime file out of Final Cut Pro first. My air masters usually need to be encoded for DVD (m2v & ac3) for clients and/or for my website (m4v) for display.
I rarely encode Via Compressor out of Final Cut Pro, primarily because you're only as fast as your slowest app. Compressor really knows how to use multiple cores for its encoding, where FCP does not. That's my main reason for exporting self-contained Quicktimes from FCP first.
For a good overview on when and how to use Compressor, check out the latest edition of MacBreak HD: http://www.pixelcorps.tv/macbreak153

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Thanks for your feedback!
---j

hey there RI,
if you've tried something similar on your iMac & had no problems it's reasonable to think/believe it will work on your MBP, w/ this caveat: the 400 & 800 ports are actually on the same buss, so the 800 port will handle it's data at the lower(400) rate if there is a device on each port. shouldn't affect any editing w/ the drive once the cam is removed from the MBP. it should the run @ the higher rate.
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Workflow, creating new library on an External Hard Drive

Hi, Hopefully I'm really dumb and this will be easy for someone to answer. I'm struggling a bit with workflow in aperture 2. I have several external hard drives (one I'd like to use as a vault, and another I'd like to store most of my images on- and be able to work on them from my MBP). I also have time machine with a 500gb drive that does backups like every hour if that helps. . .
So heres my question. . . How do I make this all work together??? So far I've been exporting projects to the hard drive (time consuming and once they are exported I have to reimport them to work with the images- I'm sure there has to be a better way). Basic problem number 1-I can't figure out how to "create" another library on the external HD.
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Thanks for your patience. . .
dr

Yes...
First, you need to move your iTunes songs onto the external hard drive. You can do this by going to (your home folder)->Music->iTunes->iTunes Music and then move each artist or song onto the external drive.
Second, if you want to play the songs directly from the external hard drive without importing them back onto your computer:
Open iTunes. Go to the iTunes menu->Preferences. Then go to the "Advanced" tab. There's a checkbox (most likely checked) next to "Copy files to the iTunes Music folder when adding to library". Uncheck that.
I would do the same for any other computer that you want to play music from the external drive with.
You're all set! Tell me if this works...
-Joe

Help/explanation needed - Using an external hard drive

Hi everyone,
I bought an external 250gb hard drive as my MBP was very close to full capacity. Yesterday, I had a bit of a scare...
1. I backed up my Aperture Library onto the external hard drive.
2. I had about 500 of my favourite images rated 5 star and so I selected these and set up a new project.
3. I went through my Aperture library deleting folders/projects that I have completed.
4. I went back into the 5 star ratings and they did not exist. I assume this is because I deleted the master files.
5. I wanted to have the 5 star images on my laptop and so I connected my external hard drive once again. [This is where I felt I lost control and understanding of what was going on].
6. I looked for the seperate Aperture files but could only find a file called Aperture Library. I clicked on this but nothing happened at all [I had thought that it would open up Aperture with the previous library].
7. I dragged the library onto my desktop and waiting for all the images to reload onto my laptop. I then saw that everything was as it was previously, i.e. all the files and images existed. However, my hard drive space was even lower [I assume this was because the current workflow that I had left on the laptop was now duplicated?].
8. Then I got a message saying my iDisk space is critically low and may damage my Aperture library. Moments later the majority of my images disappeared and a red space appeared where every photo had previously been. Since I have 2 weddings that I am yet to deliver I was very panicked. I tried to drag and drop the Aperture library once again and the message came back that the operation could not be completed due to the current file already existing.
9. I unplugged the external hard drive and the photos re-appeared [much to my delight]. However, my concern is that I really don't understand what happened and more importantly why. I will need access to the data on the external hard drive in the event in the near future and am worried that the same thing will happen next time I connect it.
As a result of all this I have some questions, as follows:-
- Have I adopted the completely wrong approach to backing up data?
- Can the master files be compressed as I shoot RAW and these are huge files?
- Why could I not use the Aperture library stored on the external hard drive without downloading it back onto the laptop?
and a more general question about file storage...
- I am confused as to how much hard drive space is being used on my MBP. I have 13gb in Aperture, 1gb in iTunes and 1gb in iPhoto. However, I only have 50gb available, so half the capacity is currently being used. I know that Aperture and Garageband applications use about 10gb between them and there is of course the operating system, but 50gb in total seems a lot. On investigation in the finder screen I see that on my personal drive the Aperture, iTunes and iPhoto data is stored there. However, it is also stored under pictures and music respectively. Does this mean that it is storing duplicate copies of this data and that is the explanation for such high hard drive usage? If this is the case, can one be removed?
I appreciate that this has been a long email, but I felt it was important to illustrate the steps I have taken. As you will no doubt glean from this post I am not the most computer literate person. Any help/explanation would be most appreciated.
Many thanks,
Jamie

