# Changing location of catalog and previews



## TerryM (Mar 19, 2009)

I have noticed my response is slower in LR. runnning 2.3. I currently have catalog, previews, and images all on the same drive.  Is my thinking correct that it would help to move the catalog and previews to a separate drive from the images? Both drives are internal.


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## Denis Pagé (Mar 19, 2009)

TerryM said:


> ...Is my thinking correct that it would help to move the catalog and previews to a separate drive from the images? Both drives are internal.


Yes Terry and particularly with internal drives.

Lightroom closed, just copy your *CatalogName.lrcat* file and *CatalogName Previews.lrdata* to the other drive. Double click the copied _CatalogName_.lrcat to open it and tell Lightroom to always open this Catalog. Once you checked that all is fine, you can then delete the original lrcat and lrdata.

I suggest copy-check-delete rather than move because you never now when a power failure or such a glitch can occur. The Catalog is a very precious piece and it also cost nothing to backup it before making the move...


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## TerryM (Mar 19, 2009)

Denis Pagé said:


> Yes Terry and particularly with internal drives.
> 
> Lightroom closed, just copy your *CatalogName.lrcat* file and *CatalogName Previews.lrdata* to the other drive. Double click the copied _CatalogName_.lrcat to open it and tell Lightroom to always open this Catalog. Once you checked that all is fine, you can then delete the original lrcat and lrdata.
> 
> I suggest copy-check-delete rather than move because you never now when a power failure or such a glitch can occur. The Catalog is a very precious piece and it also cost nothing to backup it before making the move...



Denis, you said particularly with internal drives. Why particularly with internal?


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## Denis Pagé (Mar 19, 2009)

TerryM said:


> Denis, you said particularly with internal drives. Why particularly with internal?


Because the data transfer speed is higher. Unless you use the latest SCSI standards or eSATA for externals.


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## Brad Snyder (Mar 19, 2009)

Just to be clear, I believe Denis meant that because both drives were internal, this was a good thing to try.

While sharing the Lr load between drives is usually a good thing, frequently (but not always) consumer level external drives are slower than internal drives. So moving Lr components from an internal to external drive has pros and cons, depending on the relative drive specs.


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## Denis Pagé (Mar 19, 2009)

Brad Snyder said:


> So moving Lr components from an internal to external drive has pros and cons, depending on the relative drive specs.


True Brad but in Terry's context, he does have two internal drives...
Go ahead Terry, one head will seek the database while the other from the other drive will be free to seek the originals.


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## TerryM (Mar 19, 2009)

Denis Pagé said:


> True Brad but in Terry's context, he does have two internal drives...
> Go ahead Terry, one head will seek the database while the other from the other drive will be free to seek the originals.



I did and it seems faster. I originally had everything on an external and decided it was slower. I added a second internal drive and use the external for a backup copy of the images. I did move the catalog and previews to a separate drive from the images, both internal, and it is faster. Thanks for the info.


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## riwa (Mar 19, 2009)

Denis Pagé said:


> True Brad but in Terry's context, he does have two internal drives...
> Go ahead Terry, one head will seek the database while the other from the other drive will be free to seek the originals.



Thanks to Denis and Brad for the helpful info on this thread.
In this setup then, can I assume that one drive for catalog and one for images is preferable over one drive that's been partitioned?
Thanks,

Rich


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 19, 2009)

Yes, that's right Rich.  And welcome to the forum!


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## Brad Snyder (Mar 20, 2009)

And I started to add, and was rudely interrupted by a hard-drive crash*:

If you have yet an additonal drive, you can place the Camera Raw cache there. (The settings for that are in Preferences  or Catalog Settings, I forget which.)

With the three major Lr components running on 3 separate hard-drive 'channels', that's about the best you can do, with out moving to solid-state or RamDisk.

(* my backups are all up to date, and I don't think I'm going to lose anything. My main problem will be removing extra stuff, that I've already trashed from the working drive, which hasn't been replicated on the backup)


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## scorecards (Mar 30, 2009)

Rather than copy the catalog, why not just switch to the back up, assuming it is on another drive where it should be.


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## TerryM (Mar 30, 2009)

Brad Snyder said:


> And I started to add, and was rudely interrupted by a hard-drive crash*:
> 
> If you have yet an additonal drive, you can place the Camera Raw cache there. (The settings for that are in Preferences  or Catalog Settings, I forget which.)
> 
> ...



 Brad, wow, I built a new system and took your suggestion. Images, catalog & previews, and cash all on different drives. Also added Intel i7 4 core processor and now lightroom screams. Thanks for the heads up.


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## Brad Snyder (Mar 30, 2009)




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## sinitry23 (Mar 31, 2009)

By default Lightroom store everything onto one drive right?

Should I be doing this?
1) Install lightroom to C:\ in Windows
2) import files to an external drive, back up into another external drive
3) change camera RAW cache to another internal drive (drive D?
4) change the catalog file to another internal drive

Does that sound right?


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## Denis Pagé (Mar 31, 2009)

If you can afford splitting all parts on different drives do it. But at the same time, using external drives to do so is defeating the purpose speedwise.

I suggest:
C: Lightroom + Camera raw cache
2nd internal: Catalog
3rd internal: Photos
others externals for Catalog + Photos backup


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 31, 2009)

I'll go with Denis' vote too.  Files on externals will slow LR down a bit otherwise.


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## hassiman (Mar 31, 2009)

*Internal/external*

Hi,

I am just starting to use LR.  I have the LR generated DNG image files and the catalog files on the same eSATA RAID 1 external CalDigit VR drive.  I am thinking of moving the LR catalog files to within LightRoom on the Leopard drive of my MacPro and pointing the LT catalog backup to the external drive so the catalog files LR uses are not on the same drive as my sourcs DNG files.

