I suggest visiting our roadmap page. It’s the red button at the top of the screen. Follow the tutorials in order particularly the one on upgrading from Lightroom 2 to 3. The process from 1 to 3 is basically the same.

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David Marx

With all respect, I think that a review of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Catalog Creation and Image Storage Fundamentals and Getting Started: What Does “Import” Mean in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom? might help you.

If you used the Import and Move Command with files that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has never referenced then this is not the reason why you have multiple copies. If, on the other hand, you have been using this command, or the import with Copy Command, with files that are already in your Lightroom database then you might be creating duplicates. This is especially true if you have disabled the “Do Not Import Suspected Duplicates” preference switch in the Import Dialog.

Our tutorial on Using Search By Filename to Find Duplicate Images in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom might help. Starting over with an entirely new Photoshop Lightroom Catalog might also help. Be warned though. Starting completely over might also be a major setback. It depends on what information you have, or have not saved, down to each file’s metadata block and what Catalog specific features like Virtual Copies, Pick / Reject Flags, or Collections you have used.

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David Marx

What do I do now??????

How are these external drives formatted? Are they formatted NTFS, FAT32, Mac HFS+, exFAT? I suspect that Windows is telling you that for a file this large (5.04GB) that your drive needs a more sophisticated data allocation system. Our tutorial on Formatting an External Hard Drive and the pages of comments that follow might help.

If I were in your shoes I would move only your Lightroom2 Catalog-2.lrcat file and your Lightroom Settings folders to the external hard drive. These are the only files that you must have. The previews–the .lrdata–file can be easily rebuilt once the Catalog has been successfully transferred into your iMac.

You might also consider optimizing your Lightroom Catalog to see if that reduces its size and / or using a more sophisticated tool like the Windows Sync Toy to copy it onto the external drive. Another option that you might consider is to move this file via Dropbox or a network connection between your two computers. If the external hard drives are truly the problem then perhaps the solution is to eliminated the external drive as the transfer media.

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David Marx

Before you move anything make sure that you have a complete backup of all your files–both your Lightroom Catalog and all of your images. Once you are sure that you will not loose anything even if something goes wrong then watch and read these tutorials:
Getting Started: Where Should I Keep My Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Catalog
Getting Started: Where Should I Store My Photos
Moving Folders from Drive to Drive with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

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David Marx

So I purchased an iMac a few weeks back and I have been unsuccessfully trying to transfer my LR catalog many times since then. My Lightroom catalog is on the PC hard drive and is named Lightroom 2 Catalog-2 (as well I have another catalog there – Lightroom 2 catalog – I assume from my old Lightroom 2 days). Now I have been trying to copy the correct lrcat and lrdata file to an external drive so I can copy to my iMac, but each time after taking an eternity (hours and hours!) I get the error message “The File ‘Lightroom 2 Catalog-2′ is too large for the destination file system”. The lrdata file seems to copy across okay each time though.

I have tried many times and keep getting this same error. The problem is not that the external hard drive is full though – I have checked and there is more than enough space. I have tried with a few different extrenal HDs. I tried buying a new 750GB external drive to try with that, and even with nothing else on that drive I got the same error message. Note that the lrcat file is 5.04GB, so surely it should fit on a 750GB external drive. I also tried copying it from its original location to the PC desktop which worked fine, and from there to the external drive – but again same error message

This has been driving me nuts – Is there any way you can help or any solution to this issue? I would really like to be able to use my iMac for the purpose I bought it for, and I do need to sell my windows PC once everything is transferred. And I really don’t want to have to make the choice between keeping 2 desktops (my apartment is not big enough anyway!) or losing my entire LR catalog.

Any help you can give is very much appreciated!

Thanks so much,

What is the best way to go about this? I have tried different things but I am sure in the process of me trying new ways, I am losing some of my images in the mean time too.

Help!

Look forward to hearing from anyone with suggestions.

I sent you a reply via email this morning too but here’s my advice given this extra wrinkle. You need to move some of your existing images over to the new disk immediately. Move enough of your old images over so that the old photo storage disk has approximately 15% free space and then leave the rest of your existing files alone. There is no reason to move everything but from here on though load all new work onto the new disk (E:\). For help moving files from drive to drive without upsetting Lightroom see:

http://thelightroomlab.com/2009/09/moving-folders-with-adobe-photoshop-lightroom/

Lightroom is designed to index files on multiple disks so you need not worry about it. The trickier part is your backup plan. You need to make sure that your backup system now protects all three internal drives. This is where your external docking station might be a useful gizmo. If I were in your shoes I would use that device and the right software to insure that everything gets backed up every day. See:

http://thelightroomlab.com/2010/03/backing-up-windows-computers-using-acronis-true-image/
http://thelightroomlab.com/2010/03/backing-up-a-mac-with-carbon-copy-cloner/

I hope this advice helps.

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David Marx