Hi Jamie.
I am not sure what went wrong with your setup but I will let you know my configuration as an example and you can decide if you think it is a good way to have it. I am asuming you are using ver 1.5?
Like you I have only a Laptop (G4 17" 1.5Ghz 2 Gig Ram - would love a macbook) so hard disk space is a premium. I also have an external firewire drive to hold all the HiRes RAW images. When I download my images from the Camera I do it manually into folders on the external drive (Cataloged by Date and maybe description of location). I then Import the images from those folders into Aperture but use the option when importing to "Store Files - In their current location".
My Aperture library file is on my laptop so all that it has to store is the "Preview" file that gets generated automatically (in the preferences I have it set up to the resolution of my laptop 1440pix so that if I did a slide show it is only as big as my screen - anything more is a waste of disk space IMO.)
I do it this way so that it is easy to find and work on my files with other programs such as Photoshop by going straight to the image rather than exporting from Aperture.
Obviously I cant edit the RAW files while the drive is disconnected but I can still do ratings and keywords without the original files being there.
I hope this helps.
Regards
Andrew
G4 17inch Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2 Gigs RAM

Hi, how do I back up my iPhoto library to Lightroom, so its also on an external hard drive, where is the Back up utility?

Hi, somehow I imported all of my iPhoto library into Lightroom, which is saved to an external hard drive, but now I cannot remember how I did that...and I am looking to update the additional photos i've put into iPhoto to Lightroom...
Thanks for any advice...Eric

As a mich more powerful app I think you'll find that Lightroom is also quite capable of "uploading, screening, and deleting unwanted photos."
The point about using both is that you have an overly complex workflow - and that leads to situations like the one you have now, where you can't recall the workflow you used.
Put another way, it's like wrting your novel part on Word and part in TextEdit. Which bit goes where? The best advice is to pick one horse and ride it.
Do don't "import photos to the Finder" you export them from iPhoto to the Finder. File -> Export....
On your Mac you have Time Machine as a back up application. There are also many, many others. Search on
MacUpdate
Regards
TD

How can I stop my external hard drives being renamed by Lightroom?

Since early December I have had innumerable problems with LR and my external hard drives. I have 3 external hard drives all Western Digital, 2 x 320gb Passport and 1 x 1tb Elements. I labelled the hard drives as the computer named them when I first installed them (E&F). Since then LR calls them whatever it wants when I plug them in so there are always question marks beside my photos as LR thinks I have plugged a different hard drive in.
Although I only have 1 x 1tb WD Elements hard drive LR calls it something different if I disconnect it and reconnect it so it then starts trying to find all my photos again.
My partner doesn't have these problems as he never unplugs his hard drives but I need to as sometimes I work on a laptop with the same LR catalogue, if I am working away, so I take a hard drive with me with the relevant images on.
I could do with:
a) a way of naming my WD hard drives so LR recognises which are plugged in
b) a very straightforward digital workflow - I have many LR books but need a LR genius to say 1) do this 2) do that etc. - I have approx 30,000 images and even without the hard drive problems am getting a bit bogged down trying to be organised - I'm a photographer not an administrator and am really bad at the organisational side.
Help, please, I'm drowning in technology - ps I love Lightroom!

Then the issue is most likely WIndows XP. When one attaches a remote drive, Windows XP can arbitrarily assign it to any one of the drive letter assignments, D: through Z:. A: and B: are reserved for diskette drives, and C: is typically assiged to the boot drive where Windows XP resides.
The drive letters change typically when one plugs in the external drives in different order. So if you have DriveA and DriveB, and you plug in DriveA then DriveB, then DriveA may get assigned D: and DriveB may get assigned E:. If, however, one plugs in DriveB first then DriveA, the order will probably get reversed, in which case Lightroom will lose track of all the photo which it had previously found in location D: and E:.
The solution is to use windows disk management to force the assignment of the drive letters. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844 for details. Assign the letters that Lightroom uses.
A problem you may run into is if you attach a new drive then attach your photo drives. I believe that Windows will give the new drive the D; slot, since it is unused, but then randomly assign the photo drive because it's defined location is unavailable. Windows is a poor manager of such things, Apple is not.
The solution is to always attach drives in the same order, and Windows will assign the drive correctly, assume one has performed the tasks in the article.
Another approach is to use the Windows mount command. If you're brave, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/205524.
John

