DSLRUsers.com

I have all my photos prior to 2010 on a external hard drive.
I have updated from Lightroom 2 to Lightroom 3. I have to look back on some old images and when I atttached the external drive and open Lightroom version 3 I can see the drive but can't see the images. I don't want to import them into my current drive,I just want to view and process them and leave them in their location on the external drive. I'm sure I am just missing a simple step .
Before I updated Lightroom I could see the images on the external drive.
I'm sure you Lightroom experts have the simple answer to the problem.
Thanks
Jeff

If you can see the previews in Lightroom but they have a question mark, I think it's right-click on them and respecify the location. If you do that from a file in the top folder level of the "missing" files, it should find all under.

If you can't see them, try importing.

I remember when I upgraded from 2 to 3 I had been running parallel catalogues in 3 Beta and you can't have multiple references to the same file. I think I had to remove some directories in Lightroom (delete, but only for the Lightroom references, not from the disk) then reimport.

Hopefully, some combination of the above will work.

Thanks,I can't see the previews or even the folders . I did think about importing them all in back onto the external drive but I'm hoping there is an easier way,as they go back several years and involve thousands of images.
Thanks for replying

Jeff

Do you have a Lightoom catalog on the external drive with the photos? If so, you should be able to open it and then Murray's questions apply.

If you don't have a catalog there, you should create one and then import the photos into it. Keep the catalog separate from your main one, though.

Assuming you're working from a single catalogue on your C Drive, there's one thing to check - are they in the catalogue?

Import a single image. If it works, they're not in the catalogue. If it doesn't work (image already in the catalogue) you may be able to find them in Lightroom and refresh the link.

Thanks guys
I have ended up importing the folders into the library ,very tedious but at least they are there. I hope that next time I update Lightroom to maybe version 4 I don't have to do this again.

Jeff

You should be able to import the photos from your ext HDD into your existing catalogue, by:
- Import files from disk (from File menu)
- navigate to your ext HDD
- click on root folder for your photos (on the ext HDD)
- click on the "Import all photos in selected folder" button (at the bottom of the window)
- from the import window that appears, in the File Handling field: choose "import photos without moving"

This should add the photos to your catalogue, but leave them on your ext HDD.

Dave

Thanks Dave worked a treat

Jeff