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Moving RUNTIME from HD to External HD?

FauvistFauvist Posts: 2,038
edited March 2017 in The Commons

This has probably been answered a thousand times, but the SEARCH function for the forums gives me way too many results.

What do I need to know?

Thanks!

Post edited by Fauvist on

Comments

  • BartlebyBartleby Posts: 56

    I did this and had no problems - well I moved my whole library.

    Copy the whole data structure on to the new hard drive.  Then you need to update the content folders in Studio (Edit->Preferences->Content, Content Directory Manager button).  

    Then it worked fine.  

    You also need to update the target install folder in the Daz Install Manager to the new location if you want to use DIM to install new content.  

     

  • NGartplayNGartplay Posts: 2,836

    I did this years ago and ran my library from my external hard drive.  I burnt it up in two years.  I'd be careful if you are planning on using your runtimes from the external.  Just for storage is a better idea.

  • CypherFOXCypherFOX Posts: 3,401

    Greetings,

    I'm running my 'DAZ Connect' content from an external drive, with my DAZ Install Manager stuff running out of an internal drive.

    It's just a matter of making the change in all the places that need to know about it in DAZ, really.  And that's mostly in the configuration/preferences.

    You'll get it wrong a few times, but that's okay.

    --  Morgan

     

  • BendinggrassBendinggrass Posts: 1,367
    NGartplay said:

    I did this years ago and ran my library from my external hard drive.  I burnt it up in two years.  I'd be careful if you are planning on using your runtimes from the external.  Just for storage is a better idea.

    Do you think a SSD drive would last longer?

  • fastbike1fastbike1 Posts: 4,074

    @Bendinggrass 

    You should have a backup system in place regardless of your storage choices. Also, the only real mechanical difference between an external drive an an internal one is the case. Heat removal used to be a problem, but has generally been solved.

    So many hards drives are built that even with low failure rates you can always find someone with a bad experience. AS fas as SSD's, I've has one fail in 6 months.

    You pays your money and you takes your choice.

    Don't forget to change you paths in DIM as well as in Daz.

  • FauvistFauvist Posts: 2,038
    edited March 2017

    8

    Post edited by Fauvist on
  • FauvistFauvist Posts: 2,038
    edited March 2017

    I managed to copy the DAZ and Poser content folders to the external hard drive, and got both of them to show up in the content library, but when I try to load a character, there are missing files.  They seem to all be GEN X FREAK 3 files.

    I didn't alter the contets of the folders, I just copied them to the external drive.  I don't know why it would say the files are missing? 

    I moved the content to the drive, but not the plugins for DAZ Studio.  Do I need to move them, or do something to them.  Other characters I'm trying to load also show problems with GEN X files not being found.

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    Post edited by Fauvist on
  • FauvistFauvist Posts: 2,038

    Okay, the problem seems to be only with custom characters, where I used different products to form a character.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    I just did this with both my laptop and my pc.  The plug ins need to stay on your C drive or whichever drive you have you working copy of Studio running.  In other words, they shouldn't be moved to the external or they won't be found.

  • donovancolbertdonovancolbert Posts: 1,421

    @Ice Dragon Art

    Are the plugins stored in the regular public documents\My Daz Library path? 

     

  • jestmartjestmart Posts: 4,449

    No plug-in have a folder in Studio's app folder.

  • donovancolbertdonovancolbert Posts: 1,421

    Awesome!! Thanks! Doing this today and releving a huge chunk of space on my Surface Pro 256GB SSD. 

  • NorthOf45NorthOf45 Posts: 5,251

    Also, if you use Install Manager, the manifests it generates (default location is Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\ManifestFiles) when you install something contains the original installation path. Updates will probably try to install to the old path, and uninstalling something might not work, as well as "Show Installed Files", which displays (and probably uses) that installation path. You can batch replace the value of UserInstallPath in each manifest with your favourite enhanced text editor. Not sure if the "Re-import Metadata" does that or gets something from HQ.

  • HaslorHaslor Posts: 402

     

    Fauvist said:

    I managed to copy the DAZ and Poser content folders to the external hard drive, and got both of them to show up in the content library, but when I try to load a character, there are missing files.  They seem to all be GEN X FREAK 3 files.

    I didn't alter the contents of the folders, I just copied them to the external drive.  I don't know why it would say the files are missing? 

    I moved the content to the drive, but not the plugins for DAZ Studio.  Do I need to move them, or do something to them.  Other characters I'm trying to load also show problems with GEN X files not being found.

