Copying Files from One External Drive to Another

[jamesw51251285]

I am just about to max out my 1 TB external drive. I really badly messed up my catalog when swapping from mac to windows a year ago so I want to make sure I don't mess up again (but I will be staying within Windows this time). Is it as simple as buying a bigger external drive (3 TB+) and just copying the files from the first external drive to the second? Or will lightroom recognize that it is a different external drive and give me the dreaded missing symbol?

I also have never backed up any of my files and want to start doing that, so do I need to essentially buy 2 of the new larger external drives to back up since my first one is full? I have unlimited google Drive storage but that seems like it would take forever and is not supported by my external drive apparently - the WD Passport Ultra.

Thanks for any help!!!

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

Is it as simple as buying a bigger external drive (3 TB+) and just copying the files from the first external drive to the second? Or will lightroom recognize that it is a different external drive and give me the dreaded missing symbol?

If you do a COPY in your operating system, then you won't get the missing symbols (which should not be "dreaded" anyway). But Lightroom will still reference the files on the original HD. It doesn't know about the copies on the 3 TB external HD.

If you want LR to reference the files on the new 3 TB drive, then do the copy in your operating system, then follow the instructions in "Part 2 — Updating Folder Location" in this document: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

I also have never backed up any of my files and want to start doing that, so do I need to essentially buy 2 of the new larger external drives to back up since my first one is full?

Yes, backups must be on a different drive than the originals.