MacBook Pro And External Hard Drives

My only Apple computer is a MacBook Pro. I've just got a new camera that stores both RAW and JPEG for each shot so my internal drive is filling up fast. I need to get an external hard drive and move my Aperture library to that.
When I travel, I wish to continue to use Aperture with the internal drive of the MacBook Pro. I'm not sure if I understand the workflow. Please would someone help me understand the best way to do this properly?
I think what I need to do is this:
Let's call the existing library on the internal disk home. After moving home from the internal to the new external drive, I must create a new library on the internal drive - let's call it travel. When on the road, I should use the travel library and, when I get back, merge it with the home library.
How do I do that though?
The documentation on merging libraries describes the scenario where you have two computers instead of my scenario. I'm guessing that you open the home library and import the travel library. If that's right, do you just then delete the travel library and start again on your next trip?
Also, what do you do about vaults? Have a second external drive and put them on there?
Thanks in advance for your help.

There are two things you could do:
Turn your Aperture Library into a referenced library and relocate the master image files to your external drive. You will be able to browse, grade, and tag your images even if the external drive is not connected, but you can only edit those images whose masters are managed. Sp perhaps you could keep the masters of the most recent projects managed. while you are on the road import the new images into the library and relocate them to your external drive when you get back.
To relocate to an external drive: Select the images and use
File -> Relocate Masters
What I sometimes do when on vacation: create a new, second Aperture Library on my travel MacBook Pro and import my new pictures from the trip into this library. When I return I import the new Library from the trip into my main Aperture LIbraryFile -> Import -> Library/Project
Regards
Léonie

Retrieving old photos from external hard drive without replacing current library

Hi everyone,
This problem has probably been discussed before but I have not been able to find a definitive answer. Hopefully I can find a solution to this problem here.
I am having trouble with my workflow in iPhoto. Right now when I place an SD card full of digital photos into my Macbook Pro, I import all of them directly into iPhoto. I use iPhoto to organize my photos and do simple edits and changes. However, recently I have begun to fill up my 250GB hard drive with photos and HD video, so I use an external hard drive to backup my computer before deleting unneeded items. Obviously, the purpose of backing up is to be able to go back and retrieve those items. With items saved in Documents>Photos, they can be easily organized, and then retrieved later from whatever date they were saved on the external drive, adding them back to the existing photos currently on my computer. However, iPhoto is a great tool, so I prefer to use it instead. But I notice that saving an iPhoto library onto a backup drive is not the same as saving a folder full of pictures. When I try to open an iPhoto library from my external hard drive, it tells me something about not being able to open it, or replacing my current library with the old one just to view my pictures. I simply want to find old photos saved within iPhoto, and add them to my existing library. Does iPhoto really only allow you to open one library at a time, and not browse them and add them together? If so, then just saving photos outside of iPhoto in Documents seems like a better workflow for retrieval, but at the cost of not being able to utilize iPhoto's capabilities.
If my view of how iPhoto works here is very wrong, please let me know. I just don't want to have to save my photos outside of iPhoto just to be able to find them again without replacing my current photos. Thanks everyone for your help.

iPhoto can only open one library at a time.
Here's one way to do what you want:
1. Quit iPhoto.
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the external drive.
Now you have two full copies of the Library. To choose between them: Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
3. On the Internal Library, remove the pics you don't want with you all the time.
Now you have one full library on the external and another smaller sub-set on the Internal.
A couple of comments:
a. The external disk needs to be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
b: When you're removing the unwanted pics from the Internal Library you need to delete them in batches of about 100 or so. Trashing more at one time can cause problems with the database.
c: Managing Multiple Libraries - including moving pics/albums/rolls and metadata between them - is greatly facilitated by using iPhoto Library Manager

