Quick question before I move around 900,000 files ;)

SnowSultan

I just installed a new SSD and plan on moving my content library over to it. Can I just copy the entire directory and all its subfolders over to the new drive and then tell Studio to look in that new location for content without any issues of scenes not being able to find files and whatnot? My current content library is not in the main boot directory either, so I don't imagine this will be anything too different from what it's already used to except the drive will be F instead of E.

Thanks in advance.

JOdel

I've always run my content libraries on a separate drive, and have replaced/upgraded that drive more than once. Haven't had any problem with drag/copying everything, although I might have needed to relink the directories in the contet manager (or did it anyway, just to be safe).

Richard Haseltine

That is fine for DS. If you installed with DIM it will rmember the absolute path for the isntalaltion, which may be an issue with updates (but you could, depending on what else you are doing, use the same path n the SSD and then when done copying chnage the drive letters around so the files seemed to be in exactly the same place; you can also chnage the path in DIM, if you don't do that, and then select everything in the Installed tab, right-click, and select the option to reinstall suing the current path - assuming you still have the zips; of course if you do this you might as well not move the content over, at least until afterwards (to handle any non-DIM installs))

SnowSultan

Hm, I do install everything with DIM and I also manually sort the files afterwards because for the life of me I still don't get why files are installed according to the creator's name and not with a logical subject-based structure. I might have to do the drive renaming trick, but I need to think about this more. Thanks for the information.

Canary3d

You might be able to update the DIM manifest files to point to the new location, so it thinks it installed them where you now have them. Notepad++ will do search & replace across multiple files at once. I haven't tried this myself, yet. I always move my files after installation, so I'm considering it.

 

LeatherGryphon

Richard Haseltine said:

That is fine for DS. If you installed with DIM it will rmember the absolute path for the isntalaltion, which may be an issue with updates (but you could, depending on what else you are doing, use the same path n the SSD and then when done copying chnage the drive letters around so the files seemed to be in exactly the same place; you can also chnage the path in DIM, if you don't do that, and then select everything in the Installed tab, right-click, and select the option to reinstall suing the current path - assuming you still have the zips; of course if you do this you might as well not move the content over, at least until afterwards (to handle any non-DIM installs))

Good advice but based on the typos you either need smaller fingers, or bigger keys, or more sleep.

Isntalation:  When your software fails to install.  

 

Catherine3678ab

SnowSultan said:

I just installed a new SSD and plan on moving my content library over to it. Can I just copy the entire directory and all its subfolders over to the new drive and then tell Studio to look in that new location for content without any issues of scenes not being able to find files and whatnot? My current content library is not in the main boot directory either, so I don't imagine this will be anything too different from what it's already used to except the drive will be F instead of E.

Thanks in advance.

I did that and everything went fine. I don't use DIM.

edit to add: somewhere in the process the program did insist to keep a couple of folders on the main drive for one of the services so you may end up with a couple of empty folders there too. Nothing to worry about.

 

NorthOf45

Canary3d said:

You might be able to update the DIM manifest files to point to the new location, so it thinks it installed them where you now have them. Notepad++ will do search & replace across multiple files at once. I haven't tried this myself, yet. I always move my files after installation, so I'm considering it.

 

Highly recommended if you change drive letter and/or root path. I just moved everything to a new drive, and this little process took about 3 minutes to do. Then your DIM's "Show Installed Files..." will work again (assuming you put them in the same relative position in the library folder). You might want to copy the original manifests in case you don't quite get the right string replacement.

Richard Haseltine

LeatherGryphon said:

Richard Haseltine said:

That is fine for DS. If you installed with DIM it will rmember the absolute path for the isntalaltion, which may be an issue with updates (but you could, depending on what else you are doing, use the same path n the SSD and then when done copying chnage the drive letters around so the files seemed to be in exactly the same place; you can also chnage the path in DIM, if you don't do that, and then select everything in the Installed tab, right-click, and select the option to reinstall suing the current path - assuming you still have the zips; of course if you do this you might as well not move the content over, at least until afterwards (to handle any non-DIM installs))

Good advice but based on the typos you either need smaller fingers, or bigger keys, or more sleep.

Isntalation:  When your software fails to install.  

 

Avoid typos when fifty-thousand posts you have you will not.

SnowSultan

Bejaymac: Yeah I know; I very rarely uninstall anything with DIM and when I do, it's only to get rid of the files in the /data and texture folders. I stopped worrying about using the database or smart content a long time ago.

I'm probably going to just rename the drives since I'm already very used to E: being my content drive. Thanks for the advice so far.