Current jobs are all stored on an internal SSD drive for maximum read/write speed. When the job is completed I move the entire folder structure for that job off to an external drive and later (usually after a year) off to an archive drive (networked large capacity NAS drive that only runs when needed). The backups of the catalogues are all stored together on another external RAID drive.

By doing this the LR catalogues never get too big and cumbersome, they are easy to find while I’m working on them as I don’t keep too many on the “work in progress” SSD drive (can also be found and switched under “recents” in LR), which also means I don’t need massive capacity SSD drives which are still very expensive and the catalogues can be ported to other drives easily while maintaining everything in the catalogue for that shoot (including develop histories, flags etc).

As I have no use for the “publish” module, losing any settings in there each time I create a new catalogue is not an issue. All my import/develop/print presets and settings etc are always replicated each time a new catalogue is created.

No, that’s not at all what I am talking about. Virtual copies and flags (and everything else about your photos) are stored in the catalog, so moving the catalog does not lose anything.

No, if you move your catalog and keep the underlying file-structure, everything is kept. Done this many times.

Thank you so much Rikk. Great info!! Very much appreciated. Dale