Splitting DAZ install folders causing problems

barcgwcc

Greetings,

I have two SDD's in my graphics computer.  I want to put some of my DAZ content on the smaller (2TB) drive.  This would include basics, tools, morphs.  These would be the smaller assets.  And I want to put people, clothing, hair, poses and props on the larger (8TB) drive.  I know that assets aren't really broken down by what they are, but rather, by the data/people/runtime folders.  And the runtime folders are massive compared to the other two.

 

My question is: can i have two data folders, two runtime folders and two people folders and not break things in DS?  Or, can I have the data and people folders on the primary drive (the smaller one) and put the runtime on the secondary drive?  

crosswind

Technically, yes you can... as long as you correctly configure the paths of two Daz Libraries on two SSDs in Content Directory Manager.

nonesuch00

It'll work but you will create headaches for yourself in DIM remembering to change the location of which SSD you want the latest products you've bought to be installed to. Also, invariable you will wind up with DAZ Connect content installed on one, the other, or both that you didn't want to be installed that way. Why not:

a) Use the 2TB SSD to store all your DIM data and DIM DAZ Installers

b) Use the 8TB SSD to install all your DIM Installer content, and a 2nd DAZ Content Library on the same SSD to install all your 3rd party DAZ content like from Renderosity and the like.

Is the entire DAZ Store installed in the DAZ Content Libray equal to 8TB yet?

How do you like your 8TB SSD? I plan on getting a few when I get serious about playing with data collection for LLM databases expoeriments.

barcgwcc

the problem I'm having is that there seems to be a lot of stuff that ends up in Lost and Found and doesn't populate Smart Content.  I've got DAZ Content Package Assist, so I can uninstall most stuff.  However, like nosuch00 wrote, the problems with non-DAZ store items end up being problematic.  I don't mind things being fragmented on two different drives if I can get them correct in Smart Content.  Of course, I can usually find it using the Content Library pane.  But I'd rather use Smart Assets.  And even in the Content Library pane, sometimes the items don't load properly or there are no product images.

 

Isn't there some way to get stuff out of Lost and Found and into the right places in Smart Assets and to make sure DS knows where stuff is other than at the macro-level of overall content directories?

 

EDIT:  adding that I like the 8TB fine.  It's an Samsung m.2.  Got it in a black friday deal last year.  It also has most of my other apps, so it is well used.

Richard Haseltine

DIM will let you set up multiple directories and pick between them using a pop-up at the bottom of the window, so it isn't that hard to do (but you would have to remember to switch as needed. Updates will, by default, use the original path so you dson't need to chnage the destination for those.

crosswind

Lost and Found has nothing to do with splitting your Daz Library, they come from incomplete metadata, i.e. not category is given to a file. And with Content Wizard, you can freely install 3rd-party products to whichever library with no issue.

As for fixing Lost and Found, usually there're two ways: Categorize the files within Lost and Found, or fill support tickes asking Daz to fix the product metadata. Another brutal way is to directly delete Lost and Found category the moment you see it... only problem is that you have no way to filter out the product or files by using Categories.

barcgwcc

Richard Haseltine said:

DIM will let you set up multiple directories and pick between them using a pop-up at the bottom of the window, so it isn't that hard to do (but you would have to remember to switch as needed.

Updates will, by default, use the original path so you dson't need to chnage the destination for those.

 

Edit: nvmd, I was missing something.  Google was my friend in this case.  Thanks for the tip Richard, 

barcgwcc

crosswind said:

Lost and Found has nothing to do with splitting your Daz Library, they come from incomplete metadata, i.e. not category is given to a file. And with Content Wizard, you can freely install 3rd-party products to whichever library with no issue.

As for fixing Lost and Found, usually there're two ways: Categorize the files within Lost and Found, or fill support tickes asking Daz to fix the product metadata. Another brutal way is to directly delete Lost and Found category the moment you see it... only problem is that you have no way to filter out the product or files by using Categories.