Backing up iPhoto pics without using Time Machine or an external hard drive

I cannot figure out how to back up my photos on my one year old MBP. I haven't gotten around to buying an external hard drive (so many choices and there seems to be problems with every one I look at - advice?), but at this time the only important data on my MBP are my photos (approx 9 GB). I've searched the various forums, looked in The Missing Manual (Mac OS X Leopard), and read the help sections on the computer but cannot seem to find step-by-step directions for backing up to a flash drive or a few DVDs. Thanks for your help.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Unless you have an external storage source you can't backup your photos.
You could burn the image file to a DVD disc by selecting about 4GB of files in iPhoto and exporting the photos to a folder on the Desktop and burning that folder to a DVD with the Finder.
Or select about 4GB worth of files in iPhoto and use the Share->Burn menu option. That will give you a DVD disc with a mini iPhoto library on it that contains those 4GB of original files, their modified versions and all metadata associated with them.
Click to view full size
When you want to copy any of the file on the disc back into iPhoto mount the disk in your optical drive and it will show in iPhoto where you can select what you want and drag to the Library icon to copy them back into the library.
CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO
I'm sure you have other documents on your MBP that you need to backup. An external FW hard drive for use as a Time Machine backup drive is essential if you value your photos and other data on the hard drive. Consider for a moment what you would have to do to get back where you are right now if you lost the entire internal HD.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier versions) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. There are versions that are compatible with iPhoto 5, 6, 7 and 8 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
NOTE: The new rebuild option in iPhoto 09 (v. 8.0.2), Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup" makes this tip obsolete.

How do I have photographs download to external hard drive. What setting do I use?

How do I set up my system so that photographs automatically download to external hard drive? What settings?

Without knowing more about your workflow its difficult to answer this as there are a number of different ways to accomplish this.
But assuming that you are asking how to do this in Aperture one way would be to set Aperture's import to store the files on your external drive.
By selecting the Store Files pulldown and then choosing Choose... you will be able to select a folder on your external drive. (note in the above screen shot the selection is actually In the Aperture Library you would click on Choose.. at the bottom of the pulldown)
This will cause Aperture to store the files in the folder you indicate and et up the masters as referenced.
But again it would be better if we had a better idea of what you are trying to acomplich and what your workflow is.
regards

Help, I need to search for duplicate photos in my external hard drive

Hi Mr. Toad and others who have been answering questions in these forums:
Thank you very much for all your help so far. I have been using a mac for the last few years and LOVE IT! I was wondering if I could pick your brain for a moment. I have backed up my iphoto library onto my external hard drive...a few times...once or twice before I really knew what I was doing. There are a couple of folders that I fear have duplicates and I wasn't diligent about naming pics after having a baby (and now I know the errors of my ways). Now I have lots of folders like 01, 02, 03, etc and within each, there are the different days of the month. So, my question to you is do you know of a program that can seek on my external hard drive and show me duplicates and ask me if I want to remove them? I am trying a program right now called DupeGuru, but it has been running for abot 6 hours already and is only 1/4 done!!! It isn't even showing me that it's found any dupes yet. I've looked at iphoto diet and duplicate annihilator and both seem to only work with iphoto.
I really need an application or workflow to search my iomega 80g usb drive. if you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them. My brain hurts trying to figure all of this out. Thanks again for your help!!!
ibook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

well PhillyPhan, I can't tell that you're better looking just by your iphoto icon, now can I? Although it is a lovely sunset you've got there.
Thanks for your response to my question, I see your point and will do that, however, I have another folder that was created before I had a Mac, which has all sorts of lovely titles and labels and some of those pictures I brought over to my ibook when I first started. So there are some duplicates in my iphoto library that I already have backed up in that other folder. I guess I shouldn't really obsess about those. I guess I am just nervous about deleting all my prior iphoto library, but I should have faith that it will all be there in my pictures library. Just trying to clean up the virtual mess.
I'll hold my breath and take the plunge.
Thanks!
ibook G4

TS5192 After updating with 4.09 my photos which I store on an external hard drive will load into Aperture for 15 or so photos and then I just get the same photo repeating despite clicking on a different one in the group. I have to stop working and come b

After installing the 4.09 fix to process RAW from Sony RX100 (after updating to 3.5.1), photos do not continue to load into Aperture from the external hard drive where they are referenced. The same photo is stuck in the adjustments frame to be worked on and the photos will not advance, no matter what I try, so i can work on the next one. I can only work on a few at a time and then i have to go away and come back another day. 4.09 does fix the barrel distortion but it has completely gummed up the uploading of the referenced photos. It's taking me days and weeks to process a couple of hundred photos.

