Move DAZ Library to External Drive
Quietrob
Posts: 361
I have a big External Drive with lots of empty space.
I have DAZ Studio with the Content Library located on my C: Drive.
Now that I updated the DIM, it wants to upload some 40 Gig of content to my Library.
This would leave me with 20G free on the C: Drive.
How can I....
1) Move my existing content to the new external (H:) drive and make sure that DAZ can find it.
2) Ensure that when I tell the DIM to upload the 40 gig of content that it uploads to the new location where My DAZ Library will be stored.
3) Thank you. A search using the Terms [Move DAZ Library External Drive] yielded no results. However, once the answer is here, it will be easy for everyone with a storage issue.
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Comments
If you have custom categories/tags/metadata, make sure you Export User Data so you can restore them after you move your content.
In DS, go to Edit > Preferences > Content Library > Content Directory Manager and add the new location under BOTH "DAZ Studio Formats" and "Poser Formats". Don't remove the old paths yet.
In DIM, click the gear (Settings) in the upper right corner.
On the Downloads tab you can change the location for DIM to download the zips to.
On the Installation tab, click the + sign in the lower left to add a new path to install to. After adding the path, make sure you change Current to the new path.
Once you've moved everything to the new location, launch, go to Edit > Preferences > Content Library > Content Directory Manager, and remove the old paths.
Thank you.
Data Migration is always scary. I'm just getting used finding things quickly and would hate to re-install all of my content.
I'll follow your instructions and let you know how it works out.
Thanks for the jiffy reply.
Forgot to mention, when you Export User Data it creates files named User_1.dsx (and _2 etc. if needed) in the Runtime:Support folder of your first DS-format content folder. Make sure you copy that over to the new location.
Yup Data Migration is scary AND tricky. I'm glad I decided to take it in stages. Last Night it was 112G of renders.
Tonight I'll attempt to move my DAZ content libraries as well as download that out standing 40Gig. That will give others a chance to weigh in with their experiences.
I have a feeling that while it may not be a well commented thread, it is definitely an important one as DAZ by default chose to use my Primary Hard Drive to store content. To be fair, I think most programs do this as well.
Thanks for your help!
You can save all your content on an extra/external drive. Just direct DS and DIM to it
My DAZ Library is some 21.5 Gigs of downloaded content.
I have another 40 Gig (according to the DIM) still to be downloaded.
Last night it took 3 hours to move over 100 gig of artwork to that large drive. This will be probably take a little under two hours. I'll start it at midnight and try migrating everything then. Moving a lot of data shouldn't be scary but all it takes is one power outage and ka-blooeey!
Yes, Ka-Blooey!
A mid-size UPS can bring peace of mind - - - size based on power consumption (price,, of course, is based on size). I've an 1100 VA unit that claims it can run my main system for almost 25 minutes. Of course, with the other stuff plugged into it I'm down to 15 minutes, but that does give me time to shut things down during a full outage and carries everything through the more normal power blips.
During last weeks storms I had 6 momentary outages in a two hour period before the power went completely. And then I was shutting things down by flashlight :-) and logging into the local utility web site to report the outage.
Not bad! While we are in the middle of a drought (send water!) we do get brown outs during the summer. You KNOW it's going to happen at the worst possible time. It's why I'm waiting until midnight before changing my power supply option and moving all of those gigs of data!.
A Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) is a good idea. I should consider that next year if I can spring for a new computer. One that can run IRAY and Reality.
A quick update.
I successfully moved all of my DAZ3D content to the new external drive. Those files show up in DAZ Iradium. They render as well.
I lost all of my 3rd party content from Renderosity. Thankfully, they and DAZ store this information and allow easy downloads. (Plus since a hard drive error that wiped out a runtime. I am fanatical about backup and storage. The hard drive error wiped the reference to a single file. A file called Libraries)
I created no tags. Perhaps that is why I can't find the User:Support files to export.