What do you think?

MacPro 2.66 Dual core Xeon  6GB RAM OS 1'.5.6


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## Denis Pagé (Mar 31, 2009)

This is a nice first step. But I myself have my images on a different internal backed up on external to keep on speed. Also, the images are on a FAT32 formatted drive for even more speed on one side and Windows compatibility on the other side. Also MacPro.

EDIT: FAT12 is the fastest but we are about to see images bigger than the biggest FAT12 partitions! Made speed tests on this...


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## hassiman (Mar 31, 2009)

*RE: File storage*

Dear Denis,

I am not really a power user other than at import time and the eSATA connection to the MacPro gives me all the speed I really need as I will tend to work on one image at a time. I do think that having the LR Catalog files on board inside LightRoom could only speed image corrections up.

So I just copy and paste both of the catalog files into their new home and click on them and indicate that this is where the data for this catalog is now to be accessed?:?:

By the way... where do these catalog files live in LightRoom on a Mac running Leopard?

Are you a proponent of the "One Catalog" for all images school of thought?


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## Denis Pagé (Apr 1, 2009)

hassiman;4'6'1 said:
			
		

> So I just copy and paste both of the catalog files into their new home and click on them and indicate that this is where the data for this catalog is now to be accessed?:?:


This is it!


> By the way... where do these catalog files live in LightRoom on a Mac running Leopard?


By default in the user's Pictures folder but you can put the Catalog(s) anywhere you want as long as it is on a local ressource _(not on a network ressource)_.


> Are you a proponent of the "One Catalog" for all images school of thought?


SINGLE Catalog! Backup on different drive...


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## Bruce J (Apr 1, 2009)

Denis Pagé;4'548 said:
			
		

> If you can afford splitting all parts on different drives do it. But at the same time, using external drives to do so is defeating the purpose speedwise.
> 
> I suggest:
> C: Lightroom + Camera raw cache
> ...



If I can interrupt this thread briefly, a question for Denis and/or Victoria: if you only had two internal drives of approximately the same speed, how would you distribute the files to get the best performance?  Thanks much,


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## Denis Pagé (Apr 1, 2009)

DriveA: ACR Cache, Lightroom, Catalog
DriveB: Photos


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## hassiman (Apr 1, 2009)

*File storage redux....*

Dear Dennis,

A the moment I have the LR Catalog files on and external eSATA drive with the LR created DNG files.  I looked and there are already 2 LR catalog files in my pictures directory from three test images I had been retouching.  If I copy the LR cayalog files from my external drive to this location will they overwrite the 2 files already there?

Also.... How big do these LR catalog files get...?   I know the image files are big... but what should I expect from LR catalog files when many of the referenced images have been modified?:?:


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## Denis Pagé (Apr 1, 2009)

Take care that different catalogs DO NOT have the same name! Otherwise you will overwrite. Keep in mind tough that if you want to work on your catalog and images from different computers, you already have the simplest setup to do so. A catalog size is easily in the hundreds of megabytes for 1''''-2'''' images.


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## hassiman (Apr 1, 2009)

*RE: LR Catalog files....*

Dear Denis,

How does one name the catalog files to differentiate and avoid possible overwrite??  I looked at them on both drives and they look the same I think  with the name Catalog.lrcat

Hundreds of MB is no problem... 5'GB would be.


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## TerryM (Mar 19, 2009)

I have noticed my response is slower in LR. runnning 2.3. I currently have catalog, previews, and images all on the same drive.  Is my thinking correct that it would help to move the catalog and previews to a separate drive from the images? Both drives are internal.


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## Denis Pagé (Apr 1, 2009)

Time to fill your signature describing your OS, Soft versions, system specs and so on like others here so we won't have to aks again in the future. You can do so from the "User CP" link _(User Control Panel)_ in the blue bar top af this page...

Mac or Windows? Version?


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## hassiman (Apr 1, 2009)

*Sig page*

Dear Denis,

Done:cheesy:


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## Denis Pagé (Apr 1, 2009)

Thanks for the signature Bennet! Nice setup. By the way, I am also in astronomy...

To change the file name, if you click it it will become highlighted. Then you just type the new name over . Note that you will also have to rename the "_CatalogName_ Previews.lrdata" files corresponding to the similarly named "_CatalogName_.lrcat" files.

May suggest that you think abaout a backup of those catalogues first?


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## hassiman (Apr 1, 2009)

*Catalogs...*

Denis,

Will LR loses track of the catalogs once they are re-named?

PM me and we can talk astronomy....


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## Denis Pagé (Apr 1, 2009)

If you just open Lightroom it will ask. Simplest way is to just double click the catalog you want to work with.


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## Brad Snyder (Apr 1, 2009)

Bennett, as an example, my main working catalog*, is about 35,''' images and amounts to 85'MB. I find that the image associated XMP metadata averages around 13-15kB per photo, and gets larger, as one adds Virtual Copies, Snapshots, and Localized Adjustments. Add in the necessary pointers to disk locations for original files and previews, and the shared overhead stuff like keyword tables, and various custom/preference related things (e.g. keyword sets, label sets, ID Plates, et.al), and I've always found the catalog size comes in roughly around the mid 2'kB's per image.
Your mileage may vary.

(*I am a subscriber to the 'single catalog' theory, I just haven't achieved it yet, with some of my legacy images.)


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## Denis Pagé (Apr 2, 2009)

Denis Pagé;4'694 said:
			
		

> Thanks for the signature Bennet! Nice setup. By the way, I am also in astronomy...


I know a first name "Richard" last name "Bennet" who worked on cryogenic second generation instrument for infrared imaging with the VLT. So, is your first name Richard or Bennet hassiman? :roll:


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