Moving Library to an External Hard Drive
RiverMissy
Posts: 303
I read the threads that were available on the subject of moving the Daz Library to an external drive but felt the directions I read did not pertain to my situation completely and wouldn't want a problem.
First, are there others that have their libraries on an external drive and does it seem to work ok? I have a Windows 10, 64-bit computer, no NVidia card. For an aside, this makes Iray renders painful, so 3Delight is still needed.
I have over 3000 installed items and got carried away during October through now and have over 3000 new items to install. I have a 2T C drive but am worried that the drive will not hold everything going forward. I use 2 8T externals for backups now and am thinking about getting a third 8T for Daz data.
My goal is to get a new computer later this year hopefully with an NVidia card, but the future is not predictable, so I was thinking that setting up an external drive now would be good for when I need to migrate later.
I hope this is enough information and I look forward to input. Thank you.
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Comments
I use external drives for storage. On the computer I have 2, a C and D drive. Guts of program on C, working files on D. Not exactly the scenario you are planning however I notice that now and then W10 burps out a drive, rarely the D drive [more likely if asking it to multitask] but often enough on any plugins which is rather unnerving. So to be sure of a stable program for rendering I would suggest keeping the guts of the program on the C drive and working files either on C or an internal D drive [and not to multitask the D drive while rendering]. I thought at first it was just my computer but have since read that no, it's a quirk of W10.
I have a portable West Digital WD_Black 4TB drive that holds a copy of my roughly 3TB of assets that is sync'd every other day to my desktop setup. The portable drive travels with me daily and I use it on the commute and during lunch to work on DAZ Studio files. I have zero problems with the configuration.
On my desktop, I have DAZ on the C drive and the assets on a separate drive, all of which are regularly backed up to a pair of external hard drives. Again, no configuration issues.
Tom
Thank you Tom and Catherine for your feedback. I have an external drive that W10 drops on a regular basis. It is designated as my F drive and it is 2TB. I have turned it off recently. I was using it for my Daz backups but am too frustrated with it at this point. I appreciate you sharing that this is a W10 problem because I was unaware of that and it will help to calm my nerves with that drive.
I am wondering if anyone would be kind enough to help me with what steps to take to move the data and how to change the settings in Daz to point Daz to the new location. Thank you.
In D/S bring up the Content Directory Manager [drop down menu on Content Panel] and add the new pathways. As I recall it's going to insist to leave something for CMS and Connect Library, don't worry about that.
Due to their size select portions and do little by little. Either copy/paste or cut/paste. If you tell the system to take it 'all' at once, it is likely too choke and blank out the drive. Don't panic, just restart the computer. Drives should be there. However files in transit could be damaged, so 'little by little' is safer.
AFAIK external drives should be plugged in 'after' the computer has started.
By the way, aside from the W10 issues with drives ... problems can also be as simple to solve as getting a new power plug between the external harddrive and the outlet. I had one brand new external drive which right from the start was wonky on stability. Turned out it just needed another cord. So I put an old cord on it and it now seems to be working much better. But it will take some time for that sunken heart feeling to go away that one gets when one sees a drive full of treasures go poof.
Thank you Catherine. Now that you mention it I don't think I have tried a different usb cable on the drive that drops out. It's a WD Passport so it is powered through the usb port. I have it on a USB 3 powered hub that has on/off switches for each port. I haven't had the heart to plug it back in lately. Next time it shows up I have a lot of data to get off of it and then I may retire it.
So basically you are saying move the files and change a setting and all should be good? I read other posts with many, many steps to go to an external drive that I why I am a bit confused.
Just curious Tom, are you on a Mac or how are you syncing? When you use your portable are you using a notebook and if so what kind of hardware is in it?Thank you.