Daz Studio library split across two drives?
sunnyjei
Posts: 502
Hello all! Hoping some one more knowlegdable than I can chime in. My Daz library has gotten massive (no clue how to optimize or reduce it without removing stuff!) and it is taking up the entirety of one drive. Is it possible to have Daz library use two drives instead of one? I have several free gigs on another drive but not enough free for all of the library. Thanks in advance!
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Comments
You can locate differently named libraries on different drives.
But you can't split a single lib over multiple locations. You probably need a bigger drive.
You can definitely have multiple libraries stored on multiple drives.
How do you install your content? (To know where you need to change settings)
I install via Daz Studio Smart Content/Connect ( I forget which it's called)
You can have only one active Connect Data Directory, but you can chnage its location and if you set the old one as a regular Daz Studio Format/Poser Formats content directory the files from that will still load - DS wil offer to do this for you when you change the current folder. To make the change, go to Edit>Preferences (Daz Studio>Preferences on a Mac), in that go to the Content tab, and click the Content Directory Manager button. In the manager you can select the current Connect Data Directory, then change it using the button on the left.
Ok cool- thank you :)
I've gotten to the point where I need to consider splitting this library too. But I don't use Smart Content or Daz Central. Manual installs all the way for me so I always know exactly where to find everything. So now I'm thinking of dividing the library by putting all the people-centric items on one drive, and the places/props/presets on another, connecting the drives through the Content Directory Manager as @RichardHaseltine suggested. But I haven't actually started doing this yet; I was hoping to find someone who has tried this method already who can explain why they advise against it or whether it's workable as long as I don't forget to do something I'm not thinking about. Or something. lol...
Has anyone ever done this successfully?
You can install everything on DAZ store and Rendo combined on a 100GB drive.
1. You can mount new drives to folders on that 100GB drive, for example you can mount a new drive to be the "Runtime" folder of the 100GB drive, and an other new drive to be the "Data" folder of the 100GB drive.
This can be done with the tools included in Windows (Computer Management->Disk Management)
2. You can download SysInternals "Junction" from Microsoft https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/junction
With the Junction, you can move folders from one drive to another without breaking the original folder structure.
I have used both for at least four years without one problem. Previously I used to replace drives with bigger ones, but four years ago 2+TB SSD drives cost a fortune and I needed to find another way to increase the size of my drives.
Both methods leave the drives accessible also by themselves, so no need to worry about similar problems as with RAID or compressed drives.
FWIW, I use DIM - but the install method doesn't matter. The bulk of my content is in D:/S4stuff/gen5 (historical leftover from just getting into Genesis); I have billboards and shaders in G:/shaders and HDRI products in F:/HDRI - all 2 TB ssd drives. These are all defined to Studio as both DAZ Studio Format and Poser format directories. In addition, all my tutorials are in E:/tutorials - Studio doesn't need to know about these.
I'm about to install a 4 TB ssd to replace the current D: drive as it only has 172 GB free. These are all internal drives. I also have five 4 TB and two 2 TB external usb drives for backups and my working copy of my DIM download directory (the master copy is on an external 4 TB ssd on my laptop).
I had a feeling someone knew a better way! Thank you both. There was a reason I mentioned the install method, and that's because I was considering a different way to split the files and therefore Daz Central would screw it up for me going forward; but it looks like the issue I was thinking about would be moot if I change my approach. I like it. Will begin soon. Have a great evening!
Actually, morning
PerttiA Thank you so much for reminding me about junction. I have now moved the "People" folder from the 2TB D: drive dedicated to Daz Studio content library to my 2TB C: drive under a special folder for Junctions. This way as I start to run out of room on the D: drive again I can junction another folder over. Thanks!