Can genesis be run from an external drive?
Choppski
Posts: 523
I know that my poser content can work from an external drive. Can genesis be run from external drive or must it be in the same drive as the program? I am assuming that products related to genesis--clothes, hair, etc, can be installed on external drives? Any advice appreciated. I am posting this question in this forum because I am curious about how DS4 works with respect to genesis content. I have a vague memory that the genesis figure, morphs, etc must all be on the computer with the program but perhaps I am mistaken.
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Sure you can run your data from a different drive than your C drive. All you need to do is to make the new location known to Studio. A word of cation if you use an external drive, though, if the drive changes names, E instead of G for example, youl'll have to adapt the setting.
I've done this. Just dumped the entire Daz3d folder onto a different drive. The exe is still installed in the usual place. Just run Daz and in Content Library right click Daz Studio Formats and choose Add a Base Directory. Remove the existing one.
Man... you can ask me any question you like. You still got my contact info? Its been awhile since we had any correspondence. Or just PM me here.
So let me see if I understand this correctly. I can simply copy my file structure to a separate drive, point the program to the new location, and delete the original files? Please, tell me it's actually that easy. I've lost almost a third of my hard drive to my 3D addiction, and need it back so I have the operating space to actually render something quickly.
Thanks.
Tony O'seland
tony.oseland@gmail.com
So let me see if I understand this correctly. I can simply copy my file structure to a separate drive, point the program to the new location, and delete the original files? Please, tell me it's actually that easy. I've lost almost a third of my hard drive to my 3D addiction, and need it back so I have the operating space to actually render something quickly.
Thanks.
Tony O'seland
tony.oseland@gmail.com
Pretty much, yes. I wouldn't delete the original structure until you've tested the copy though :/. I'm pretty sure everything runs off sub-folders relative to the base directory. It doesn't matter what the base directory is.
One other thing you can do to save drive space, if you're using DIM to install your content; the default setting for DIM is to save the downloaded installers in a separate folder (check the DIM settings to find out where). This can be turned off so that new downloads are deleted automatically once the content files are installed, and you can delete the .zip files manually for the content you already have. If you do this, don't delete the manifest files stored alongside the .zip files, or DIM will forget what you have installed and try to download everything all over again.
Note that if you're installing with the Connect system built into DAZ|Studio, this isn't a problem since it doesn't use separate installer downloads.
OK, but what if I want to have the content on a separate drive but keep the scenes I create saved on the C drive? With other versions of DS I could do that as long as the data files remained on the C drive. Is that the same with ds4?
The main reason I keep the scene files on C is that I don't want to clutter up my external drive too much, and I can copy scenes to a different drive, and then move them back on to the C drive if it turns out I need to use them again (if that makes sense). I guess my main question is, can I do with ds4 what i did with ds3. I install my content manually because I hated install manager when I tried it.
Are you saving your scenes into a known-to-DAZ|Studio content folder? If so, it doesn't matter if your scene files and content files are on different drives, D|S looks at all the content locations it knows about and thinks of them all as One Big Content Folder. The only thing that matters to D|S when looking for a file is its folder location relative to the base content folder. Any base content folder. All your base content folders.
(Did I really just make an "All Your Base Are Belong To DAZ" joke...?)
Yes I am saving them into my library scenes. I guess my question originated because I had this vague memory from years ago that genesis had to be in the same drive as the data files, but all other content could be elsewhere. Then again I learned recently (was it you who told me?) that I can open ds3 files as long as the program as the data folder for the ds3 files included as a daz studio runtime. I will play with it. Thank you.
Daz Studio has a lot of great custom setting options. I personally don't keep any "working" or "personal" files on my C drive (unless it's something I put temporarily on my desktop). Everything from PSDs, JPGs, DOCs, downloaded files, and of course my entire DAZ library and scenes are all on my 2 Drobos. It was a little tricky at first but I managed to finally set it all up to go where I wanted it to.
I've found Genesis files to be rather tricky. I've tried to install all Genesis content onto its own folder. DIM won't let me. DIM says the Genesis content needs to be installed in the default location... something like that. That's one reason I went back to using DIM to install everything, all into one folder.
Never encountered that, I don't use the default location for anything.
All the Genesises (sic) can be installed anywhere you like (except Wndows protected folders) as long as Studio is told where they are through its Content Directory Manager. Characters and morphs for the Genesises from other sites can be installed in site specific libraries an still work again as long as Studio is told where they are.
Just to update, I now have all my genesis and daz specific content on my external hard drive, and I am saving my scenes, etc on my C drive and everything works. But I DO have several directories added via the content directory manager. But I install everything manually and that made it easier to pick where I wanted it.