# Transfering to new iMac & EHH's



## William Morris (Mar 2, 2017)

Hi everyone,

I posted a few weeks ago about setting up a new 5K 27" iMac, with new ext. drives and a 2 bay dock to plug the drives in and out as I need them for onsite work. I will have 2 EHD's (copies) of each volume of work for my onsite plus a separate ext drive connected separately as the backup for the system and older work. The old drives will be moved offsite as my archive backup and I will add to them as I go.  So, Im pretty much ready to transfer everything off the old drives, having just transferred my system & apps over to the new, new iMac. However, the question is now - 

1) I need to transfer my Catalog from one of the old externals to my new internal 1TB SSD. Whats the best way? 

2) What's the best way to do the transfer of my 100K plus images which all live on 3 separate firewire 800 drives? Should I plug the old drives into the new iMac using the Mac Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter lead? (I heard its not that reliable) And just connect my new dock to the new computer as well and transfer via lightroom? (I heard LR is a little dodgy transferring large volumes of raw images this way) Or should I just transfer direct to the new drives and just point LR at those folders when its done? And if I do do it this way, should I use a program like Cronosync to do the job for me? I heard it could be safer.

Be great to hear everyone's views on this as Im keen to get it done but want to get it right the first time.

Thanks

Bill


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Mar 2, 2017)

1: Just copy the catalog folder to the new disk. Then start Lightroom by double clicking the catalog file. You only have to do this once; from now on Lightroom knows the new location of the catalog so you can start it the normal way.

2: I have used the Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter many times without any problems, so I don't know why it would not be reliable. Copying large numbers of images is indeed a job that is better done by a specialised utility like Cronosync rather than by Lightroom. Just 'reconnect' the folders in Lightroom after it's done.


----------



## William Morris (Mar 3, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> 1: Just copy the catalog folder to the new disk. Then start Lightroom by double clicking the catalog file. You only have to do this once; from now on Lightroom knows the new location of the catalog so you can start it the normal way.
> 
> 2: I have used the Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter many times without any problems, so I don't know why it would not be reliable. Copying large numbers of images is indeed a job that is better done by a specialised utility like Cronosync rather than by Lightroom. Just 'reconnect' the folders in Lightroom after it's done.



Thank you Johan. Transferring my images is the part that worries me. Some say just copy and paste your highest ranking parent folder but Im thinking that letting a program do it for me seems like the safest plan to go with.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Mar 3, 2017)

William Morris said:


> Thank you Johan. Transferring my images is the part that worries me. Some say just copy and paste your highest ranking parent folder but Im thinking that letting a program do it for me seems like the safest plan to go with.



It is. The advantage of using a separate utility for it is that such as utility can have a verification step built-in. The Finder does not, as far as I know. Of course that means that not every cloning utility gives you this advantage (I believe Cronosync might, but I'm not sure), but it will never be a disadvantage.


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Mar 3, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> not every cloning utility gives you this advantage (I believe Cronosync might, but I'm not sure)



Yes, Chronosync can do verification. Carbon Copy Cloner can too.


----------

