Moving RUNTIME from HD to External HD?
Fauvist
Posts: 2,039
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
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!
Comments
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.
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.
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
Do you think a SSD drive would last longer?
@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.
8
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.
Okay, the problem seems to be only with custom characters, where I used different products to form a character.
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.
@Ice Dragon Art
Are the plugins stored in the regular public documents\My Daz Library path?
No plug-in have a folder in Studio's app folder.
Awesome!! Thanks! Doing this today and releving a huge chunk of space on my Surface Pro 256GB SSD.
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.
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:
If you are thinking of wiping everything out and reloading from scratch, here is the method I used:
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.
(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.
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.
Can you provide a citation for that? I have been using Windows 10 since day one and have NEVER had that happen.