Merging two libraries to save space on my hard drive

Limey

I desperately need more space on my hard drive and I presently have two Daz Studio libraries not quite exactly the same but close. I would like to create just one complete library and eliminate any duplicates to make more space available.

Is there a safe way to just merge them and how should I attempt to do this ?

I recently purchased "Content Folder Twins" and obviously this should be helpful in dealing with duplicate folders but I want to make sure that my library system is not corrupted by just doing something stupid such as eyeballing various folders and just moving them around from one libary to another to make them appear identical, at which point one of the libraries would be deleted.

Another question is this. If these libraries are succesfully combined into one will it affect the integrity of my previous projects or will I need to reconstruct any elements that might be missing in scenes because the links may be broken when various items are moved ?

Any tips or suggestions that would help avoid a disaster would be appreciated.

 Thanks 

Limey

Richard Haseltine

On WIndows you should be able to simply take the folders from one content library and drop them in the other, where they will merge. If you want to keep the more recent file in the case of differing duplicates I think you may need to use the command line or third-party tools, though.

When you save a scene or preset DS uses only the relative path - the folders within the content directory - so the absolute location of the content directory doesn't matter. As long as your existing directories are correctly set  up there should be no issue after merging.

FirstBastion

You could create a zip file archive of one of the Content libraries which can also act as a backup and then extract it at the other content location.

Limey

Thanks for the replies

 Richard, does this action work the same way on a Mac or are there differences I should be aware of ?

 Creating a backup is obviously a good idea.

Limey

Richard Haseltine

Macs are tricky as, by default, the folders you drag across will replace any matching existing folders rather than merging with them. The idea of using a zip might work, but zips have a fairly low (by content library standards) maximum size.

mavante

Limey said:

Thanks for the replies

 Richard, does this action work the same way on a Mac or are there differences I should be aware of ?

 Creating a backup is obviously a good idea.

Limey

This gives a good explanation of how to perform a Finder "merge" operation on a Mac:

How to merge folders on your Mac