 

 

I just noticed that most of the stuff in L&F is from manually installed content that I couldn't use IM for.  This led me to surmise (perhaps incorrectly), that not being able to use IM increases the chances that whatever tags/metadata is associated with an asset might be lost in manual installs.   I don't have that much stuff installed (about 150 assets) and about 50 are in L&F.  If I can right click on each item and categorize it, that's probably the easiest way at this point.  But if it's a "bug" in DS for content not installed via IM, than I'd like to know so I can fix it when I install things instead of finding out days later. 

 

I thought maybe the Content Wizard tool could solve this problem, but I asked someone who has it and they said it doesn't fix it.  (Not the L&F issue specifically, but the splitting the data and runtime folders into separate drives and DS knowing where everything is).  With G9 4K mats now routinely ballooning assets to over 500Mb, more flexibility in install/space management is needed imo.  IM needs an upgrade.

crosswind

barcgwcc said:

crosswind said:

Lost and Found has nothing to do with splitting your Daz Library, they come from incomplete metadata, i.e. not category is given to a file. And with Content Wizard, you can freely install 3rd-party products to whichever library with no issue.

As for fixing Lost and Found, usually there're two ways: Categorize the files within Lost and Found, or fill support tickes asking Daz to fix the product metadata. Another brutal way is to directly delete Lost and Found category the moment you see it... only problem is that you have no way to filter out the product or files by using Categories.

 

 

I just noticed that most of the stuff in L&F is from manually installed content that I couldn't use IM for.  This led me to surmise (perhaps incorrectly), that not being able to use IM increases the chances that whatever tags/metadata is associated with an asset might be lost in manual installs.   I don't have that much stuff installed (about 150 assets) and about 50 are in L&F.  If I can right click on each item and categorize it, that's probably the easiest way at this point.  But if it's a "bug" in DS for content not installed via IM, than I'd like to know so I can fix it when I install things instead of finding out days later. 

If "manually installed" means that you direclty extract the content folders from 3rd-party product packages to your Daz Library, no... there wouldn't be any reference medadata created in cms database therefore you woudn't see any Lost and Found for them. Well, Lost and Found is a feature rather than a bug...

I thought maybe the Content Wizard tool could solve this problem, but I asked someone who has it and they said it doesn't fix it.  (Not the L&F issue specifically, but the splitting the data and runtime folders into separate drives and DS knowing where everything is).  With G9 4K mats now routinely ballooning assets to over 500Mb, more flexibility in install/space management is needed imo.  IM needs an upgrade.

With Content Wiard, it can assure accurate medatada and accessability for you to filter / use 3rd-party contents via Smart Content.  It can install 3rd-party products to the target Daz Library that you specify but it's not able to split the data folder and runtime folder from a product and install them into different Daz Library separately, no tools can do that by now. You have to do it manually if you do need to go for this way.

Besides, though increasing disk space is always an ultimate and solid solution but folks still have to cleanse the products in their Libraries they never or rarely use. 

 

barcgwcc

Hi crosswind,  do you know if there a good tutorial or video that explains how and where metadata is installed using IM?  I think if I knew that, I could solve a lot of my issues cleaning things up myself.  I assume the .dsx manifest files in the IM download folder contain most of that info, but that's a lot of text to read through.  Thanks for all your help.

crosswind

Sorry I don't know if there's a comprehensive tutorial for that but you can search on YouTube.

barcgwcc

I have come to the conclusion that a lot of assets bought from non-DAZ stores are problematic when installing because the PAs don't follow any standards.  Embedding the actual data folder inside another data folder or embedding an entire My Library folder structure inside the high level people/runtime/data folders for example.  These have to be fixed one at a time before installing.  

 

Thanks crosswind and RH for the assist.

Richard Haseltine

barcgwcc said:

I have come to the conclusion that a lot of assets bought from non-DAZ stores are problematic when installing because the PAs don't follow any standards.  Embedding the actual data folder inside another data folder or embedding an entire My Library folder structure inside the high level people/runtime/data folders for example.  These have to be fixed one at a time before installing.  

 

Thanks crosswind and RH for the assist.

How are yiu installing? Bad folder structure like that would cause them to fail at QA level, unless a mistake was made post-QA (though the bulk transfers from other stores were takenm on trust and did have some issues). The latter sounds like the sore of thing that could with a manual install.