Importing photos into LR from HD

[susanc3617258]

Have been using Lr for about a year.  Most imports were done from a camera card where you can select a destination.  Now importing bulk of my previous photos from HD.  If I use "copy", I end up with photos in 2 places, but I can pick my destination and reorganize my photos at the same time.  If I pick "add", I can import entire folder.  Then I can move photos into other folders, rename folder and/or place in my year structure.  Which is better option?

[AxelMatt]

From my point of view is "Add" the better option. So you have only one copy of the picture files. It is easier to handle.

Axel

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

The better option is the one that works best in your workflow.  Do you want to automatically reorganize (the Move option would do the same as Copy, but without creating a duplicate) or do you want to retain your existing organization and rearrange them yourself? Whatever you do, just make sure you have backups!

[susanc3617258]

The problem is my original photos went into picassa, I named the photos and a folder was created.  Picassa copied all.  Some folders have multiple events or subjects in them (ie.Stacey's birthday, July 4th party and fireworks, sunsets and flowers) .  So ideally i want to separate those out for now, using a parent folder for the year, everything else for that year underneath.  I did read a thread about "adding" that is making me stop in my tracks to think about this.  When I import from my card, it is pretty straight forward,folder on HD identical to folder in LR catalog.  (Yes I know they are one in the same )