How to turn off hard disk identification in LR 3.3?

Question

Hi!
I have a problem with LR 3.3 on my Windows XP. I have a lot of harddisk (1TB, 2TB SATA2, made by Samsung) in my XP system with my RAW photos, all encrypted by Truecrypt. When I need to import my existings photos from that secured harddisk (Truecrypt is the best tool i have tested), LR 3.3 is blocking option Move and Add in Import dialog.
I must duplicate my photos by Copy options only - like from memory card.
LR 3.3 is thinking, that my encrypted harddisks are my memory cards, and is disable Add and Move option.
How to turn that bad identyfication off?
And in the end, every time when I want to import photos - LR 3.3 is searching all my TB harddisks (more then 30 minutes) to create and show my thumbs in folders - and I can not stop this searching. How to turn it off too?
Regards

Answer 1

Remisteness,
There are a few things to mention regarding your problem:
1) Scanning all of the Drive(s) after Starting Import
Right after the import dialog opens, try to click onto an internal drive as soon as possible and uncheck "Include Subfolders". This should prevent the scanning of the drive(s).
2) What is presented to the O/S for an Encrypted Device
Obviously, your encryption software presents the "virtual" drives as removable devices to the operating system, which leads LR to treat them as "Cards".
I have a similar software in use to access encrypted data in "Container Files" (SafeGuard PrivateDisk). In SafeGuard PrivateDisk, I can configure how a "virtual" drive is presented to the Operating System, either as a removable device or as a simulated harddisk. If I choose "Simulate Harddisk", the "virtual" drive is represented like a harddisk in my WinXP and LR does not show it as a removable device, hence without the restriction imposed on "Cards" during import.
3) Restrictions imposed by LR while Importing from "Cards"
LR prevents users from moving photos when directly accessing a memory card, because if a file would get corrupted during import no valid copy of the image would exist anywhere anymore. Also, adding photos residing on a real memory card does not make sense either, as too many users would be looking for their original images after disconnecting the (and possibly reformatting) the memory card.
There has been a lengthy discussion in this forum lately on whether it makes sense or not that LR tries to protect users from their own wrong doing. I guess one can see it either way, and the limitations chosen by Adobe kind of protect Adobe from too many questions/accusations.
4) Workaround for LR 3.3
To be able to add or move from a removable device in LR 3.3, you can do the following:
Create yourself one or two Import Presets, with Add or Move as the action to be performed. You have to create these presets while doing a test-import from a interal or external HDD, and save them from there.
When accessing your removable device, access the drive by clicking onto the drive letter in the drive list below "Files", and not by clicking onto the removable device under "Devices"
Choose one of the Import Presets built in step 1
This will use Move or Add as the action to be performed (note that no action at all will be highlighted), even though you're importing from a "Card".
As this behaviour is a hidden/undocumented feature (or even bug?), we do not know whether this possibility will still be existing in future releases of LR, but for right now it seems to be a workaround.
Beat Gossweiler
Switzerland
P.S: After losing this entire post because of a Web-Error the first time I wrote it, I hope this information can help you over your problem.