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How do I move my content to another drive?

winduptoywinduptoy Posts: 59
in New Users

I foolishly installed and downloaded all my content to C: but that's my small boot SSD.

I'd really rather not re-download with my lousy internet speed, can someone tell me how to reloacte my content instead?

Comments

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    @winduptoy, First, are you using the Daz Install Manager, (DIM,) to install your content?

  • winduptoywinduptoy Posts: 59

    For some content I used the Install Manager, other items were downloaded from within Daz Studio.  Do those count as the same thing?

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited July 2019
    winduptoy said:

    For some content I used the Install Manager, other items were downloaded from within Daz Studio.  Do those count as the same thing?

    No. Not the same thing.

    It just means more steps in the process.

    I'm going to create a step-by-step for you. It will take a bit of time, but should be posted later today.

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited July 2019

    Okay, I'm going to assume the following:

    • you're fine with Daz Studio on the C-Drive,
    • you installed both Daz Studio and your content to default locations,
    • your second drive is the D-Drive, until you tell me otherwise.
    • and you're on a Windows computer, not a Mac.

    You are going to need to change some settings in both the Install Manager and Daz Studio before things will work, but that will be the last thing we do.

    Let's start with your DIM installed content.

    1. First, open DIM to Work Offline, (do not log in.)
    2. Determine if you have or have not been deleting the files after installing:
      • Open the Ready to Install tab, if it isn't already open.
      • Find "Delete Package Once Installed" at the bottom of the window.
        1. If this is checked, you'll need to re-download some or all of your DIM installed products.
        2. If this is not checked, (the default, I believe,) you won't need to download anything already downloaded.
    3. Switch to the Installed tab.
    4. For the first installed product, click  on the small right-pointing arrow to the far right of the line.
    5. In the popup menu, scroll down to and click on "Show Installed Files."
    6. A window will popup with a list of all the items installed for that product. Notice each item in the list is a clickable link. If you click on an item, a window will open to the folder on your computer where that file is installed.
      • If you move the installed files onto your D-Drive without uninstalling the product, DIM will still expect to find the product installed at this location, not the new one. (You can do it, and DS will still work, but I've found it very useful to have these links available.)
      • Close the window.
    7. On the Installed tab, click on the checkbox next to the word Products to select all your products.
    8. Locate and uncheck the following products from the list on the Installed tab.
      • Install Manager Default Filters
      • PostgreSQL CMS
      • DAZ Studio 4.11
    9. Click on the Start Queue button to uninstall the selected products.
      • Just to be clear, I'm recommending this because you don't have a lot of products installed yet. (I've got nearly 8000 files installed, and doing this would be a long and tedious nightmare!)
    10. Once your products have been uninstalled, close DIM.
    11. Open a separate window each for your C-Drive and your D-Drive. I recommend having the Navigation Pane open.
    12. On your D-Drive, I recommend you create a folder named DAZ 3D, and open the folder.
    13. On your C-Drive, from the Navigation Pane, browse to Public Documents, and open DAZ 3D. (C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D)
    14. Select the folder named InstallManager.
    15. Drag the InstallManager folder into the DAZ 3D folder on the D-Drive.
    16. When the operation is complete, you will have two copies of your InstallManager folder. Leave the copy on the C-Drive for now, as a temporary backup.
    17. Also on the C-Drive, in your Public Documents folder, you should see a folder named "My DAZ 3D Library". This is where your content was installed. Ignore it for now.

    Now move your Connect installed content.

    1. On your C-Drive, from the Navigation Pane, browse to My Documents (C:\Users\NAME\Documents, (where NAME is your account name.)
    2. Drill-down the folder structure until the connect folder, My Daz Connect Library, is in the right column.
    3. Drag the My Daz Connect Library folder into the DAZ 3D folder on the D-Drive.
    4. When the operation is complete, you will have two copies of your My Daz Connect Library folder. Leave the copy on the C-Drive for now, as a temporary backup.

    And now we're going to set up first Daz Studio and then DIM so they both find the moved content on your D-Drive.

