New Exterior Hard Drive Coming
IceDragonArt
Posts: 12,727
in The Commons
So I finally had to break down and get an external hard drive as my memory is maxxed out. I got a 4TB drive and whatever the cable they recommended for it. My question is, will I just be able to plug it in and it will be there? (says plug and play)
Also, would it be easier just to install dazstudo from scratch on the new drive? Or try and move everything over.
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Comments
What does this have to do with memory being maxed out? Hard Drives are for storing data.
Also depending on the type of plugin for the HD, it might actually slow down data transfer. External HDs are generally used for data backup.
Well I'm not sure if its a hard drive its this https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B017KE8OG0/ref=twister_B00TS6JL4S?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1.
I'm getting error messages about running out of space for data. So I need something that will give me more space and this is one of the things suggested. (I am NOT a techy by an stretch of the imagination. Its entirely possible that I called it the wrong thing.
Ah, so it's not your memory that is maxed out, it is that you are running out of HD space. That makes more sense. I run all my programs from a 2nd internal drive, but keep all my runtimes on externals.. But of course I don't use DS, so otheres will have to advise you on that.
Yes thank you that is exactly it Chohole.
Good choice Icedragon. this new drive should plug and play just fine . But as you are just using this as a second drive for content. I would highly recommend doing a complete format of the drive before installing anything on it. I always do a format of a new drive to get rid of things that maybe pre-installed like encryption software vaults and third party back up plugins, pass word vualts for using your drives that sometimes come with a new HD. so if your not going to use them I would just format the drive first. I know passport HHD drives are the worst for that.
I have 4 external USB.3 HHD drives for my daz content & I the leave daz studio software on main system c:/ drive and just point daz to your new content folder on the new drive through the preference under the edit tab.
you want to leave daz on the main system drive for the main reason it gives you the optimum performance when rendering.especially if your your system drive is a SSD drive .. that just my opinion. other may differ
Peace
Thanks Ivy! I have no idea how to format a drive.
So i leave my daz on the main system, should I then go ahead and move the content already on C drive to the new one? Or just start pointing new content to the new drive?
I moved all of my content to my external H/D, but I run Daz itself off of the computer/main system.
There's a quick 'n dirty tutorial on how to get DS to recognize that you've moved your content. I did this, and I have not had any issues whatsoever since.
Hi Ice dragon its very simple
when you plug your new HHD drive in to your computer USB it will show up in "My computer". So. go to My computer . you will see a list of all your drives connected to your computer. please chose your new drive it will show empty it will be like drive g:/ or f:/ or something like that.( Be sure not to click c:/ drive that is your main system drive) Then just right click the new empty drive & scroll down the list that pops up to where it says format or format drive . click it ..then a pop up box will show up with options . choose full format.. if asked what format type you want ( some systems do it automaticly) Chose the NTFS (Windows NT File System) options & not fat 32 which compresses your drive. . it will just take a few minutes to complete this will also match your NTFS system drive format to help you from getting those dreaded install content errors if you use dimm . . Once done you will have a fresh new drive to install all your daz content to. To move your content folder to the new drive I would just cut or copy your old content folder from your old drive and paste into the new drive and then point daz studio thats installed on your main system drive to the new content folder location on the new drive. you find that setting under edit> preffence content.. easy-pezy
heres a pictures of where you set daz to point to your new drive
You can put your data on the USB external hard drive, but I would leave DAZ Studio where it is. It should start up faster on your internal drive (unless that drive is very slow). A lot of modern external drives power down when not being used, and that can be a pain if your app is installed on it.
Thank you so much! That doesn't look too terribly difficult to do appreciate the help! So once I have moved all the content over to the new drive, if I have copied it over and verified that it all works, I should then be able to delete it off the C drive correct? I leave Daz Studio on C drive, copy all the content and change where dim installs it to the new drive after formatting then delete content but not studio on the C drive.
Don't forget DIM also stores the downloaded content installers as well as the installed content (unless you've told it not to). This will continue silently eating up chunks of your C: drive until you start running out of room again. Fixing this (if you do want to keep storing the installers) can be a bit fiddly, I'll leave explanations to someone who remembers how to do it.
I will have to check. I am pretty sure I told it to delete after installing but will double check that for sure.
You can set the location of the Downloads folder in the DIM preferences - click the gear icon at top-right. It's the (much smaller) Manifests and Thumbnails folders that require fiddling to move.
Thank you!
Okay my drive is installed and formatted. I am copying the MyDaz3dLibrary to the new drive and nothing else correct? Leave the rest of the Daz files where they are at? And once that's done I can point DIM to the new drive to put any new stuff on. Just double checking to make sure that I have it right lol
you can put any personal files on the external drive. It isn't limited to DS. Yes just open DIM and change the location and it will work fine.
And my copy of Studio on my C drive will then find everything okay on the other drive? Or do I need to follow the steps in the quick and dirty tutorial linked above.
And I am moving as much as I possibly can to the new drive. I would like most of my c drive to go toward actually rendering...
Also, can I move photoshop and lightroom over as well by just moving the whole Adobe folders over to the new one?
I'm utterly terrified of screwing something up lol.
It also looks like it will take probably all night to move the content to the new drive, so no rush lol.
Just as a side point, you CAN use an external memory device to increase virtual RAM. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff356869.aspx
Another question. Is it possible to use an external drive with a laptop?
Sure is :) works just like plugging it into a desktop :)
Oh that would be super helpful lol. I guess that will go to the top of my wishlist then. My pc is still downloading all of my Daz content on to the new drive. Its about halfway done. Hoping it will be done when I get home from work. Wondering if my custom categories will still be populated or if I am going to have to point them all to the new drive....
Okay, all the content is on the new drive, I have pointed everything that needs to be pointed to the new drive and am uninstalling the library from the c drive. Then will come the real test lol.
So, my content shows inside of Daz Studio no problem it all works right. However, DIM is not installing product. Its pointed the right place I believe but its not installing it there. Not really sure WHERE its installing it too since nothing is pointing to the old C drive.
Edited to add - never mind I think I found it.
So, I went ahead and got another external drive for my laptop. I wasn't paying close attention to how large my library really was. I apparently have 455GB of stuff. More than that on the pc as I have a lot more freebies loaded on that one. How on earth did that happen in a little over a year?
It doesn't take long. Now when I download stuff, I'm noticing that it only takes a few items to hit 1 gig, and it seems to be at least that much when ever I buy stuff now. Can't wait to clear my C drive out in the near future.
Its crazy!