14 Replies Latest reply: Oct 30, 2007 5:12 PM by J McWilliams RSS

    Lightroom and External USB Drive

    mikeobe Community Member
      Is it possible to use and external hard drive for Lightroom catalogs?
        • 1. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
          John Blair Community Member
          Mike,

          I have my main stock catalog and images on an external hard drive, although I use a firewire drive. A USB drive maybe slower. That way I can use it on my desktop computer during the day and work on it at night on my laptop.

          John
          John G. Blair
          • 2. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
            J McWilliams Community Member
            I was told at MacWorld last year that USB2 is slightly faster on a MacBookPro, at least my model, which doesn't have FW800, just 400.
            However, I believe it's the sustained rates we ought to be looking at, which indicates FW is faster than USB2, even if only 400.

            From the LaCie site:

            Interface Transfer Rate : FireWire 800: up to 800Mbits/s (100MB/s);
            FireWire 400: up to 400Mbits/s (50MB/s);
            Hi-Speed USB 2.0: up to 480Mbits/s (60MB/s)

            Max Sustained Transfer Rate : FireWire 800: 40-50MB/s
            FireWire 400: 30-40MB/s
            Hi-Speed USB 2.0: 30MB/s
            • 3. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
              mikeobe Community Member
              thanks for the response! I'm running out of Space on my internal drives, Just got a Digital Camera last spring and well, really eats up the space!!:) Bot the camera for a family trip to Italy to visit my oldest, stationed in Naples with the Navy, Took over 1400 pictures!:)

              It's a sickness!!

              Is there a FAQ about setting this up??
              • 4. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                Casamagnolia-wSzxs8 Community Member
                My catalog and data is on a USB drive. Actually, it will connect by firewire but I had some problems with that so it's been USB ever since. I took this drive (I have a backup drive that was up to date) with us this summer on our extended trip north away from Texas heat. So I was able to easily work on photos as well as other things that I store on my huge USB drive during the summer.

                I don't like to keep important stuff on an internal drive. True, I have a kind of mirror drive (not exact mirror) but nonetheless I like to have my important stuff on an external drive.
                • 5. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                  John Blair Community Member
                  Mike,

                  When you create a new catalog, just navigate to your external drive and tell LR where to put it on the drive when it asks you. Put all of the images for that catalog on that drive in an appropriate folder structure. Really, it takes more time to explain it than to do it. :-)

                  John
                  John G. Blair
                  • 6. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                    mikeobe Community Member
                    John,

                    Is it possible to move an existing Catalog?
                    • 7. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                      J McWilliams Community Member
                      Mike-

                      Yes, if you can copy over the same file structure to a new computer/drive/partition/folder, it should pop right up and look just like it does on the other machine/drive/partition.
                      • 8. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                        John Blair Community Member
                        Hi Mike,

                        As John McWilliams said, it is easy to do. I just tried it by dragging an existing catalog and images from one disk to another and it started right up without any problems.

                        John
                        John G. Blair
                        • 9. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                          mikeobe Community Member
                          OK, Last Question, I promise, Until the Next One! It seems this software is Too SMART for me, Now what do I do??:)
                          • 10. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                            John Blair Community Member
                            Mike,

                            What you need is a user-selectable switch that would set the software intelligence. You would have to enter your IQ in Preferences so it would have a reference point. That is a new feature request, and should be requested in the feature request forum rather than here.

                            John
                            John G. Blair

                            :-)
                            • 11. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                              John O Connor Community Member
                              No problem using external USB Drive. The one that I have is a Maxtor 500Gb. It works fine, I keep my photos and catalogs on it.

                              Previously I had all my photos on an internal second hard drive; No problem moving them and their catalogs.

                              But of course, 500Gb is probably small too, so next time it will be a 2Tb drive, and then what will I do for backups etc. (As an aside, that is one of my reasons for using small catalogs and folders).

                              Also, USB3 appears to be on the way so then all we will need to do is update all or our hardware again to use the new speed!!
                              • 12. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                                mikeobe Community Member
                                John G,

                                Now you are startin to sound like my wife!:)

                                Both Johns,

                                Thanks for the help! I'm a Newbie at this stuff, Just in case ya hadn't figured that out!!?:)
                                • 13. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                                  John O Connor Community Member
                                  Mike,
                                  I wont answer for John G, but your wife must be great if she only gives advice!!!

                                  Couldn't resist responding for a bit of lighthearted banter.
                                  • 14. Re: Lightroom and External USB Drive
                                    J McWilliams Community Member
                                    Thanks, third Johnny on the spot!

                                    My S.O. gives a little advice, gives a lot of good things, but heaven help me if I forget and give her advice.....

                                    ~ John P