lightroom/new hard drives

[12sndsgood]

Okay so my single hard drive was getting bogged down so I ran out today and bought 2 2TB hard drives I'm going to move all the photos off of my main drive onto 1 of the new hard drives and then copy that over to the 2nd drive so I have two copies of everything photo wise in two separate hard drives (I also have a pair of external hard drives I rotate out with backups as well).

My question is, If I just move the photos over, will lightroom be able to find the files since they have moved. Do I need to move them entirely thru lightroom, or can I move them. then pull into that folder and resynch? I have them cataloged, keyworded etc. and just worried I wont be able to find anything if I just move them thru explorer.

 

[sscarmack]

I would move them through Lightroom, or make a new catalog.

If you move them outside of Lightroom, LR will lose them and you'll have to update their location.

But if you move them within LR, then LR will automatically make the new locations and they will be in the same catalog and everything.

So, my recommendation is in LR.

 

[The_Traveler]

If you have a lot of images and you will have the same tree structure, you can point LR to the 'new' tree and all will be well - but using LR to move them is easier.

 

[12sndsgood]

Tried going thru my tree directory and my all photos catalog and both gave me issues not letting me export. so copying my whole photo folder (about 800gig) thru explorer, if I can search for it and find everything i'll go back and clean out my main drive.