    1. On your D-Drive, in the DAZ 3D folder, you should now have two folders, InstallManager and My Daz Connect Library.
    2. Add a new folder to the DAZ 3D folder and name it My Daz 3D Library.
    3. Open Daz Studio.
    4. Open Preferences, (main menu Edit > Preferences, or F2)
    5. In the resulting dialog window, click on the Content tab.
    6. Locate the Content Directory Manager button at the bottom of the tab and click.
    7. In the new dialog window, expand all of the Content Sets, Current Directories, (except for the CMS Cluster Directory.)
    8. Right-Click on the path for Daz Connect Data and select Edit Base Directory…
      • Browse to D:\DAZ 3D\My Daz Connect Library and Select Folder.
      • There will be a popup message. You want to click on the No button.
    9. Right-Click on the path ending Studio/My Library under DAZ Studio Formats.
      • Browse to D:\DAZ 3D\ and create a new folder named Studio. Open the new Studio folder and create a new folder named My Library.
      • Click on My Library and Select Folder.
    10. Right-Click on the path ending My DAZ 3D Library under DAZ Studio Formats.
      • Browse to D:\DAZ 3D\ and create a new folder named My DAZ 3D Library.
      • Click on My DAZ 3D Library and Select Folder.
    11. Right-Click on the path ending Studio/My Library under Poser Formats.
      • Browse to your newly created D:\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library and Select Folder
    12. Right-Click on the path ending My DAZ 3D Library under Poser Formats.
      • Browse to your newly created D:\DAZ 3D\My DAZ 3D Library and Select Folder
    13. Click on Accept to close the Content Directory Manager dialog window
    14. Click on Accept to close the Preferences window.
    15. Close Daz Studio.
    16. Open DIM in Work Offline mode.
    17. In the upper right corner, click on the small "gear" icon to open the Settings dialog.
    18. Click on the Downloads tab.
    19. There are two paths at the top of the tab
    20. Click on the ellipsis button to the right of the listed Package Archive path, ("…".)
    21. Browse to D:\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\Downloads and Select Folder.
    22. Click on the Installation tab.
    23. Click on the ellipsis button to the right of the listed Manifest Archive path, ("…".)
    24. Browse to D:\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\ManifestFiles and Select Folder.
    25. At the bottom of the tab, locate and click on the "+" button, lower left corner.
    26. In the Add Shortcut dialog, add a Label for your new content location. For example, D-Drive Content. (It doesn't matter, this is just to identify it to you.)
    27. Click on the ellipsis button to the right of the Not Set path.
    28. Browse to your newly created D:\DAZ 3D\My DAZ 3D Library and Select Folder.
    29. You should now see two paths listed in the lower section of the tab, Recommended… and your newly created path. If not, repeat steps 25 - 28
    30. Directly above the list of paths, locate the Content Path Shortcuts option. The button will show the labe of the currently selected path. By default, that will be "Recommended DAZ Studio/Poser Content Folder".
    31. Click on the button and select the label you just created.
    32. Click on the green Accept button to save your changes and close the Setting Dialog.
    33. Close DIM.

    I know that's a lot of text, and a lot of steps. I'm being thorough. Some of these will be obvious as you go along, but I didn't want to leave anything out.

    At this point, you can open DIM and reinstall your content. It should be located in the Ready to Install tab.

    Although I don't use Connect, I did install one item via Connect to my test computer, and then I followed the instructions above to move the content and change the path in the Content Directory Manager. It took a bit of time for Daz Studio to repopulate, but that product then showed up, so this should work.

    Let me know if I missed anything. smiley (Easy to do, I'm afraid, with so much information!)

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • winduptoywinduptoy Posts: 59

    Wow!  Thanks so much for the detailed instructions.  Unfortunately, I'm stuck.  I suspect we may have different workspaces, as I can't find some of the tabs you're referring to.  I'll try and get more specific in a minute.

  • PetercatPetercat Posts: 2,315
    edited July 2019
    L'Adair said:
    winduptoy said:

    For some content I used the Install Manager, other items were downloaded from within Daz Studio.  Do those count as the same thing?

    No. Not the same thing.

    It just means more steps in the process.

    I'm going to create a step-by-step for you. It will take a bit of time, but should be posted later today.

    I'm doing the same as winduptoy, and I have several hundred non-DAZ items (Rendo, etc.).
    What do I need to do with them? I assume DIM won't transfer them.
    I'd hate to have to reinstall them manually, hunt them down, create new products in the Content Library, etc.
    Could I just copy the DAZ 3D Library from the C drive and paste it onto the D drive? (In my case, F)
    And, since the new drive is a large SSD, should I move Studio to it for speed?

    Post edited by Petercat on
  • lvls3dxlvls3dx Posts: 48
    Petercat said:
    L'Adair said:
    winduptoy said:

    For some content I used the Install Manager, other items were downloaded from within Daz Studio.  Do those count as the same thing?

    No. Not the same thing.

    It just means more steps in the process.

    I'm going to create a step-by-step for you. It will take a bit of time, but should be posted later today.

