MSchwinny wrote:
In previous versions of LR when ever I moved things outside of LR everything got reallymessed up ~ so I am petrified to move them.
That is still so. I am assuming that you want to move the photos from on eof the computers to your external hard drive,
This is the best procedure: In Lr create one parent folder that has all image folders as sub-folders. To do this, just create a new folder and drag-and-drop the image folders on top of it.
Then - while Lr is closed - move this parent folder - with all its subfolders - to the external drive, using Win Exploerer / Mac Finder. At this point do not rename the folders or change the folder structure.
When you re-open Lr you will see question marks in dront of the names of all the folders. That is expected. Right-click the parent folder and select <Find missing folder>, navigate to the folder on the external drive and select it. Lr will then find all the sub-folders on its own, provided that their names and structure has not been changed.
Move the photos to the external drive after you have moved the catalog there.