Moving content to a second hdd
Sfariah D
Posts: 25,789
in The Commons
It looks like I am getting a second HDD between next week and begining of July. When it comes I would like to make it my second hdd and to store content on it. What is the best way to move the content over? Uninstall it and then reinstall it?
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Just copy it and paste to the new drive using the operating system. When that is done, add (or change) the paths in the Content Directory Manager. Make the same path changes to the install paths for DIM.
Don't do this with Studio open!
anybody know how you handle multiple drives of content, as far as path's go and such?
Yes. In DAZ Studio, you simply need to go into 'Content Directory Management' and add the volume/directory on which that content resides.
In DIM, of course, it's a different story; it targets a specific directory, where you want your content to be installed. If you want any future content to be installed into the new directory, you need to tell DIM where that directory is.
After you have added any new content directories to DAZ Studio, you should run the 'Re-import metadata' menu option from 'Content DB Maintanance'; this should scan every defined content directory and identify everything that is installed into any or all of them.
oh ok. So it is possible to add multiple drive (letters) to Studio? I was confused on that option. Thanks.
oh, since I'm on the subject, the wife would like to kow if one has two pcs, if both can have the same content on them, or some of the same content etc?, as we are in the process up building a new system and she wants to use this pc once the new one is finished. I'm not sure of daz's policy on that. Anyone?
I'm not a lawyer (I don't even play one on TV), so you'd probably need to read the EULA (End-User License Agreement) to determine DAZ's policy toward multiple installations of content. My understanding is that the content is licensed to the DAZ account under which it was acquired. That's basically how Microsoft licenses its development software: based on the user account under which it was registered. Thus, it is possible to have multiple installations of the software on different machines, so long as that software can only be accessed through that one account. (Sharing those account credentials with another person is still a no-no, however.)
In my own case, I have three PCs that I use, with DAZ Studio installed on all of them; all of them have exactly one user account set up, and it is the same account for all. One machine is my "primary" system, where my content is physically installed. I also maintain a "mirror" of my content directories on an external device (a USB hard disk) to carry around with either of the other computers, when I'm on the road. In addition, I have another "mirror" on a network share. (I'm really big on backups; it ain't paranoia when they really are out to get you!) Since all of those "mirrors" can only be accessed by a single account, I've been operating on the assumption that this is legal; the content is not being distributed, or otherwise made available, to third parties, and cannot be used by anyone other than myself.
Consequently, assuming I'm not running afoul of the EULA, I would suggest installing all of your content on a single network drive, and then set up a single account on both PCs, and map that network drive to that account on each system; that way, your content is available from whichever computer you're logged into. (Of course, you also need to inform DAZ Studio of this setup, and let DIM know that this is where you want all content installed.)
If a DAZ moderator is following this thread, by all means, please clarify.
If the 2 PCs are being used by 2 different people then they should each have a licence to use the content on the PC that they control. As stated in the EULA
Oh, one additional caveat regarding the mapping of multiple content directories: you need to take care that your content is not duplicated in those multiple directories. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting that dreaded (although not necessarily fatal) error, "Duplicate formulas found in files." This error generally appears when the same content is found in more than one mapped library.
Like I said, it is rarely fatal, but is almost always annoying as all get-out!
While using Daz Connect also, there is only one path (you can use a shared NAS drive) that you can specify for installing content but there could be multiple locations from where the content can be read.
But the challenge lies in sharing the database metadata. I am not sure if there is an utility that could do an export-import of the metadata directly from the Postgresql used by the Studio. I wish they allowed the DB connection to be externally configurable so that an external Postgresql could be configured.
Connecting to the same database twice would be a problem because you would have to keep both machines online any time you wanted to use them so they could reauthenticate because it would keep thinking it was a "new machine", it is an option but not a great one.
A second option would just be to transfer the whole cluster directory over to the other machine, but you would have to re-authenticate any time you did that and only on the second machine.
A third option is to have them share the same files but not share the data and just "install" any content on both machines. It should detect that the content is already there and is the latest version so it shouldn't actually download anything. I have heard a report or two that this isn't working in the latest release (4.9.2.70) so be aware.
one thing i've learned--if you launch either daz studio or DIM when your daz content external hard drive is not connected, you'll have to re-browse to the content file path the next time the drive is hooked up.
the correct file path may still appear to be listed in content directory manager or DIM installation preferences, but the apps aren't paying attention to those directories anymore.
Back in 2007 I switched from PC to Mac. I was overjoyed to hear I could just copy all my DAZ & Poser content over to a new hard drive attached to my Mac. Then all I needed to do was to let DAZ Studio know where to find the content. I prefer to keep my data on an external hard drive, rather than a built-in hard drive. The nice thing is that the data can be read by either Mac or PC!
If you implement offline activation some of the pains of staying online while installing new content could be alleviated. One option could be to issue a unique token to each user while installing the studio and logging in for the first time through the studio (preferably during first launch). Post installation, this token would be uploaded to Daz and visible in the user account section (and managed by user for tracking multiple installations). Each purchased item can then be encrypted using that key (two-way encryption) and a unique download link (with temporary validity) can be generated for each user. Both download options DIM and Connect can use this link for fetching and installing the content for the user. Manual download would also be possible by adding an extra step of packaging and compressing the associated encrypted content. Upon installation, the content stays encrypted on the disk and gets decrypted on-demand in memory when the Studio loads it.
Obviously the cost of this approach would be the load on the servers for encrypting the content each time a download is requested by a user and in addition to the diffculty in distributing the content through CDN networks.
If the user wants to use the content on another machine all they would need is a one time activation of the token in that machine and all his downloadable content and future purchases could be authenticated offline using that token. It would also enable user identification should any encrypted content appear "in-the-wild".
If I understand correctly, the purpose of the database is to store the associated metadata but not the entitlement of the content. The metadata should be safe to replicate across machines or stored in a central location (enabled by the external configuration of the Postgresql). The option of allowing metadata to be stored in a common database or replicated using export-import of database dumps could allow propagation of changes across all offline installations - a huge plus.
Again, if I understand correctly, the current approach uses a universal Daz key to encrypt the content which makes it necessary to validate the entitlement (authorization) of content at each Studio installation. Obviously this approach makes it easy to have a single version of the encrypted content for all users and benefit from the caching provided by the CDNs. But this requires the studio to remain online whenever new content is installed.
On the other hand, if you consider encrypting through user specific tokens the entitlement needs to be validated only once during generation of download links. Since the downloaded files would be uniquely encrypted for each user, there is no longer a need to store entitlements information locally in the database which can then be purely used for storing metadata and subsequently allowing more flexibilty in database management.
Edit: Upon exploring the Connect FAQs (http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/990392/#Comment_990392) I see that the user token approach is already implemented through .sea files. But looking at the installed folders I see no .sep files only .enc files. Apparently, .sea is used to decrypt and unpack the .sep files into associated .enc files. So the obvious question is whether there is an association between the .sea files and the .enc files? and whether the .enc files are unique for each user? If the .enc files can be decrypted ONLY by the unique .sea issued to each user then I do not see a need for storing the entitlement/authorization in the database as the user cannot use any other .enc file issued for other users.
But as the FAQ entry says the .sea and .sep files are deleted upon installation, I have a gut feel that the .enc files, though encrypted, may not be uniquely associated with the user which necessitates the validation and storage of authorization within the studio. Can you clarify on this?
I am uninstalling everything and then reinstall everything again.
I got my new drive in today