Lightroom 3 and hard drive space is stressing me Out!

<p>I am being totally screwed up and pulling my hair out trying to work out why Lightroom is filing my C drive!<br>

I am using the program to open and read NEF files which CS4 wont do Its great for somethings but I have no way I can control what is happening with the files<br>

I clear 22 GB of file one day and next time I have error messages saying I have no space in C drive which totally screws up my PC for doing anything else.<br>

I once deleted the LR Catalog to save space but lost all the data.<br>

How do I instruct LR3 to put the files where I want them to go?<br>

I upload the files to a 1TB drive, make a copy on my 2nd TB drive import in LR3<br>

<br />I cannot work out after weeks of frustration how move the LR image files 93 GB of them from A 120GB C drive used only for Programs to ITB drive and why have I got all this LR files when I should only have the edits?</p>

<p>Dave,<br>

I have a similar set up on my PC. Not sure exactly how knowledgeable you are about LR, so if some of this is too elementary, I apologize. </p>

<p>Basically, everything in Lightroom is run through the catalog. It isn't the same as Bridge where you are just using it to view files on your drive. All edits in LR3 are non destructive and can be reversed, so they are saved as information sets that are accesed via the Catalog. Without the Catalog LR is pretty useless. Now, you can move the Catalog to your 1 TB drive and remap it in LR3 to save some space on your program drive. (I would suggest copying it to start with.) This is how I have mine set up. You can adjust Catalog settings under Edit>Catalog Settings. This includeds the option of choosing where to open the Catalog from. (After you copy it, go here and open from the new location.) So you could move your Catalog and re-map it that way.</p>

<p>Re the other issues, there are a few things that could be happening with this specific problem.</p>

<ol>

<li>Have you looked under Edit>Preferences>File Handling>Camera Raw Cache settings (bottom of panel) and set the Maximum Size LR3 uses to cache images and where it caches them? LR3 can use a lot of space to save rendered preview images. This happens because you aren't actually changing the RAW files when you edit. It needs to render the files to make them visible.</li>

<li>Less likely, are you accidently making a copy during import or something like that?</li>

<li>I'm not completely following the part about moving files around. If you drag and drop them in Lightroom 3 it should be able to move them between drives and folders for you. For example, in the Library module beside folders, click the plau (+) button. This should allow you to create a new file on your storage drive then drag and drop folders into it--LR3 should be able to move all files for you, though if it is 93GB it would taka while. Keep in mind that your Catalog also contains all the info about where the files are stored: if you are going and moving things manually outisde of LR, you may be creating duplicates. Keep in mind that when moving between drives manually via drag and drop, Windows creates a copy and doesn't delete the original.</li>

</ol>

<p>It might also be helpful to know more about your software set up? XP, Vista, 7? Are you running some kind of RAID configuration? Also, can't you just download the latest Adobe Camera Raw for PS CS4? That might solve your problem right there.<br>

Hope this helps. If you know all this and are still having problems, it could be a bad install or some other bug, but this would probably be the least likely.</p>

<p>You can compress your catalog files under Preferences. LR only looks at your "raw" files and stores the edits/changes in the LR catalog, your photos remain in their original folders. Are you creating multiple exports of jpegs/tiffs over and over to new folders? If not, your disk space should only increase ( a lot) by the size of the new files you are adding to it. When you say you are clearing 22GB of files, are you clearing thumbnail files, catalog files or what?<br>

I have 30,000 photos and related LR catalog info on 2 500gb drives, you should have more than enough disk space.<br>

Perhaps when you are Importing to LR you are inadvertently making ANOTHER backup copy? Check the import dialog, there is an option to Import from Original Folder, or Copy to another folder and THEN import. My guess is you may have this checked and not realize it.<br>

Let us know!</p>

 

<p>I suspect your import settings are all wrong - check to make sure you specified where the import is supposed to go and check your backup folders as well. Where is your catalog located? Mine resides with the files on a separate hard drive which is reserved for LR only.</p>

<p><em><strong>I once deleted the LR Catalog to save space but lost all the data.</strong></em></p>

<p>you wont save much doing so... what take space is your image.. not the lightroom catalogue itself.</p>

<p><strong><em>I cannot work out after weeks of frustration how move the LR image files 93 GB of them from A 120GB C drive used only for Programs to ITB drive</em></strong></p>