    I'm doing the same as winduptoy, and I have several hundred non-DAZ items (Rendo, etc.).
    What do I need to do with them? I assume DIM won't transfer them.
    I'd hate to have to reinstall them manually, hunt them down, create new products in the Content Library, etc.
    Could I just copy the DAZ 3D Library from the C drive and paste it onto the D drive? (In my case, F)
    And, since the new drive is a large SSD, should I move Studio to it for speed?

    Hi, and yes you can. I myself have my content library copied for security reason in a few hard-drives. My personal advices would be for you to use robcopy functions in roder to do it smoothly enough. From my personal experience it's the best way to copy large groups of files.

    You can also reinstall your DAZ software to an SSD althought from my expirence it won't make such a difference. But still, it's easy to try and compare times by yourself. Good luck!

  • PetercatPetercat Posts: 2,315
    lvls3dx said:
    Petercat said:
    L'Adair said:
    winduptoy said:

    For some content I used the Install Manager, other items were downloaded from within Daz Studio.  Do those count as the same thing?

    No. Not the same thing.

    It just means more steps in the process.

    I'm going to create a step-by-step for you. It will take a bit of time, but should be posted later today.

    I'm doing the same as winduptoy, and I have several hundred non-DAZ items (Rendo, etc.).
    What do I need to do with them? I assume DIM won't transfer them.
    I'd hate to have to reinstall them manually, hunt them down, create new products in the Content Library, etc.
    Could I just copy the DAZ 3D Library from the C drive and paste it onto the D drive? (In my case, F)
    And, since the new drive is a large SSD, should I move Studio to it for speed?

    Hi, and yes you can. I myself have my content library copied for security reason in a few hard-drives. My personal advices would be for you to use robcopy functions in roder to do it smoothly enough. From my personal experience it's the best way to copy large groups of files.

    You can also reinstall your DAZ software to an SSD althought from my expirence it won't make such a difference. But still, it's easy to try and compare times by yourself. Good luck!

    My current C drive is a 4TB, as is the SSD that I bought. Could I just use the SSD manufacturer's clone software to copy the C drive and then delete the non-DAZ files?

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited July 2019
    Petercat said:
    L'Adair said:
    winduptoy said:

    For some content I used the Install Manager, other items were downloaded from within Daz Studio.  Do those count as the same thing?

    No. Not the same thing.

    It just means more steps in the process.

    I'm going to create a step-by-step for you. It will take a bit of time, but should be posted later today.

    I'm doing the same as winduptoy, and I have several hundred non-DAZ items (Rendo, etc.).
    What do I need to do with them? I assume DIM won't transfer them.
    I'd hate to have to reinstall them manually, hunt them down, create new products in the Content Library, etc.
    Could I just copy the DAZ 3D Library from the C drive and paste it onto the D drive? (In my case, F)
    And, since the new drive is a large SSD, should I move Studio to it for speed?

    @Petercat, My answer above was specific to winduptoy's situation. It isn't necessary to uninstall/reinstall with DIM, either. But I recommended it as he is using DIM and probably doesn't have a lot of product installed. I have found it really handy to be able to go to DIM and look up the installed files. Any products installed prior to moving things around manually will lose their links in that feature.

    As long as you move the entire library with the structure intact, you can copy and paste it wherever it works best for you. You can even have multiple libraries on multiple drives. The important thing is to tell Daz Studio where to find them. You'll do that in Preferences.

    Be aware that SSDs have read/write limitations, so I wouldn't use the new drive for renders, or any files that will get written to on a regular basis. Your drive will last longer. But installing the program files on it shouldn't be an issue. I actually have 4.9 and 4.10 installed on my E-Drive, (thanks to JOdel's instructions.)
     

    Petercat said:
    My current C drive is a 4TB, as is the SSD that I bought. Could I just use the SSD manufacturer's clone software to copy the C drive and then delete the non-DAZ files?

    Probably, but I wouldn't recommend it. You're going to have a lot of non-Daz files to remove. I have never used it, but it looks like Robocopy is supplied with Windows. Unless you're running an old version, or are on a Mac, you probably already have it. (I just checked, and it's on my Win7 machine…)

    ETA: As it appears you are using DIM for Daz content, I would also suggest you not move your DIM download folder to the SSD. Dim rewrites those files with every update you download. And the Manifest files get written to every single time you open DIM. (Not sure what it does, but the time and date get updated, implying it does something.)

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • lvls3dxlvls3dx Posts: 48
    Petercat said:
    lvls3dx said:
    Petercat said:
    L'Adair said:
    winduptoy said:

    For some content I used the Install Manager, other items were downloaded from within Daz Studio.  Do those count as the same thing?

    No. Not the same thing.

    It just means more steps in the process.

    I'm going to create a step-by-step for you. It will take a bit of time, but should be posted later today.

