How To...

Were these catalogued via LR

Yes, I have all of my edits in LR 5.

EDIT: I would have to download LR again on the new laptop I think...

Yes, you will have to install LR on your new laptop and copy your current catalog file there as well. It sounds like it's already pointing to your external drive for RAW files, so you'll be all set.

Thank you for the reply, Alexey! How do I copy the current catalog into the newly downloaded LR? The laptop isn't here yet, I just want to be prepared ;)

Open your LR, go to Edit->Catalog Settings. In General tab click Show button against catalog location. It will open the catalog in Explorer. You will copy that folder to a thumb drive and bring it to your new laptop. There you can place it anywhere you want (as long as you know where it is). Don't put it on the desktop though. On my system (desktop computer) I keep it on a separate SSD drive for instance.

Thank you so very much, Alexey! This has saved me a lot of work ;) I am so glad I posted this question!

So, if I keep it on the thumb drive, do I still need to take it of the thumb drive "and place it anywhere I want" once it is on the new computer?

Yes, you will copy it from the thumb drive to the new laptop's harddrive. My Documents or My Pictures folders are good enough locations. When you install and update LR go to that folder and open the file with .lrcat extension. From that point LR will remember where the catalog is and it should open it next time by default.

Thank you so much again!

Thank you so much, Alexey! I was able to get everything on my laptop smoothly.