<p>There is 2 easy method of doing so... seriously easy.</p>

<p>Method 01_ simply open Lightroom, into FILE select export catalogue and select your new external / internal drive as your destination... when all is finsih (could take hours, do this during the night) close Lightroom, go to your new drive and open the Lightroom catalogue on it. If all work like a charm, simply go into your C drive trash all your image from there.. well the one that was in Ligthroom, and the Lightroom catalogue itself.. normally under my picture Lightroom folder or something like that on PC.</p>

<p>Voila, its done. you just move the Lightroom catalogue to another drive with all the image that you need. Now get another 1TB drive and make a<strong> BACKUP ASAP BEFORE EMPTYING THE TRASH</strong> of the new Lightroom + file.</p>

<p>Method 02_ almost the same as method 01... close your Lightroom software, drag all the Lightroom catalogue and the folder full of image to another external / internal HD, when its finsih trash the old Lightroom and file from your C drive (dotn empty the trash yet) Double click the Lightroom catalogue on this new HD and Lightroom will open. It is possible that you see ? mark on your image, just rigth click on the image folder on your left side when you are in the Library module and select update folder location.. select the new HD.</p>

<p>Voila, its done. you just move the Lightroom catalogue to another drive with all the image that you need. Now get another 1TB drive and make a<strong> BACKUP ASAP BEFORE EMPTYING THE TRASH</strong> of the new Lightroom + file.</p>

<p>The cool thing about those 2 method, is if you use a external driv, you are now able to bring the catalogue with you and open it anywhere where theres a PC with Lightroom install... you have2 computer, plug the HD to any of them, double click your Lr catalogue and start playing with it.. the change will be there when you open it in your other computer. This is the only way of haing multiple computer acces the same catalogue, and save the setting, stars, label, keyword etc so you can acces them anywhere, well when your HD is plug of course ; )</p>

<p>just remember;</p>

<p><strong>BACKUP ASAP BEFORE EMPTYING THE TRASH</strong> of the new Lightroom + file.</p>

<p> </p>

your prolly importing to your "my pictures" folder which is on your c drive. As other's have mentioned,

change the location upon import . . . I think it defaults to "my pictures." Go ahead and tell LR to import to

the portable drive . . .

 

Then, you can move all your images over to the HD from the C drive.

<p>The Lightroom catalog is used to store thumnails and pointers (references, aliases, etc.) to the actual files, which are stored elsewhere. It is the actual image files which is taking up all the space on your root drive.</p>

<p>(1) Purchase another drive, external or internal with at least 1TB of space. Locate the images and copy them to the new drive. Once you have verified all the files have been copied, you can delete them from the original drive. THINK TWICE, CLICK ONCE! You can locate the image files by searching for the usual file extensions, like TIFF, JPEG or PSD. Look for directories which contain the files you're looking for, and ignore the image files installed by the OS or various programs. Copy the entire directory(s) rather than individual files.</p>

<p>(2) You can then tell Lightroom to search the new location and restore your data base. You can still do this even if you lost the Lightroom catalog, simply by re-importing the files. It's a tedious job, but you only have to do it once.</p>

<p>(3) In the future, copy new images from your camera or scanner to directories you specify, and let Lightroom import those files without copying them to a new location.</p>

<p>(4) On your short list, do a complete copy of your boot drive to a new drive at least 1TB in size. You can use Norton Ghost or other software to move boot, system and data files, and simply plug in the new drive and use it. Keep the original drive handy, just in case.</p>

<p>Google a website called "the lightroom lab". It has a video walk thru which will help to resolve your issue. I found it's a good resourse for Lightroom. Good luck.</p>

<p>Actually the thumbnails are stored in the lrdata file (and these are thumbs used for all modules expect Develop, that uses the ACR cache). That file can get pretty big, especially if you are making 1:1 previews and keeping them forever. You can have LR dispose of them after a fixed time. </p>

<p>Additionally, every time you do a catalog backup, the full catalog is backed up (of course) but the old one(s) are NOT deleted. They continue to accumulate. You can go into the directory that the catalogs are stored and delete all but the most current catalog. Most of the time the catalog is backed up every time you exit LR unless you tell it differently.</p>

<p>I have several PCs on a network and keep backup files on these.<br>

By putting the LR Catalog on a portable USB2 drive; wont this slow LR processing down?</p>

<p>yes, thats why you need at least a firewire 800 or better, USB3 or esata.</p>