The Macbook Air is a low end Macintosh for graphics apps and you are asking it to perform a heavy pro workflow using a pro application. The integrated GPU of MBAs is a serious limiter to heavy graphics. Personally I would expect flaky performance with certain operations. In general I recommend that Aperture users choose boxes with independent GPUs and capable of taking 16 GB RAM if necessary.
It will be important to carefully optimize workflow. How much RAM is in the MBA? The most Apple specs is 8 GB but you can check OWC to see if you can go to 16 GB. My Aperture/Photoshop workflow paged out at 8 GB RAM before I upgraded to 16 GB RAM.
You should evaluate whether or not you have adequate RAM:
Look at the Page Outs number under System Memory on the Activity Monitor app before starting a typical Aperture/Photoshop work session and write the number down. Recheck the Page Outs count after working for a few hours and write the number down again. If the page outs change (manual calculation of ending page outs number minus starting page outs number) is not zero your workflow is RAM-starved.
Ignore the pie charts and other info in Activity Monitor because they can be misleading regarding RAM usage. For RAM analysis, manually count page outs before and after a work session.
HTH
-Allen

Backing up photos by album to external hard drive

I have just spent days organizing my photos into albums and folders on my internal hard drive. I would like to move this organized information to an external hard drive. When I drag the library over to the external hard drive, will the photos remain organized in the same albums and photos? If not, how do I get the albums/folders over separately?

Yes. You can use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager to copy Events or Albums from Library 1 to Library 2 and preserve the titles, keywords. descriptions, modified files, etc.
If you want to backup slideshows, calendars, books then you'll want to use a backup application like Synk Standard to backup all changes from Library 1 to Library 2. That will preserve your library exactly.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.≤br>
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Moving iMovie 09's library to an external hard drive...

Hi.
I have iMovie 09, but have followed this procedure: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1026 to move my events to and external hard drive. Couldn't find a similar article specific to iMovie 09... I assume they work the same way...
Well, this COPIED the events folder but left a copy still taking up space on my Mac hard drive. Can I just delete the events folder from my Mac safely? If the whole purpose is to save room on my Mac, why does this procedure "copy" instead of "transfer" the files?
I remember a similar procedure for iPhoto libraries, where you'd transfer the library file to an external hard drive then restart iPhoto (now with an empty library) holding Option or CTRL (can't remember) and a hidden menu asking you to point iPhoto to a library file would appear... Is there a way to do this for iMovie 09? even want my Projects to be on the external hard drive... and every time I import clips I want them to default to the external; hard drive iMovie "library"...

Thank you all for the tips.
Workflow that worked for me (might help others):
1. Make sure the little "hard drive" icon is active within iMovie (listing all hard drives where your events and projects are, on the left hand side). If you never had any events on the external hard drive you will see in the "tree" there but it will be empty.
2. COMMAND+Drag projects one by one from the upper left panel (where you see their thumbnails and information such as "Broadcasted to Youtube", etc... onto the external hard drive.
2.1 iMovie will ask you if you want to move related EVENTS to the external hard drive too so that the projects don't have missing data. DO THIS or the projects will be broken and you will need to redo them from scratch...
2.2 The step above will move both the projects AND the events they have clips from to the external hard drive to the newly created iMovie Projects and iMovie Events (these are created automatically by iMovie when you drag your events/projects to the external hard drive. You don't need to create those folders in advance. Try it with a small event/project and you will see what I am talking about.
3. Now that you moved all your projects+related events to the external hard drive you can:
a. move the remaining events that have no projects related to them to the external hard drive via Command+drag INDIVIDUALLY from the iMovie library itself OR
b. move all the events at once from Finder > Movies > iMovie Events >>> to the iMovie Events folder on your external hard drive's iMovie Events folder...
I did 3a. just to be safe... but as Sheryl or Appleman said here, it is probable safe to do 3b since there are no projects related to the remaining events that could be broken....
HTH...

Need help exporting from lightroom 4 on my Macbook Air with an external hard drive.

After importing photos to my new Macbook Air (2014) from external drive, it made me reformat my external drive. After reformatting, I tried to export edited images back to my external drive and it says "photos missing or offline", even when external drive is connected. How do I get my edited images back onto my reformatted external drive?

Ok, so at least you haven't lost the images.
The catalog knows "about" the images but not where they currently are. You cannot import them again because they have already been cataloged.
If the images are on the external drive in the location you want, the the procedure to re-connect is as follows.
Select one of the thumbnails. It should have an "!" or "?" on it (upper right). Click whichever it is and you will be asked to Locate the file. Navigate to the file to re locate it and make sure the check box "Find nearby images" is checked.
Lightroom will now relink all the images.
Note:
I usually just import from my external hard drive and then export them back to the external hard drive when I finish editing them.
this is not a "correct" workflow when working with catalogs. The files remain on the external drive. The act of importing is only necessary once to catalog where the files are and to allow quick access to them via the Library. Editing them either in or outside of Lightroom via Photoshop does not require you to move the file.

External Hard Drive Workflow

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