transferring files from drive to drive

okay. i KNOW im not doing this the best way but, its what ive got to work with...

i save my work to a 2TB portable hard drive. every subject has a folder with the source files and a sub folder with my edits. LR has screwed me up more than once, when i wanted to revisit an image and even though its been "imported" i cant access it because its grayed-out and not "clickable". whatever...

every now and again (not very often) when i try to access the hard drive to look at pictures, share them here, email them etc, even though the drive is plugged in via USB, i get the pop-up saying "cant access such and such file, the drive isnt accessible" or words to that effect.

i disconnect the drive, reconnect it and everything is right in the world. here is my issue/concerns...

i had my photos on some smaller hard drives and decided i wanted them all on the one, larger drive. good bad indifferent thats what i decided i wanted. i was transferring images and i think my computer only has one USB 3.0 or 3.1 port. so they were running slow and taking for EVER. i eventually got everything moved over but in the process, i did something to the OS (Win10) and it put some dumbassed restrictions on requiring a 16-character password in order to access some stuff (i dont remember what it 'locked me out of') but i had to have my buddy do a complete new clean install of Win10 which then took me another day to try and remember how i had configured everything...

since i dont want to keep unplugging and plugging the drive in when it faults like this, how best to back up this drive so i dont end up with a dead drive unit? i know i should invest in a network drive with hard drives in it, but cost is an issue. i shouldnt have any issues copying from one portable hard drive to another right? if i take my time, i should be able to just mirror it shouldnt i? i think i was copying over a couple of folders at a time. i dont remember now, its been 2 years or more...

Desktop or laptop?

If desktop could you could install a large internal drive for your images and just back-up as needed to your portable drive.

When you move files around are you doing it in Lightroom? If not, that's why LR gives you the gray ? and file not found.

You can search for the folder and reattach them to your LR catalog by right clicking on a folder and selecting Update Folder Location.

^
Lightroom has an SQL database, where it keeps track of where the original imported images are stored. If you simply use Windows Explorer to move the images elsewhere, the LR database is no longer in sync with the file locations.
What you can do is from WITHIN LIGHTOOM, move files to another drive. I do that...the current year images are imported into a folder on my C: drive. At the end of the year, I use LR to move those images from C: to my archive drive (a network-connected RAID NAS drive)

bpalermini wrote in post #19280157
When you move files around are you doing it in Lightroom? If not, that's why LR gives you the gray ? and file not found.

You can search for the folder and reattach them to your LR catalog by right clicking on a folder and selecting Update Folder Location.

Wilt wrote in post #19280200
^
Lightroom has an SQL database, where it keeps track of where the original imported images are stored. If you simply use Windows Explorer to move the images elsewhere, the LR database is no longer in sync with the file locations.
What you can do is from WITHIN LIGHTOOM, move files to another drive. I do that...the current year images are imported into a folder on my C: drive. At the end of the year, I use LR to move those images from C: to my archive drive (a network-connected RAID NAS drive)

Reading the OP he fixes it with disconnecting and connecting the external drive so this is not his problem.

Sounds like the external drive is lost, maybe a bad connection in the cable or the usb port(try a different cable/port) or the drive is going to sleep, maybe you can set it somewhere to never go to sleep just like the hard drive in your computer?

pcs wrote in post #19280386
Reading the OP he fixes it with disconnecting and connecting the external drive so this is not his problem.

Sounds like the external drive is lost, maybe a bad connection in the cable or the usb port(try a different cable/port) or the drive is going to sleep, maybe you can set it somewhere to never go to sleep just like the hard drive in your computer?

Missed that! The harddrive should not go offline or be 'lost', ordinarily. Maybe the issue is that the drive is assigned a different letter designation (G: ) and that is when LR loses track of it (maybe it expects that HD to be addressed as F: for example)

As for backup copy of data, one can simply use Windows Explorer (or Apple equivalent) to copy folders full of images from one drive to another...LR does not need to know about the copy...if harddrive F: were to fail, simply plugging in harddrive (G: ) with copy of data with the same folder structure and naming (as long as the computer sees it as the F: drive) means it instantly would be recognized by LR as having all the images which were imported and tracked by its database. If the user had given the harddrive an explicit name Fred (F: ) vs. George (G: ) , I think (not certain about this) the harddrive name would need to be changed so it has the name which LR expects to see Fred (F: )

thank you everyone.

yes this is on a laptop. it has 2 USB ports but i think only one is 3.0 or 3.1

i use windows explorer to move my files around. ive never done it in LR. i guess i never experimented with it enough to know i could.

im sure the drive is going to sleep. OFTEN, i dont shut down the laptop, but just close the lid and IT goes to sleep. as soon as i open it back up, and log in, the drive pops up with all of my files (folders) showing. other times, if i click the "folder" icon on the system tray, and then attempt to open the drive, ill get the error/warning that the drive isnt accessible...

i think i really need to get a RAID/NAS thing set up...

thanks again

If you set up an NAS (regardless if it is RAID or not), map the drive to have a fixed designation. I set up my two NAS as Z: and Y:, and Z stays as Z all the time, it never changes letter. That way you can choose to plug in other USB drives and they get whatever letter and you can copy files from Z: to whatever it is named for the moment, but your image files are always in Z: (never changes designation)

Ltdave wrote in post #19280128
every now and again (not very often) when i try to access the hard drive to look at pictures, share them here, email them etc, even though the drive is plugged in via USB, i get the pop-up saying "cant access such and such file, the drive isnt accessible" or words to that effect.

There is a setting called "USB Selective Suspend" that you might want to check. You can read about the feature (and how to change it) at https://www.windowscen​tral.com …ws-10-turning-usb-devices.

Just as a point of interest, on my Dell laptop running Win 10 Pro both settings are enabled and I never have issues with numerous attached USB devices. If you find yours enabled, I would disable them, then reboot and go back in and reenable. Sometimes a software glitch causes a need for a simple reset.


I also make sure I properly disconnect devices when not needed ("eject").