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• • February 10, 2015 at 7:28 pm #73258
    Thomas Cheung

    Member

    I always have my InDesign linked photos stored in an external harddisk and this works well.

    Recently, I changed that external harddisk to one of the 2 partitions of a LaCie RAID. Then my InDesign files started to claim those photos as missing link.

    (Thru the Harddisk was mounted). If I relocated all links, it still forget next time I reopen the tile.

    The only solution is to package it and put all file in the harddisk where my InDesign file locate. Since I always have different jobs using same original images from clients. I need to have a centralise storage, always package it is not a good solution. Can anyone give me some hints?

  • February 11, 2015 at 2:36 pm #73270
    Colleen Shannon

    Member

    I think you are playing with fire by storing on an external disk or separate volume. If you don’t want to copy the image multiple times, why not use a single folder on your hard drive, and use the external as backup?

    Disk space is cheap; time is expensive.

    Without knowing how large these original images are, I still have to say that Packaging is so convenient to have all elements together in one folder, and disk space is cheap, so Package and forgetaboutit.

  • February 11, 2015 at 4:58 pm #73273
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    I”m wondering if it’s because it’s a partition where the images reside. I wouldn’t think that would be the case, but it is possible.

    In my workflow, we don’t have the issue of a different job using the same art work from another (except for logos or something). Or if they do share the same art, we copy it to that job.

    We have separate folders (including art folders) for each individual job. And that folder also includes the fonts.

    So far as external drives, I have a couple I use at home, but that’s mainly for clones of my system, which I do weekly.

    But I’m not going to tell you to change your workflow, as apparently it’s worked in the past and that’s what you are used to doing. And if the images are large and take up a lot of space, I could see that packaging them could be a royal pain, and time-consuming.

    Something tells me it’s the partition and InDesign is getting lost. Was your previous external drive also partitioned?

    Would you be able to put in a second internal hard drive into your computer and store the art on that (instead of an external drive)?

    Are you on a Mac or PC?

  • February 12, 2015 at 11:03 am #73310
    Thomas Cheung

    Member

    I am using a Mac.
    Pervious Harddisk is full harddisk not a partition,
    Current one is one of the 2 partition of a LaCie raid, formatted for “speed” – Raid 0

    Is partition not fit for InDesign?

    What is the problem “playing on fire” for using external harddisk? As iMac is used in my office, and change is difficult, we all works on external (all basic INDD was in a drobo, which suppose “almost” not die). The internal harddisk only use for OS and application, then when a Mac was fail, I can easily swap the job to another Mac or notebook.

    I have a portable HD which for bringing jobs home, it was format to one window and one Mac partition, but it don’t have the problem,

    As we need to work on originals provided by client, these was stored in another external. May be I need to consider expand my Drobo for that, and solely use the LaCie for other purpose if it cannot be solve.

  • February 12, 2015 at 1:46 pm #73312
    Colleen Shannon

    Member

    Well, everyone’s world is different, eh?

    I work at a print shop with hundreds of clients, and it’s crucial that they bring packaged InDesign files in. So, what happens is this: We get the InDesign file and some links, but others are missing, and the customer doesn’t know where they are. So, I have to tell them the path to find their files (which are hopefully still there), etc. Lots of time wasted.

    While having your links in separate partitions and hard drives may work for you, the moment you move those files, your InDesign file is not going to know where it went, which involves wasting lots of time re-linking. Having all your elements in one folder is how InDesign works best, hence the Package function.

  • February 18, 2015 at 8:17 am #73395
    Kelly Vaughn

    Participant

    Hello Thomas,

    I also use an external hard drive (Lacie rugged SSD) for all my live projects. It lets me take everything on the road easily when I travel. So I plug the external drive into my laptop and it works exactly the same as when I am working on the big iMac at home. The file path is the same. No packaging required (which is great for those projects where I have hundreds and hundreds of files), and it lets me have a central database of images.

    I wrote an article a few years ago about basing one project off of another, and having all the links remember where they are supposed to point to. Perhaps it will be of use for use. The important part is in the Easy way, step #2. Basically, change the name of your old working folder. Then relink, run a book function (if working in a book file), and save. I have not run into the exact scenario you discuss here, but perhaps this method will work for you.

    https://documentgeek.blogspot.com/2011/01/indesign-absolute-vs-relative-links.html

    Good luck,
    Kelly Vaughn

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