ts3287 wrote:
i want to save my raw files on external drive but when i work on them copy some of the files to the hardisk for the computer to be faster and when i finish to delete from hardisk but keep the develop work so next time i bring the file from the external disk it will show the develop i created. how can i do this?
thanks
Actually, I don't think smart previews do what you asked, although they might be a solution to a different problem. Smart previews are most useful when the external drive isn't connected (which wasn't mentioned in the problem statement).
In general, the workflow of moving photos to an internal disk, editing them there, and then delete the photos back to the internal disk is unnecessary extra work that adds almost no benefit. There is such a tiny speed difference based on disk speed when you load a photo into the develop module that you may not notice, and it may be dwarfed by the time it takes for you to move the photo. Ian Lyons did a study and in most cases the difference between editing photos on an internal drive and editing photos on an external drive was small fractions of a second.
So my advice to you is just leave the photos on the external drive, no moving of photos from here to there, no taking up space on your internal drive with smart previews.