Need help with LR...

I am in need of some help. My computer is down to 24gb of free space. Using LR and shooting in raw the program always keeps the original files seperately. I need to move those original program files to an external hd. Can anyone tell me how to move the program and those original files so that I can free up some space but yet if I should ever need those files be able to recall them in the LR original format?

An external drive will be given a drive letter, a machines drive is usually called c, when you plug in your external drive click the my computer icon on your screen, check the drive letter your machine gives to the external drive. Next go to the photo folders you want to transfer, select them, on the left of screen select move, a box should appear, look at the options til you find the external drive letter, click the move option on the box. When they have been moved you can file them the same way as on your c drive and you can move them back to it the same way. If your drive is very low on space though its worth downloading and running a program called ccleaner ( google will find it for you, its free and safe ), run it several times initially to give the drive a thorough search and clean, you would be surprised how much space hogging clutter it can get rid of

If you need to access the files in LR after moving then I would not move them as Patch has suggested, which is a perfectly valid way to move files normally but LR would lose track of where the files are being kept and throw a wobbly.

If you do not need to access the RAW files and just need them to be a backup in case of emergency then do as Patch has suggested.

If you need access to the Raw files then you will need to to move them from within LR so that it can keep track of where the files are stored. Have a look at the many LR forums/sites where this is discussed and explained on a regular basis.

Without a complete re-install of LR you will not be able to move the program files which by default are on you C: drive.

I would also not suggest installing LR on an external drive as this could/would cause the LR to operate very sluggishly.

Steve

I tried to edit last night re the program itself but was on my mobile which kept hanging on the edit aaargh, was trying to add that the program itself needs to stay on c drive. On my own pc I put all photos of whatever formats onto one of my external drives, and have done a major refiling [ still in progress ] of everything from one to a new external drive [ bigger one at last, lol ] and my editing software [ paintshop pro, and a few others which can work on RAW, not that I have ever got on with them in that format as they always look as yuk after tweaks as before so I tend to ignore them now lol ], has never had any problem opening them from c drive. If LR can't cope with files being wherever the user wants to put them, surely thats a pretty major flaw in the program

LR can deal with files from any drive BUT it creates a catalogue of the files and where they are kept, drive C; for example. If the files are then moved (not copied but physically moved) to a different folder or drive then LR has no idea where to look for them as the catalogue will be pointing at a specific folder that is either now empty or deleted.

If the files are moved with the controls within LR it will then tell the catalogue where the new location of the files is and LR can find them with no hassle.

It's a bit like someone moving your kettle into the dining room from the kitchen without telling you. You would have no idea where the kettle was now living. But if you were told when it was moved and it's new location you would know where to look for it when you needed a cup of tea.

Talking of which.... where's the Twinings, I need a cuppa

Steve

Thanks you guys! LR and the filing system is a bit confusing for me...I'm the first to admit it.

Steve, what if I were to copy the files from the LR backups and then also copy the catalog file from the LR backup file? Will this cause a problem with using raw files in the future?

The move went well! Thanks for all your help!

Glad everything went OK.

Apologies for not replying to your post, somehow I missed it

Steve