I wonder if one can do screen sharing from the faster machine to the iMac? Or perhaps an AirPlay solution.

I am saving pennies for a SSD for the OS and a Thunderbolt drive or three for storage & apps.

Icebear -
LR 4 was an upgrade, so I thought I could not remove LR or LR2 - maybe I don't need them, but I left them, altho I no longer use any catalogs with them, so the apps themselves take very little room.

It it the catalogs, previews, and image files that take up space.

Originally Posted by BradfordBenn I wonder if one can do screen sharing from the faster machine to the iMac? Or perhaps an AirPlay solution.

Newer iMac's support "target display mode" allowing you to connect another Mac and use the iMac as a screen. The iMac is still running, just not using the screen. This first appeared in the 2009 27" iMac, and was specific to that model till iMac's came with Thunderbolt. Now any Thunderbolt iMac supports it. [sigh, mine is 3 yrs older than 2009]

my LR4 and Aperture/iPhoto catalogues, previews and settings are all on 1 ruggedised FW800 portable hard drive, as are all my Bridge managed image directories. And it all works solid as a rock and fast. Main reason for going this way was so i could work seamlessly across travelling and desktop hardware but i like also the ease of daisy chaining it to my RAID backup unit everytime i get home. i have a file sync app that keeps both at the same place when connected.

would be great to know what other folders should be there and where they can be found - like presets (homemade or bought) and plugins so that things are all the same across machines