Using Bridge and an external drive

[Jodie99]

Hi Brian 

I have been doing photography for a few years and stupidly (because I didn't know) saved all my photos to my Macs internal drive. My Mac has slowed down and I realise I need to store my photos on an external drive. I use Bridge to view my images and camera raw and photoshop. Would it be possible to get some information on transferring the images I have to an external hard drive and how to set it all up? I do have one external drive already that runs time machine. Does Bridge work with an external drive? 

Many Thanks 

Jodie 

[Damien Symonds]

2 minutes ago, Jodie99 said:

Does Bridge work with an external drive? 

Yes, Bridge is simply a browser.  It can see your photos anywhere.

[Jodie99]

Thank-You! While I have been looking for instructions on how to transfer photos from my internal drive to an external one. I came across a few articles with people saying they had trouble with Bridge not recognising the external drive. 

[Damien Symonds]

I would certainly make sure that Bridge could read the drive before I began copying files to it.

[Brian]

Do not store any of your images on the TM Drive. Leave it alone as its sole-purpose is for Time Machine Backups.

Also, when you do get another external drive, make sure you un-check it from being backed up in Time Machine.

Configuring a EHD to work with your Mac is pretty straightforward. The main issue is that the MacOS isn't configured by default to display the EHD on the Desktop. All you have to do is turn this feature on and then you work with the EHD just as you would your internal. In the next comment, I will give you instructions on how to turn on this feature.

1. Open the Finder:
   
   
   
    
2. Then select the Finder Menu next to the Apple Menu and select Preferences:
   
   
3. From there the following Pop-Up Box should appear:
   
    
4. All you have to do is put a check-mark next to Hard Disks, External Disks, CDs, DVDs, and iPods. Click the Red Circle at the top left corner to save the changes.
    
5. Now when you view your Mac Desktop, those items will appear when they are mounted:
   
   
    

As you can see, not only Hard Drives are displayed, but Memory Cards in a Card Reader, and if I had a DVD in a drive, that'd show up too. If you don't have a card reader, please purchase one. Life is so much easier with a Card Reader when it comes to a Mac. Please give this article a read. Then to manage your files on your new EHD, give it a unique name, mine is G-Drive 12TB, and then create new folders.

When working with a new EHD, it is very important to come up with some sort of File Tree Structure. For example:

Then from there I give it a year or project name or category. Basically, something obvious that makes sense to you and makes things easy to find. Some examples:

• Business >> Weddings >> 2019 >> Month >> BridesLastName-GroomsLastName.
• Personal >> Landscapes >> 2019 >> Month >> Type of Landscape or Area Info
• Personal >> Vacation >> 2019 >> June >> Yosemite Trip.

[Jodie99]

Thanks Brian, that's really helpful. is it then just a case of moving my existing photos from my internal drive to the new external drive? Should I have 2 EHD so I have a back-up or is the time machine EHD enough? 

 

[Brian]

10 minutes ago, Jodie99 said:

is it then just a case of moving my existing photos from my internal drive to the new external drive?

Yes.

What I would do is "Copy" your files from one HD to the other, instead of "moving." Just in case if things don't go well, you can always attempt another copy. You can't do that with Cut/Paste; sometimes in very rare circumstances, things go "Poof." It's happened to me once so since then I always tell my members to err on the side of caution. Then when you are 110% sure everything copied over correctly, feel free to delete those files from the Main Internal HD.

10 minutes ago, Jodie99 said:

Should I have 2 EHD so I have a back-up or is the time machine EHD enough? 

 

Technically speaking, you should have three copies of everything, with one off-site backup. This is in case if Fire, Theft or Floods. Floods could come from a busted water-pipe in the ceiling over your computer. But before we go crazy with you buying multiple HDs, let's get you the Primary EHD that is meant for photos. Then we will go from there.

[Jodie99]

Hi Brian - So I have my new hard drive set up (WD desktop 6TB) made a filing tree, I have copied and pasted a few files across to the new hard drive. I thought I would check that the number in each folder was correct and noticed that most folders have less files once I have copied them across? Eg on my internal drive in a folder from a steampunk shoot there is 83 items but only 61 items have been copied? What am I doing wrong? Thank-You. 

 

[Brian]

No idea. Can you post a screen shot? Preferably with the file format types. I wanna take a look at these files. Here is an example of what I'm looking for:

 

This is a prime example of why I always recommend to copy and never move files. Just thing if you moved the whole folder? Those 22 files in that folder would be lost forever. Those files could also be duplicates of some kind that the system created, but this is 100% pure speculation without seeing what isn't being copied over.

[Jodie99]

Hi John 

I deleted the folders from my hard drive that didn't have the right amount of files in them (I-had only done two) and copied them again. Now they have the right number...So I'm not sure what happened. I have attached a screenshot so you can see the internal drive and the external drive I have copied them to. Does this look right? 

Should I then use a cloud storage facility as well before I delete them from my internal? (I've not deleted anything yet in case it goes horribly wrong)

One other thing and I'm not sure if its right, When I open a folder and the file thumbnails are loading, behind most files is a red triangle with a circle behind it...It's the topaz photo editing software symbol. I rarely use the software but it seems to be on most of my files. Ive attached a screenshot. Not sure if its connected in any way to my files not being copied correctly the first time but thought I would mention it! 

 

Thank-You so so much! 

Jodie 

[Brian]

3 hours ago, Jodie99 said:

Should I then use a cloud storage facility as well before I delete them from my internal? (I've not deleted anything yet in case it goes horribly wrong)

That's up to you. Honestly, how often do you go back to these photos? If the file sizes, and folder amounts match up, you should be good.

As for the Topaz thing, I'm not sure, I've never used Topaz products. Try opening one of those files and see what it does. I'm thinking for whatever reason, the file is associated with Topaz. Maybe you edited those files at some point with that plugin.

[Jodie99]

Thanks Brian, Once I've successfully moved all the folders onto my new external drive, can I copy all of that external hard drive to another external hard drive? If there is can you give me instructions? Sorry if that is a stupid question, I am relatively new to using external drives. Now I am photographing for clients I am trying to be super cautious.

Thanks

Jodie 

[Brian]

On 8/26/2020 at 7:19 AM, Jodie99 said:

can I copy all of that external hard drive to another external hard drive?

Yep.

You can either do a Select All and then right click / choose copy and paste those folders on the other EHD, OR you can drag on EHD over the other while one the desktop. Either way works. For me, I'd rather open up the first EHD and do a select all, to make sure I get everything, and then paste it on the 2nd EHD.