# Using multiple hard drives



## AVLMike (Jan 23, 2021)

I have a question about how to utilize multiple hard drives for photo storage relative to the source drive for import to LR for editing. My photo process and question are the following: 1) I copy raw photos out of camera to three separate hard drives; I'm likely to bring cloud storage into this part of the process sometime in the future. 2) I pull photos for editing in LR from one of the hard drives only (the "source hard drive") and am consistent about which one.  3) Over time, I've utilized new hard drives as one of the three aged out/was replaced; in this case up to now, I've tried to continue to use the same source hard drive only but that will have to change over time as that drive ages/fills up/has mechanical problems. My question:  I think I can use different hard drives at the same time in LR as long as I import different photographs from each, correct?  My apologies if this sounds like an idiotic question, but on this end you're dealing with a person who spent 2-3 months last year at this time trying to straighten out the LR results of purchasing a new computer.  Also --last year I followed  the LR Queen advice of letting LR arrange my folders which ultimately worked to resolve my disaster, but that approach doesn't actually change the way the folders appear in the respective hard drive (when I look at the way the folders are arranged in the hard drive, they are not arranged in the same way they show up in the LR folders panel).  I'd like to make sure that there isn't something wrong with the way my folders are arranged in the hard drive which will come back to bite me later. thanks


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 23, 2021)

Yes, Lightroom can work with multiple hard drives. If you do not see the entire folder hierarchy, then that is probably because the parent folder is hidden. Right-click on a folder and choose ‘Show Parent Folder’.


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## AVLMike (Jan 23, 2021)

Thanks for your very quick reply.


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## thisisgeoffrey-googlemail (Jan 24, 2021)

Hi
I came into the Forum to raise a totally different issue and cam across tour query.
I too utilise separate HDs in order to keep back ups etc, and, after many iterations, organise in this way:
My main computer is a Laptop (+ External Monitor at home) with an Operating System SSD (C and a storage Drive (D 1TB
1) Download files from Camera to D: + Portable HD 2TB when away on a shoot (remember those  )
2) Organise and edit in LR & PS as necessary on D: drive, normally at home
3) Back up to 2 x External powered 2TB HDs + copy to the Portable HD
My rational is that storage these days is relatively inexpensive, and I wanted a simple system.
So for the Back Ups I simply copy the D: Drive to the 2 External HDs using the ViceVersaPro program, suggested in the Book by Victoria
It is, I think I recall about £80 for a perpetual licence, quite simple to set up and run (needs to be for me!) and relatively quick enough.
And manually copy to the portable HD.
So I have 4 copies of everything, RAWs, Edits and Output files and Catalogue Back ups, on separate drives, and the folder hierarchy is simply copied from the main source. 
But I suppose the strategy depends on your volume of images requirements - I am, or try to be? keen on limiting the images I keep.

I hope this may help, if it may go anywhere near your question.

Geoffrey


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## AVLMike (Jan 24, 2021)

Thank you, Geoffrey, for these options. They will give me some food for thought relative to my process.


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