how to organize my photos in lightroom

[Mikehit]

I didnt realize I could move files using lightroom. A follow up question, using this procedure, when I want to revisit an image or set of images from my external, should I move them back to laptop before working on them?

I will give this a shot. Thanks a lot for the idea, and a quick response. I appreciate it.

There is no problem with the photos and the catalog being on the ext. HDD
I have all my photos with the catalog on an external HDD so I can move them between my laptop and my desktop.
I usually import photos to the ext. HDD using my laptop. When I open LR I open the catalog on the ext.HDD, open the images and work them on the laptop then when I close I have the preferences set to always ask if I want to back up when I exit (I nearly always do). In this case it is set up to send the back up to the laptop C drive.

If I want to do critical editing I hoik the ext. HDD to my desktop and do exactly the same thing (selecting the catalog from the ext.HDD). When I exit LR it saves the catalog back up to the desktop C drive.
In this example I now have consecutive back-ups on different computers but it is a minor inconvenience.

Two comments to make:
The only precaution I take is that I have LR set up to always ask which catalog I want to open - I have in the past mistakenly opened the back-up on the C drive then lost all the changes when I can't remember where I made the changes
My ext.HDD is USB3 compatible so I have installed a USB3 card - I found that USB 2 was OK but a bit slow at times. USB3 has speeded it up because LR needs to talk to the ext.HDD.