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any tips on moving my huge libraries to a new PC?

FSMCDesignsFSMCDesigns Posts: 12,755
edited October 2023 in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Here is the deal. currently I have DIM installing all my DAZ products on the C drive (4TB drive). I also have several other folders/libraries in my documents for freebies, poser runtimes and third party libraries.

My new PC will only have a 1TB C drive, so all my content will need to go to either the D drive or an external. Everything is backed up so I can just copy the files over, but since I can't place it where it was before, are there any tips to help ensure I can use my saved scene files again since the paths are changed (had that problem before during my last PC change). Thanks

Post edited by FSMCDesigns on

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,941

    For Daz Studio there would be no difficulty - it doesn't care where the content directory is or what it is called. DIM does care, since it needs tot rack its own files - the locations are saved, including the drive indentifier, in the Manifests folder; you can either edit those or, if you still have/get fresh copies of the zips you can select the products in the Installed tab, right-click, and seelct the reinstall using Current Directories option.

  • crosswindcrosswind Posts: 6,978

    That'll depend... If you frequently use or much rely on Smart Content, there'll be more steps you have to go for on the new PC, as all metadata have to be migrated to the newly-built cms Database. If you just use Content Library, that'll be much easier...

  • FSMCDesignsFSMCDesigns Posts: 12,755

    crosswind said:

    That'll depend... If you frequently use or much rely on Smart Content, there'll be more steps you have to go for on the new PC, as all metadata have to be migrated to the newly-built cms Database. If you just use Content Library, that'll be much easier...

    I never use smart content or metadata, only the content library in DS.

    That is my concern with DIM, right now it has a path to the default install location in saved scene files, but that will change with the new PC, so will that affect my saved scene files I already have?

  • PerttiAPerttiA Posts: 10,024
    edited October 2023

    One trick would be leaving the Content Library on the C-drive where it was and mounting another drive to the base folder of the Content Library. 

    You can install everything on DAZ store and Rendo combined on a 100GB drive.

    1. You can mount new drives to folders on that 100GB drive, for example you can mount a new drive to be the "Runtime" folder of the 100GB drive, and an other new drive to be the "Data" folder of the 100GB drive. This can be done with the tools included in Windows (Computer Management->Disk Management)

    2. You can download SysInternals "Junction" from Microsoft https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/junction
    With the Junction, you can move folders from one drive to another without breaking the original folder structure.

    I have used both for at for years without one problem. Previously I used to replace drives with bigger ones, but back then 2+TB SSD drives cost a fortune and I needed to find another way to increase the size of my drives.
    Both methods leave the drives accessible also by themselves, so no need to worry about similar problems as with RAID or compressed drives.

    Post edited by PerttiA on
  • crosswindcrosswind Posts: 6,978

    FSMCDesigns said:

    crosswind said:

    That'll depend... If you frequently use or much rely on Smart Content, there'll be more steps you have to go for on the new PC, as all metadata have to be migrated to the newly-built cms Database. If you just use Content Library, that'll be much easier...

    I never use smart content or metadata, only the content library in DS.

    That is my concern with DIM, right now it has a path to the default install location in saved scene files, but that will change with the new PC, so will that affect my saved scene files I already have?

    No worry ~~ as Richard mentioned, as long as you correctly re-configure the path(s) of your 'Daz Library' in DS - Content Directory Manager on new PC, there won't be any problem when opening saved scene files.

  • FSMCDesignsFSMCDesigns Posts: 12,755

    PerttiA said:

    One trick would be leaving the Content Library on the C-drive where it was and mounting another drive to the base folder of the Content Library. 

    You can install everything on DAZ store and Rendo combined on a 100GB drive.

    1. You can mount new drives to folders on that 100GB drive, for example you can mount a new drive to be the "Runtime" folder of the 100GB drive, and an other new drive to be the "Data" folder of the 100GB drive. This can be done with the tools included in Windows (Computer Management->Disk Management)

    2. You can download SysInternals "Junction" from Microsoft https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/junction
    With the Junction, you can move folders from one drive to another without breaking the original folder structure.

    I have used both for at for years without one problem. Previously I used to replace drives with bigger ones, but back then 2+TB SSD drives cost a fortune and I needed to find another way to increase the size of my drives.
    Both methods leave the drives accessible also by themselves, so no need to worry about similar problems as with RAID or compressed drives.

    Thanks for the info, something to look into. My My DAZ 3D Library is just at 421 GB and I have another TB of data from other stores. I am also a VR gamer so I have several TBs of games I will need to reinstall

  • FSMCDesignsFSMCDesigns Posts: 12,755

    crosswind said:

    FSMCDesigns said:

    crosswind said:

    That'll depend... If you frequently use or much rely on Smart Content, there'll be more steps you have to go for on the new PC, as all metadata have to be migrated to the newly-built cms Database. If you just use Content Library, that'll be much easier...

    I never use smart content or metadata, only the content library in DS.

    That is my concern with DIM, right now it has a path to the default install location in saved scene files, but that will change with the new PC, so will that affect my saved scene files I already have?

    No worry ~~ as Richard mentioned, as long as you correctly re-configure the path(s) of your 'Daz Library' in DS - Content Directory Manager on new PC, there won't be any problem when opening saved scene files.

    Fingers crossed since I did just that on my last PC and was unable to open any of my saved scene files. Then again,  I didn't use DIM before on that earlier PC (manually installed)

    Thanks for the info all

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