Moving referenced Lightroom Library to external disk?

At the moment I'm using referenced files in Lightroom. I just got an external hard drive and would like to move all my RAW files off my imac and onto said hard drive.

Is it simply just a case of dragging and dropping the files onto the external disk in finder? There must be more to it than that, how will Lightroom 'find' the files.............?

Any help appreciated.......

I'm not sure I understand your question. By "library" what do you mean? Are you referring to your Lightroom catalog (.lrcat) files or are you talking about your actual photo files?

Its not advisable to move your catalog to an external disk but its a simple matter to move your photos. Presumably you're on a Mac since you mentioned Finder....just drag and drop your photos to the external drive using Finder. Then start up Lightroom and you have two options.
1. In the Grid view of the Lightroom library module there will be a "Question Mark" badge in the upper right corner of each thumbnail indicating that Lightroom cannot find the file. Simply right-click on the question mark and follow the dialog box that pops up to guide Lightroom to the new location of your files. If you also select the "Find neaby missing photos" the other files will also be updated.

2. The better option is to use the Folder panel on the left side of the Library module. The listed folders will be shown in grey if they can't be found by Lightroom. Right-click on a folder and select the "Find Missing Folder" option and use the dialog box to navigate to the new location of your files/folders.

Thanks for the reply.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Yes, I meant move the actual photo files. I'll leave the .lrcat files where they are.

Option 2 sounds nice and easy, I'll give it a try.

You can move files withing Lightroom if you create a "parent" folder on the external hard drive. In the Library module, click one of the top panel selections (All Photographs, etc) then click the Plus button on the Folders title bar. This will allow you to select or create a folder in your external drive and enter it into the Library.

Then, go to the folder/files you want to move, select them, and then right-click on the new folder and select Move the selected folder/files to this folder.

This way you don't need Lightroom to search for missing files.