    It sound like your issues: you still have the Original Library on the Hard Drive and you have not removed the old Content Library from Daz Studio, so that is why you are seeing both of them. You need to use the Content Directory Manager (CDM) to clean up your Current Set. If you want to keep them both for now until you have tested them both, you can create a Content Set which has the New Location and one for the Old Location Using the CDM you can quickly swap between the two. If you don't know how to use the Content Directory Manager, I have attached my short two page notes on it.

    Your Daz Connect location is set in the CDM. If you have not moved this and you are still using Daz Connect folder on your internal or C: drive. Your have to point Daz Connect to the correct location.

    The other issue you will have is Smart Content will some times get a little wacky after you move the files. If you are using Daz Connect, you might want to update the Metadata after the move. So here are a few things you may have to do:

    1. Before you move everything, Right click on the Content Library tab
    2. Select Content Database Management.
    3. Check the export user data click Accept.
    4. Exit Studio
    5. Move your files
    6. Reenter Studio
    7. Once back in studio, Right Click on Content Library tab
    8. Select Content Database Management.
      • Check the Reset Database click Accept. (This will completely wipe you Content DataBase.)
    9. Exit Studio and go get a drink, take a good three minutes at least.
    10. This lets the Database engine shut down. (If you have ever crashed studio and started it right back up and you have no Smart Content. it is because the Database Engine was shutting down and didn’t start.)
    11. Come back, restart Studio
    12. Right click on the Content Library tab
    13. Select Content Database Management.
    14. Check Re-Import Metadata and click Accept.
    15. This will bring up the Import Metadata Dialog window.
    16. Make sure everything is check, including You newly created UserData # file. 
      • If you have backup your user data several times you may have more than one.
    17. Make sure in the Lower Left corner the “User Data Overrides Product Data” is Checked.
      • This will make sure any changes you have made to the DAZ Supplied Metadata are kept.
    18. Click the Accept Button
    19. Depending on the Speed of your system and the Speed of your hard drives, either go to Lunch or go to sleep.
      • On my old Core 2 Duo system this took about six hours
      • On my i5 this took a little more than a half hour for 11000 products.
      • If you have a 10 Core i7 with SSD’s then you might be able to get our of your chair before it is finished.
      • If it goes whipping by and you don’t see products when it is finished the Database engine is not running. Return to Step 9 and try again.
    20. Once it is finished everything should be back to normal.

        

    If you are thinking of wiping everything out and reloading from scratch, here is the method I used:

    • Install the DIM
    • When you first run the DIM, setup all your folder locations, to the Second Drive whether that is and Internal or External Drive, 
      • if you use a NAS (Network Attached Storage) you have to Map the Drive in the OS first. 
        • Windows it has to have a Drive Letter Not just a URL.
    • Install Daz Studio and Plug-ins (but no other content)
      • Some Plugins are going to install content in your Documents Folder and you can’t Move it!
      • Like InfinitoAM the Plugin is hard coded to look for its content in your User Directory, if you move it you break it.
      • So you have to leave c:\Users\username\Document\Daz 3D\Studio\ in your Directory list, but you can put it at the bottom. 
        • This directory should be there by default
    • Run Studio
    • Use the Content Directory Manager to Setup all the content Directories
      • Right Click on Content Library
      • Click on “Content Directory Manager”
      • Set up your directories.
        • Remember the Top Most directory will be the first directory searched, so the most used on top.
    • NOTES from the Field: I use a separate directory for each store, This way I can wipe a complete store out and reinstall. (Yes I have done this several times) It makes it much easier to find content also. I know I purchased, a Character from X or I got a Freebie Prop from Y Site. Enough of that, let’s move on
    • Click on “Help” on the Menu bar and click on “About Installed Plugins…”
      • Make sue that all of you plugins have their Serial Numbers (No Serial Number, No work)
      • Yeah you have to Restart Studio to actually finish it, so Exit Daz Studio
        • remember take a breather, before you restart Daz Studio)
        •  
    • Once you have Daz Studio setup and with the Content directories in the right locations; you can start installing content.
      • If you are using the DIM don’t restart Daz Studio
        • You I could do a search for the Essentials and install all of the Genesis X Essentials first.
        • If you are looking to save space, remember to click “Delete Package Once Installed” on the Ready to Install tab.
        • 14000 Products takes about 12 Hours (With a good high Speed Internet connection like Cable or DSL)
        • Remember there are things which will not download and install through the DIM.