    I'm doing the same as winduptoy, and I have several hundred non-DAZ items (Rendo, etc.).
    What do I need to do with them? I assume DIM won't transfer them.
    I'd hate to have to reinstall them manually, hunt them down, create new products in the Content Library, etc.
    Could I just copy the DAZ 3D Library from the C drive and paste it onto the D drive? (In my case, F)
    And, since the new drive is a large SSD, should I move Studio to it for speed?

    Hi, and yes you can. I myself have my content library copied for security reason in a few hard-drives. My personal advices would be for you to use robcopy functions in roder to do it smoothly enough. From my personal experience it's the best way to copy large groups of files.

    You can also reinstall your DAZ software to an SSD althought from my expirence it won't make such a difference. But still, it's easy to try and compare times by yourself. Good luck!

    My current C drive is a 4TB, as is the SSD that I bought. Could I just use the SSD manufacturer's clone software to copy the C drive and then delete the non-DAZ files?

    Hi and NO. I hope to not be late in my answer. 

    Why so? because SSD are a great improvement in computer technology but they are extremely sensitive, so if you write, erase, rewrite and so so so  too much you can easily mess up them. Plus I can imagine buying such SSD was not cheap, so keep the ticket just in case.

    Just today I post a tutoral that I believe could help people with your kind of needs so if you will you may check it:

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/339476/tutorial-how-to-move-your-big-content-library-lots-of-data-to-a-new-drive-free-fast-efficient

    My advice but, is that since you have such a great new piece of hardware bu also expensive and sensitive one, if you are not sure about doing this by yourself visit a trusted computer shop with a solid guarentte politics and ask for guidance and help.

     

  • cherr41083cherr41083 Posts: 8

    This was an excellent set of instructions and I thank you for your kind time and assistance.  I hope you dont mind answeing a question.

    I'm actually installing fresh on a new computer and the first time I've done it on one with both a C and D drives.  I installed the DAZ 4.11 and associated core files on the C drive and follwed your instructions for installing the content from my account into the D drive.  It seems to have worked except that none of my content shows up in the Smart Content pane, whether Files or Product is selected, and whether Filter By Context is selected.

    Any suggestions?

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    cherr41083 said:

    This was an excellent set of instructions and I thank you for your kind time and assistance.  I hope you dont mind answeing a question.

    I'm actually installing fresh on a new computer and the first time I've done it on one with both a C and D drives.  I installed the DAZ 4.11 and associated core files on the C drive and follwed your instructions for installing the content from my account into the D drive.  It seems to have worked except that none of my content shows up in the Smart Content pane, whether Files or Product is selected, and whether Filter By Context is selected.

    Any suggestions?

    I assume nothing and have a number of questions:

    1. After installing both Daz Studio and DIM, did you follow the instructions to set up Daz Studio, beginning with Step 3, Open Daz Studio, through Step 15, Close Daz Studio? (These steps tell Daz Studio where you installed your content.)
    2. Are you using DIM to install your content?
    3. If so, have you installed content?
    4. And if you have, have you verified the products have been installed where you expected them to be installed?

    If the answer is yes to all the above questions, see if you can find the products using your Content Library. The fastest way to check that, after opening the pane/tab, is to search for something basic, like "hair". If you've installed the various starter essentials that come with Daz Studio, you will have some hair installed and you should see those in the search results.

    Let me know what you find, and we'll go from there.

  • cherr41083cherr41083 Posts: 8

    L'Adair,

    First, thank you for your response.  I deeply appreciate your williningness to help.

    The answers to questions 1-3 are yes, but I had downloaded only a small percentage of my content as a test..

    Number 4 is yes as to its location in the Content Library and on Drive D.  In the Smart Content Pane, however, the content loaded only under the Local User. 

    I deleted the content and re-downloaded again and it seems to be showing up in all the right places, to include in the Smart Content pane.

    Not sure what gremlin was involved, but he seems to have gotten bored and wandered awy.

    Again, thank you for your patience and expertise.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    You're welcome.

    I'm happy to hear you got the content showing up correctly. It sounded like DS couldn't see the folders, but if a reinstalling the content works… Yay! (Darned gremlins, anyway. They just do not belong on the computer!)

    (It was very smart of you to verify everything was working correctly before installing all your content. I'm sure that made the whole uninstall/reinstall process much easier on you.)

  • cherr41083cherr41083 Posts: 8

    Thanks again.  The help you and others provide goes a long way toward making this much more user friendly for the unskilled and inexperienced.  You folks are priceless.

