Running Lightroom 3 from external drive

posiview

posiview

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Andy
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Hi, does anyone run LR3 from an external drive?

My Laptop drive is just about full (even after getting rid of duplicates and other rubbish photographs!).

I've done a search on Google and there seems to be a lot of different ways.

Thanks in advance.
 
I do

The images are stored on several external drives, but the catalogue is on the main computer. Works fine with nearly 100,000 images, and expandable.

Advantage is that if you upgrade your computer you only have to transfer the Lightroom Catalogue and preview files.
 
I created a thread a while ago showing how to run the whole thing including catalogue from a network or external drive but it only works with MacOS! Been using it for 6 months now and works a treat.
 
One option for high speeds if your laptop is suitably equipped with the right expansion might be an eSATA ExpressCard/34 controller and an eSATA drive. With 3 Gb/s transfer rates and a suitably specced drive, it may even be faster than the internal drive of your laptop, which is likely only a relatively slow 5400rpm unit (often fitted because of lower power consumption).

If your laptop has an older PCMCIA/Cardbus expansion slot, then it's liable to deliver lower performance, but it should still be faster than USB 2.0 for sustained transfers.

edit: eSATA PCMCIA Card Review from 2007 for the purposes of illustration.
 
Last edited:
Chappers said:
I do

The images are stored on several external drives, but the catalogue is on the main computer. Works fine with nearly 100,000 images, and expandable.

Advantage is that if you upgrade your computer you only have to transfer the Lightroom Catalogue and preview files.
Click to expand...

Do you have a link to any instructions?

Thanks.
 
All my images and cat' are on a ex/drive that way I can use my desktop (PC) or laptop via USB, and just use the one catalogue..:)
 
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