     

    • Using Daz Connect restart Daz Studio
      • You I could do a search for the Essentials and install all of the Genesis X Essentials first.
      • The advantage of using Daz Connect, you will be promoted if you need something and it isn’t installed.
        • It will do that same thing if say you delete the textures form a product in the Daz Connect Library, it will say it can’t find X and do you want to install the content.
      • Another advantage of Daz Connect, you can Use studio as it downloads the content, which is a really nice feature.
      • Daz Connect also installed each product into a separate folder so products do not over write each other or interfere with each other.
      • But there are things which don’t Download through Connect. 
    • NOTES from the Field: Some Product don’t install by either the DIM or Daz Connect. Infinito is one of those products. So it is a good idea know which products you will have to manually add.

    While testing things, I wiped out my Daz 3D Library more than ten times and reinstalled for various reasons. That is part of the reason I have separate Directories for each Site or Store. The other reason is simple, so freebie Creators are not good at File placement.

    I also have a separate Content Directory for Testing Content, which sit at the Top of my Content Folders. (The folder at the top is where files get written by default, so if this wonderful Content turned out to be a dog and write data into the ‘data/auto_adapt’ folder, it isn’t in my Live Library) If I don’t like it, I can easily delete it from the Test directory and it doesn’t leave Artifacts through my content directories.

    if you are creating content, the Separate Content Libraries are wonderful, when you go gathering everything for your New Product, it is already in One Directory (As long as when you are working on that project, it is the top most folder, under Daz Connect [which you can't write to]) You can make a Content Set for each Project and swap them as needed. This is actually a good practice for creating Content in Poser as well.

    I hope this helps you and others thinking of doing this.

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  • duane_moodyduane_moody Posts: 130
    Bendinggrass said:
    NGartplay said:

    I did this years ago and ran my library from my external hard drive.  I burnt it up in two years.  I'd be careful if you are planning on using your runtimes from the external.  Just for storage is a better idea.

    Do you think a SSD drive would last longer?

    (Apologies for the necro.)

    Depends on what you use it for. SSDs have shorter lifespans than traditional platter HDDs when it comes to writes to the filesystem. They're higher-end flash media (e.g. thumbdrives) but they're still flash media which means a limited number of write cycles for each sector. A well-known high traffic imageboard made the mistake of transitioning their image servers to SSD-based systems and burned out several before realizing their mistake. Meanwhile, OSes and newer filesystems are quietly optimizing how they handle SSD media to minimize unnecessary writes (MacOS eliminated "Secure Erase…" from the File menu because it does 7 write passes over the sectors where the files were stored).

    If your external SSD holds runtimes that are frequently read but less frequently written to (e.g. you're not rendering content to it), you're probably good to go. Do not use them for constant backups of your computer.

  • DanniStoriesDanniStories Posts: 51

    I have a LOT of files, including my massive collecton of freebies [I also collect textures from several good sites like CGTextures.com], my massive photography collection, and my massive genealogy research, nearly fills up a 4 TB drive. I find I'm replacing my drives every 2-3 years anyway, and doing this, have never had a portable drive failure. Don't get me wrong, you can have a drive failure any time, so it's good to have backups, regular backups. I know better and I'm not good with the regular part, but I do backups and save the old drives just in case.

    I just got a new 5 TB drive and plan to copy everything over. I don't do archive programs, but simply copy the files. It takes longer, but I got burned years ago when my archival software failed to retrieve my backups and I lost a bunch of files in their proprietary archive format. For you lay people, this means using a software or your Windows to make a backup. It compresses the files. I just copy from one directory to another. I used to copy an entire huge directory but now I break that up and copy smaller ones, because it's easy to miss files if your computer freezes up, etc. It's a hassle and takes a lot of time, but I know I can just go to the directory and copy the file over, no worries.

    I found out recently that copying .jpg files degrades them. I switched to saving my pictures as .png when I edit them. There are too many to save in a diff format. This is something to keep in mind if you do a lot of renders. Try not to save them as .jpg format.

    I was a computer tech in the GA Tech Library for 2 years. I fixed computers back in the DOS days, so that's my expertise. I haven't worked in the field in years because I got disabled, but I use my expertise a lot on my own machines and backups.

    I am a Windows 10 user and I find that files vanish and reappear from time to time. It's a known bug and I do wish they would fix it!! But, also there are times when I load DAZ and look for a file, it's in the directory in Windows but DAZ can't find it, so I am reading up on where DAZ files live and how to help DAZ see them. Thanks all for the useful info! Since I'm an 'advanced' user, I tend to find more trouble because I think 'oh, I'll just move this over here' and then I mess up how the software expects them to be organized.

  • davidwski_16294691f0davidwski_16294691f0 Posts: 99
    DanniStories said:

    I am a Windows 10 user and I find that files vanish and reappear from time to time. It's a known bug and I do wish they would fix it!! 

    Can you provide a citation for that?  I have been using Windows 10 since day one and have NEVER had that happen.

     

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