In emptying the DIM of over 1000 items of uninstalled content. The DIM installed Poser data to the C: drive. It also installed somethings to Bryce. I'll have to hunt that down and move it. Still, I have 10G more than when I started the data migration. I now have 42G available out of 283G on my old hard drive.
Data Migration is still scary but sometimes so is crossing the street.
Amount of space left on the new drive. 3.15Terabytes.
Thank you for your help. It was greatly appreciated.
Update to my Update.
I seem to have lost my DSON runtime. It is gone. No new DAZ content in Poser.
Time to test my new DIM settings.
"Nothing gets done within time or within Budget."
-Lazurus Long
Make sure Poser is set to look in the new location.
I downloaded the DSON importer for Poser again but this time it went the new location. My DAZ 3D Library reappeared and I added the runtime. I still have to move my Bryce Content over to the new drive so I can free up even more main drive space. I keep my programs on the C drive and all of it's output including runtime on two different large external drives.
All of my data is on the large drive.
All data that is downloaded to my computer by the DAZ Install Manager (DIM) now goes to the external drive.
My DIM says I only have updates to DAZ to download. I wonder what's in the updates?
Still at this point I have successfully migrated my data to the new system.
Except for my PZ3 Files. For some reason, the pmd files seem to be easily corrupted when they are moved. I'm hoping that won't happen this because they won't have to search for open space.
My thanks to fixmypcmike, Frank0314 (is he related to Wolf359) and namffuak who pinged my problem so it wouldn't die an ignored death.
Now any who need to migrate their data can reference this new thread, see the different problems they may face and have solutions.
I'm trying to do the same migration to a larger hard drive. I got the new directory set up for DIM like you said and moved a test piece. It loads in the new place fine, but the Smart Content links seem to be broken.
Probably related, I can't find the button for "Export User Data"
try re-importing your metadata. Doing it in DIM just go to your installed tab and select everything, right click, re-import metadata
Found he button to re-import metadata. Didn't seem to do anything.
go into your task manager and go to processes and see if content management service is running
"COM Surrogate" and "ContentManagementServer" are both running.
Is Smart Content showing a (2) next to the item? Right-click it and choose "Remove Orphaned References".
It's showing it as " (2): HallTable " and there's a big exclamation point on the icon. Found the command for content db maintenance and said to remove orphaned file references but that didn't seem to do anything. (Found the export user data button though).
Huh, did a search for "Table" at the top of smart content, and that seemed to trigger it to actually work. Cleared it up.
Will test with another product.
I have a 100 GB C:\ drive and a 1TB D: drive. The D:\ drive is also onboard the computer.
I am out of space on C: drive. I want to have my DAZ content on D:\ drive.
This is for DAZ only content for a PC running Windows 10.
In DAZ Studio
1. Edit>Preferences>Content Manager>Content Directory Manager.
2. Add the new path, which for me will be D:\Daz Content.
In DAZ Install Manager (DIM)
3. Settings>
4. On the "Download" tab,
Change the location for DIM to where you want DIM to download the ZIP files, which will be D:\DAZ Content\ZIPfiles
5. On the "Installation" tab,
Click the + sign.
6. Add the new path, in my case, "D:\DAZ Content".
7. Change Current Path to the new path name.
8. Move (or copy) all DAZ product assets to the new location on D:, that is to D:\DAZ Content.
(Is this all assets, or just the ZIP files, to the D:\DAZ\ZIPfiles folder?}
In DAZ Studio
9. Edit>Preferences>Content Library> Content Directory Manager.
10. Remove the old path.
Please help!
Gary
What is the question?
i want to move my libraries to an external drive.
Do I have to name the folders exactly the same?
Like User\piano\documents\daz 3d\Studio\etc
Or can I just start with Daz 3D?
And what about the connect library?
Do I just move the folder my Daz Connect Library?
The Studio folder also contains other things like geolocatoraM, lookatmyhairAM,render library, My library...
Those things should stay where they are? Except maybe My Library?
Thanks.
The name of the content directory doesn't matter, it's just the stuff within the content directory that is important.