Restore catalog after External Drive Crash

[ShawnJH]

I had an external drive die on me. I had it reconstructed and much was saved. However rebuilding of the new drive was done outside Lightroom. I now have a larger external drive that holds photos from 3 drives that were previously imported into Lightroom. (all done outside of Lightroom)

I backed up my catalog religiously prior to the crash. Is there anyway to bring the new drive into Lightroom without loosing my catalog?

Any help would be appreciated.

[JP Hess]

If the photos are still in the same file structure, but on a different hard drive, then you can right-click on the folder in the library module and update the folder location. This will point Lightroom to the images on the new drive. If the photos are not in the same file structure then it's going to be quite tedious to link them up again.

[Rob_Cullen]

You have a big job ahead of you!

Think about your problem like a city book library- all the books are moved into a different building with different shelving. The book index now will have great difficulty locating any book in its new location.

Your Lr catalog is the index that points to all your photos in their 'old' location. Re-linking the index to their 'new' location is going to be the task.

If your photos were recovered in their original folder structure then that will make the task easier, as you can re-link folders (instead of individual photos) and all the photos in that folder will re-link with one action. One "Master" folder would be even better- re-link this and all sub-folders and files are re-connected.

Before you do anything- read   https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

One piece of advice- Do NOT try to Import any photos! Re-linking the catalog to the files in their new location is the correct way to go.

[dj_paige]

The advice by wobertc is so important, I'm going to repeat the advice for emphasis: Do NOT try to Import any photos!

Importing is a mistake. You must reconnect the photos as described above.

[ShawnJH]

I did make the mistake of import some photos already (not complete drive). Now what?

[dj_paige]

Don't use the newly imported photos. Delete the new imports from Lightroom (but not from the hard disk). Follow the instructions given to reconnect the existing photos within Lightroom.

[ShawnJH]

Thank you

[ShawnJH]

Thank you