Storage, Lightroom 6, WD Passport Drive

[Wayne]

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I am not sure where to ask this question, forgive me  if I am in the wrong forum.

 

I have a Macbook Pro, use Lightroom 6, and have recently purchased a 2TB Western Digital Passport Wireless Pro.

 

My goal is to use the Passport Pro- rather than my computer hard drive- for all photo file storage. Although I have now mastered the process of loading new digital files from SD card to the Passport Pro, and then bringing them into Lightroom, I am not so competent/comfortable at/with insuring the flow (from Passport, to Lightroom, and back to Passport) avoids storing a copy on the computer. Additionally, my unfamiliarity with the process makes me somewhat paranoid about moving the various (208.14 GB) worth of photo files presently stored on my computer to the Passport.....the last thing I want to do is lose the files in the process. Presently, in addition to Lightroom, I use the Photos application. As far as I know, all of the photo files presently stored on my computer are associated with one, or the other, of these programs/apps.

 

Questons:

 

1. Is it possible to use Lightroom and the Passport in such a manner that all storage of files- before and after import and processing- completely bypasses the computer memory as permanent storage for the files?.....Same for Photos.

 

2. Is there some instruction somewhere on the web on how to locate and move existing photo files from your Mac hard drive to another drive, thereby freeing up space on your computer drive?

 

To clarify the second question:

 

I have found the various folders ( Lightroom masters, Lightroom, Photo Libraries 1&2, Various individual folders labeled by year) in the Home directory, but have noticed that some of the folders contain things other than photo files. I am hesitant to just move the entire folders because some of them contain things other than basic photo files. I have, with many photo files, moved the file to the Passport, only to discover that another copy of the moved photo file still resides on the computer hard drive.

 

I know, I am a mess when it comes to this sort of thing. But I do pretty good when I am able to obtain basic instruction, i.e. instruction that does not assume you are already a master at computer file manipulation.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Wayne

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[mikemgb]

I can't answer the Lightroom parts of your question but I would be very reluctant to store all your images on one WD Passport, I would want them, at the very least, on the computer and on the Passport.

 

A better solution would be a dual drive NAS, set up in RAID configuration. This would give you a server with two identical hard drives so when one fails your images are safe on the other. Something similar to this:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Diskless-Cloud-Network-Attached-Storage/dp/B01AWH05KK/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1470582857&sr=8-10&keywords=raid+nas

 

I use a system similar to this, my images are on a NAS server, my Mac hard drive and a WD Passport.

[Jeff S]

Drives fail (computer and external)....redundancy, and separate locations, is key.  There are many threads here on the topic.  And if you subscribe to LuLa (12 bucks a year), there are some articles as well as a video interview with Seth Resnick, a pro photographer, who has a (almost) horror story and a review of his storage practices.

 

You may also benefit from watching this LR tutorial from Julieanne Kost on the topic.... 

   

 

She offers basic concepts and some valuable tips, not the least of which is making sure that your whole machine is backed up, not just your photos.

 

Jeff

[wda]

Wayne, Question 1 YES you can, so long as the external drive is online when working on your images. I presume you also have a second external HD for backup? If not, address that as soon as possible.

[Wayne]

Thanks for the tips and direction.

 

@wda,

 

Yes, I do have a second WD drive- not wireless- that I use for period Time Machine backups.

[mija1789]

With Photos, make sure that in "Preferences", "Importing" is unchecked. Otherwise, you'll keep making a copy of your pictures in the Photos library.

The drawback being obviously that Passport must be on line to work on a picture.

 

Also, Photos, unlike LR, provides no way (to my knowledge) to move photos around (i.e. from the computer to Passport)

[Exodies]

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When moving pictures which are in Lightroom it's easier to do it by dragging them from folder to folder in Lightroom Library view. Otherwise you have to tell Lightroom where they have been moved to.

[Ray1684]

Hi, slightly straying off topic here, but if you wouldn't mind a quick question:

 

Is it possible to just work with the WD Passport Wireless Pro for travel, bypassing the laptop altogether?

 

I'm thinking of just using the wireless pro to transfer images from the SD Card to my phone, and performing quick edits on the go to upload online. 

[digger1914]

Hi, slightly straying off topic here, but if you wouldn't mind a quick question:

 

Is it possible to just work with the WD Passport Wireless Pro for travel, bypassing the laptop altogether?

 

I'm thinking of just using the wireless pro to transfer images from the SD Card to my phone, and performing quick edits on the go to upload online. 

 

I just got back from 5 weeks in Europe, and used a WD Wireless for a daily backup of my shots.  No need for a computer at all, just plug in the SD card and images are copied over.  It even creates a different folder for each day, and a new folder structure for each card, so your shots are well organised.

 

I did find that I could not view DNG files on their app, I guess it only works for JPG files.

 

I did not try any editing however, i just used it as a back up device.

[Chuck Albertson]

Hi, slightly straying off topic here, but if you wouldn't mind a quick question:

 

Is it possible to just work with the WD Passport Wireless Pro for travel, bypassing the laptop altogether?

 

I'm thinking of just using the wireless pro to transfer images from the SD Card to my phone, and performing quick edits on the go to upload online. 

Yes, you can. I take a Passport Wireless for backup on trips where I don't want to drag a laptop along.