  • S P RoachS P Roach Posts: 13
    edited March 2020

    I FINALLY found a way that worked for ME. This is for Windows 10, and should work with earlier versions of Windows.

    It assumes you have a new HDD, that you haven't formatted all of, and it is...not the most elegant solution, as you have to decide how much space to give each library. I chose 1.5TB,..for now.

    First, rename your library root files to something. I just appended .old to the end. Create a NEW, EMPTY directory, with the old name.

    I'll just edit this here and add the path of the two libraries I did this to. They are...

    C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library

    and

    C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D

     

    Second, open up Disk Management in the Control Panel. In Windows 10, you can just type "Disk Management", and it'll suggest "Create and format hard drive partitions". which is the tool you want. Right click on a hard drive that has unallocated space and create a "new simple volume". Select next. Select the size you want, (1024MB is 1GB, so 1048576 is 1TB, or should be, but the exact size doesn't matter so long as you choose "enough".) Then select the SECOND radio button, where it says "Mount in the following NTFS folder." Use browse to select the new folder you created up in step 1 and select Next. Leave the option to format it selected and give it any name you choose. I chose a name that indicated what, and where, the volume was. Hit Next. Then Hit Finish.

    Third, when it's done, your, new empty directory with the old name will change from looking like a manilla folder to a drive icon. You can then drag and drop the contents of your old library into this new library.

    And at least the one script that I've been fighting with, (Genesis 3 to 8 hair converter), works, as does the DAZ Install Manager. That is, the "converted" hair is finally linking correctly, and DIM isn't cutting the link to the other directory and starting over with a new, empty directory, which is a problem I was having after following the instructions in another thread on the problem. And pointing both programs to the new location never did work satisfactorily.

     

    The only drawback I see with this is, it ties up a fixed chunk of a hard drive up front, rather than allocating it only as needed, and you MAY need third-party tools if you want to shrink it down later. (If it's empty, or mostly empty and still freshly organized, at least, you can shrink the volume down using the tools in Windows Disk Management, but I'll not assume that it'll continue to work once the hard drive has been lived in awhile.)

     

    Considering just how STORAGE INTENSIVE DAZ3D is, you'd think they'd tackle this issue in a more elegant way, right out of the proverbial box.

    Post edited by S P Roach on
  • urattributesaremineurattributesaremine Posts: 4

    Hi I followed these instructions from L'dair (thank you btw) and my content is showing up in my "smart content" pane, but I am not able to see anything in my "content" pane.  Has anyone faced a similar issue?  I attached a PDF of my pathways.

    pdf
    pdf
    Untitled document.pdf
    1M
  • yembo16yembo16 Posts: 0

    @L'Adair Your step-by-step instructions are the best I ever found whatsoever! In many fields! I'd like you to become responsible of DAZ 3D Help which now is a bunch of unintelligeble and useless muddle.

  • weirdsciencexweirdsciencex Posts: 21

    Interesting instructions but totally unnecessary if using Windows 7 plus, since it's NTFS it supports symlinks

     

    https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

  • virtuarystudiosvirtuarystudios Posts: 0

    @L'Adair I'm literally JUST writing this to say that you  taking the time to write such perfectly worded and formatted instructions, is the stuff legends are made of, and the kind of thing that goes often un-rewarded and unnoticed.  Do not get discouraged ANYWHERE in this world, Corporate or Creative, if you are ever told you write too much, or make things complicated with writing so much!

    I've worked in toxic environments, where my wanting to go above-and-beyond (such as creating steps or emails explaning things) was criticized and often times got negative reactions from others in the workforce.  I realized they were just jealous or envious, or sour that they didn't come up with it first!  I worked in technology, and we had professional technical writers- and you write as good, if not better, than they ever did, my friend!

    Thank you,  The instructions worked, btw.  Your efforts are noted, sir!  Kudos, and thanks again!

    yes

  • teodell_70teodell_70 Posts: 9

    Hello all. I followed these instructions from L'dair (wonderfully helpful) and it appears it works. But Smart Content has a lot of ! icons that if clicked simply say File not found. Paths seem that they are ok but not sure why after I uninstalled and the files were removed the metadata ( i assume ) is not updated as well.

    Thanks!

    issue.PNG
    813 x 434 - 66K
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,718

    teodell_70 said:

    Hello all. I followed these instructions from L'dair (wonderfully helpful) and it appears it works. But Smart Content has a lot of ! icons that if clicked simply say File not found. Paths seem that they are ok but not sure why after I uninstalled and the files were removed the metadata ( i assume ) is not updated as well.

    Thanks!

    How do you install? What is the full path of the files, which you can see in the info tab at the bottom of the pane if you click the button in the lower bar to expand it?

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