Running Lightroom off a portable SSD

[rob-nikon]

Does anyone run Lightroom on both a laptop and desktop? I recently got a laptop to use Lightroom with whilst away but I'm finding I want to use it more often whilst at home or whilst out. Uploading new images to the laptop then exporting the new catalogue to integrat it with the desktop works fine for new mages whilst away, but what I want to do is to be able to quickly grab the laptop before popping out or on the sofa and use my existing Lightroom catalogue on the the laptop. Basically I want to use the same catalogue on the desktop and laptop and not worry about whether I'm importing to the desktop or laptop (i.e. where the RAW files are stored).

My options seem to be:

• Keep the catalogue file and this years RAWs on a SSD (previous years RAWs stored on desktop HDD)
• Keep the catalogue file on a USB flash drive and use smart previews (does this mean only import RAWs to desktop so no importing via laptop?)

One of the reason I thought of using a SSD was because my laptop only has a 120GB HDD with 99GB free. Having the RAW files stored on an external SSD will keep the laptop HDD free and hopefully give plug and play connectivity to Lightroom (just need the SSD attached when using Lightroom). Both the laptop and desktop are USB3 compatible so transfer speed should be ok, I don't really want to use a thunderport SSD/HDD for fast transfer if I can help it due to the higher cost involved. I do have a spare 500GB WD passport HDD that I could use as a trial before buying a SSD but I'm worried this will slow the performance of Lightroom too much. I wondered if there are any other options out there.

 

[Deadlock]

I use LR5.
I have a WD 1TB Black HDD in a UASP USB3 enclosure that stores a few businesses work that I’m currently processing.
I have an iMac with a fusion drive and a macbook.
Keeping the catalog (X.lrcat + X-Previews.lrdata) and RAWs on the mac was the fastest way.
Moving the RAWS to the external HDD whilst keeping the catalog on the MAC (with its cache) kept it workable. Moving from one file to the next did take noticeably longer.
Although I could have also placed the library on the external drive, I didn’t want to take another performance hit so didn’t bother testing it.
Feel free to give it a shot and let me know how you get on. The size of the RAWS your camera produces will have an impact.

When I need to use the laptop, I transfer the catalog files to the external drive then over to the laptop, then relink the folders and go.

A side benefit for me in having it set up this way was that I know everything is regularly backed up. The raw files are on the nas as well as the external drive. The catalog on the mac is regularly backed up automatically by time machine onto the nas without me having to faff about running extra back ups.

This worked for me when I needed it recently. I would like to try smart previews when I get the chance but I’ll also be interested to hear of any alternatives.

 

[rob-nikon]

I use LR5.
I have a WD 1TB Black HDD in a UASP USB3 enclosure that stores a few businesses work that I’m currently processing.
I have an iMac with a fusion drive and a macbook.
Keeping the catalog (X.lrcat + X-Previews.lrdata) and RAWs on the mac was the fastest way.
Moving the RAWS to the external HDD whilst keeping the catalog on the MAC (with its cache) kept it workable. Moving from one file to the next did take noticeably longer.
Although I could have also placed the library on the external drive, I didn’t want to take another performance hit so didn’t bother testing it.
Feel free to give it a shot and let me know how you get on. The size of the RAWS your camera produces will have an impact.

When I need to use the laptop, I transfer the catalog files to the external drive then over to the laptop, then relink the folders and go.

A side benefit for me in having it set up this way was that I know everything is regularly backed up. The raw files are on the nas as well as the external drive. The catalog on the mac is regularly backed up automatically by time machine onto the nas without me having to faff about running extra back ups.

This worked for me when I needed it recently. I would like to try smart previews when I get the chance but I’ll also be interested to hear of any alternatives.

Thanks for the reply. My iMac has a standard 1tb hard drive so it's possible using a SSD for the Lightroom catalogue and working RAWs may speed up the performance of Lightroom on the iMac. I think I will try the external hard drive and see how I get on. It's usb3 compatible so it won't be as fast as a SSD but it will give me an idea if an external hard drive is a workable solution for me.

 

[Chappers]

I run all my images off an external drive, but keep the catalogue on the computers HD. In fact I've got the images stored over three hard drives. Even with USB2 it didn't seem to give much of a delay. USB3 is quicker. Images that are put onto my laptop I simply export as a catalogue and then import to Lightroom on the iMac which automatically loads them onto the current external drive. SSD's are fine if you don't have to many images, but a 2TB HD is a lot cheaper than the equivalent SSD. I have used an SSD but found that although it did give amazing transfer speeds (4+times faster than a USB drive. )I didn't find it may a significant difference to the work flow. in real terms. It does make a difference with video where there is, in general ,more data involved

 

[rob-nikon]

I run all my images off an external drive, but keep the catalogue on the computers HD. In fact I've got the images stored over three hard drives. Even with USB2 it didn't seem to give much of a delay. USB3 is quicker. Images that are put onto my laptop I simply export as a catalogue and then import to Lightroom on the iMac which automatically loads them onto the current external drive. SSD's are fine if you don't have to many images, but a 2TB HD is a lot cheaper than the equivalent SSD. I have used an SSD but found that although it did give amazing transfer speeds (4+times faster than a USB drive. )I didn't find it may a significant difference to the work flow. in real terms. It does make a difference with video where there is, in general ,more data involved

Exporting the catalog from laptop to desktop worked very well and was easy to do if I only wanted laptop to desktop transfer but I'm wanting to be able to use the main Lightroom catalog to swap between desktop and laptop quickly and easily.

I made the transition to an external drive last night, it was surprisingly easy to do. I have this years RAWs and the Lightroom catalog on the external hard drive and I've kept the previous years RAW files archived on the Mac internal hard drive.

Having the Lightroom catalog on the external hard drive means it's quick and easy to swap between using the laptop and the desktop, if I'm going out I can quickly grab the external hard drive and laptop. I'm going to do most of the editing on the desktop due to the larger screen but it's nice to be able to import, keyword, export to website/Flickr whilst on the laptop. I'm going to see how well this works for me before buying a SSD. A SSD would be smaller, lighter and less prone to failure with the extra travel it's going to get. I'm only going to have a years worth of images on the SSD so a 250GB SSD will cover me ok. So far 2012-2015 is only around 450GB so 250GB for one year should be ok for me. I may wait to see if any SSD offers come up and try to pick up a 500GB SSD to futureproof myself.

I've also sorted out my automatic backups via the desktop too. I've managed to set up the external hard drive to backup to the desktop internal hard drive. The desktop internal hard drive is backed up to separate external backup hard drive and by time machine to a second external backup hard drive so I've covered my backup requirements without requiring any new hard drives.