Lightroom 2 + 400gb of moved images = Nightmare

[Headshotzx]

So.. Good news, dad got me a 640gb WD 3.5" External HDD for all my photos. I'm currently transferring all 380+gb of images from all over my 3 harddrives (or 2 workable harddrives, just found out that my 2.5" ext hdd was spoilt)

Bad news-- I don't know how I should import almost 400GB of images into LR2.

First question is.. how do I tell Lightroom to completely forget about 3 of my harddrives? I create a new catalog?

Second question is.. How should I catalog my 380+gb (and increasing) photographs? Dump all into one catalog? Or should I catalog monthly (12.2008 / 01.2009)?

Third.. if I am to get a laptop and install LR2 into that, am I able to sync my photographs? I mean like.. have the laptop LR2 detect the new harddrive and all the catalogs inside? Then when I go out and shoot tethered to the laptop, and I'm done for the day, can I come back and dump the photographs into the 640GB harddrive, and have my desktop LR2 automatically detect the change?

Cheers,
Zexun

 

[btrenkel]

1) new catalog is one solution - and probably not bad in your case where all is now a mess.

2) One catalog - and learn how to use tags and smart filters. I'm running 3+ TB of RAW pictures through one catalog (ok - my machine might be a bit faster than yours)

3) this is bit confusing. If you shoot tethered - the files are on your laptop I assume. Then I would copy them to your external disk; and then import into LR2 (it's only referrencing) - but it doesn't do that automatically. Unless you set it up as the 'auto import', which is the same function you use while shooting tethered. But you can only have one - your laptop or your external disk. Not 2. That's why this will not work. You would have to change it around.
But there is a short cut. Dump your pics on your external drive - then in the catalogue click on the drive - and select 'synchronize folder'. Google for more info

 

[Headshotzx]

3)...

Thanks for your reply. 1 and 2 seem pretty okay. But wouldn't having everything in 1 catalog kind of make things laggier?

Oh, with reference to #3 -- What if I do editing on a laptop? Do I dump the files into the external harddrive after editing, and the edited versions will be displayed on the desktop LR2?

 

[Octarine]

Your storage concept seems a bit weird to me. Why do you only have one external HDD? That's calling for trouble and welcoming with open arms.
The HDD for pictures should sit on a fast media, the fastest is your internal HDD. Secondly you should create redundancy to avoid data loss when your picture HDD dies. (Personally I don't trust any HDD above 300GB, that's what industrial storage vendors use for their big systems. Since the quality level for consumer stuff is lower you should be more conservative here.)
I suggest you use RAID1 on internal disks to have all your pictures stored there. Most SATA controller today have this feature built-in. That's the first stage. From there you can create backups to external HDD. Either you use LR2's backup function or you just use free synchronization software and schedule a job at convenient time.
If you find your catalog too big just export the files to a secondary catalog, compress it and burn to DVD for archive.
For importing new pictures (unedited) you can just copy them to you HDD and then use LR2's function of "Synchronize folder" - all new files in existing folders will be detected and included into the catalog. New folders you can add manually. Alternatively you can use the "Auto Import function", pretty neat and handy.
If they are edited already you need to export the pics from LR2 at laptop (export the catalog including all pics) and them import the catalog at your PC.
I have close to 10,000 files in my catalog, no lag at all. After heavy changes (import / export) just do a reorg and that's it.

 

[btrenkel]

Thanks for your reply. 1 and 2 seem pretty okay. But wouldn't having everything in 1 catalog kind of make things laggier?

Oh, with reference to #3 -- What if I do editing on a laptop? Do I dump the files into the external harddrive after editing, and the edited versions will be displayed on the desktop LR2?

One ore many catalogues - makes no difference. What slows it down - are the thumb nails and loading them for display

Well, if you edit - then use the synchronize command between the 2 folders. That will COPY and ADD to the catalogue. If you just copy it to the folder - it will not show, and you need to do another import. Don't worry to run import on old folders - LR is smart enough to know what are duplicates etc. and will not import them again

And yes - have more than 1 backup. I'm running a big RAID 5 backup. And I have another copy on an external hard drive in another location