Moving a catalog from hardrive to external drive

I am trying to move a catalog from my hardrive to an external drive.  I have followed the steps i found online, but my pictures aren't there.  They are still on hardrive and the catalog folder on the external is empty.  Please help.  I am sure there is something silly I am missing.

As Steve has already pointed out, the "catalog" and your photos are two different things. The "catalog" is the LR data base where LR references your photos.
So for LR to work properly you always need two things: (a) your photos and (b) the catalog.
The catalog is the file ending with <  .lrcat>. See here where you can find the catalog in various OS: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/843/cpsid_84313.html
These are the default locations; you can put your catalog in a different location, and you can have it also on an external hard drive, provided that it is one with a fast connection. The USB connection is too slow, it is therefore not recommended to put the catalog on an USB drive.
The catalog and the photos do NOT have to be in the same location. So you can move your photos to an external hard drive and leave your catalog on an internal drive.
If you move your photos via your OS (Mac Finder / Win Explorer) you will have to re-connect LR with the new location of the photos.
WW

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