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[john h]

In the event that there are any of the experts in this forum with time on their hands and a kind heart, I'd love some suggestions on how to add a new computer to my MC home network:

I have for many years enjoyed using MC on my old desktop computer, and have set it up to stream to my two Tivo boxes through a simple home network.  I've added things like a 100GB hard drive, but the computer is too old and I'm tired of slow old USB1.  I'm going to buy a laptop computer, and release the desktop for the kids to play on it.

My thought is to keep all my music files on the old computer hard drive until it is full, which will be in about 3-4 months and then install a second MC license on the laptop to use as the primary computer to play the files off the desktop hard drive and communicate with the Tivos.   

Should I get a laptop with a large hard drive to keep new files when the desktop becomes full, or is there a better memory system to use, like an external hard drive, that will connect through the network?  I guess a less cumbersome laptop will have a smaller hard drive, so I might need some kind of additional place to store the music files. 

If you have already thought through this scenario and constructed something that works well, I'd appreciate your guidance.

Also, is there any problem when you install the second MC program in terms of replicating the library I've created on the desktop?  If I make changes to the library on one computer, how will I be sure that these changes are also reflected to the library on computer 2?

Thanks from a novice, but having fun trying...

John

[dcwebman]

I'll take the first stab at an answer. What you're doing is basically what I have done. Set up a server that houses all the music which would be your old computer in your case. When your old computer's hard drive gets full, best recommendation is to get a bigger hard drive or at least an additional one to add to the desktop. I currently have a USB external drive hooked up to my server (desktop) that was intended for backing up every night but for some reason I've been having problems with it. That's why I'd put it in the desktop if I could. If you run out of motherboard connections for the hard drives, then get a PCI card to add more. But still the best is the bigger hard drive. Oh, and you can always add a USB 2.0 card to it.

I have 5 computers accessing my server through either wired or wi-fi network and my laptop is my main computer which adds/modifies the server's music files through MC. Works great and I back up my library to the server just in case. If you want to have another computer running MC and you want to use the same library, you can simply restore the library from the server and have an identical setup.

If you do something like this though, don't give that old desktop to your kids to play on. 

Hope that helps a little and I'm sure others will have further thoughts.
Jeff

[glynor]

Also, is there any problem when you install the second MC program in terms of replicating the library I've created on the desktop?  If I make changes to the library on one computer, how will I be sure that these changes are also reflected to the library on computer 2?

There are some issues.  First of all, each machine does need to have it's own independant library (the database, not the actual media files), unless you use the Media Server (which has it's own limitations).  If you try to serve the library files (again, the database, not the media files) over a network, you will probably run into some serious problems.

If you want to share your media library among multiple machines, but don't want to suffer from the Media Server's limitations (mainly that you can only edit tags on the "host" machine and many media types don't work properly), then check this thread for my solution...

As far as the hardware... There are lots of options.  In your case I would probably look into using some sort of NAS (Network Attached Storage).  Either a standalone device, or (what I would do) by installing more drive space in your existing computer and using it as a server (this is really quite easy to do).  Then, you could set up a wireless network in your house, and access your media from anywhere you can get onto your WLAN.

For "travelling", I'd just copy some of your "favorites" over to your laptop's hard drive and set MC up with a separate set of View Schemes that only shows those files.  Then, when you're away at Grandma's house, you can still jam out to some tunes!

Hard drive options for laptops are very expensive, and still very limited.  About the largest ones currently available are 160GB models, and they carry quite a price premium.  Larger ones will come out sooner or later (the new perpendicular recording technology is helping), but why spend a bunch to buy 160GB for a laptop when you can buy 320GB for less than half the price for a desktop machine?

[Mastiff]

I have one computer with all the files and 8-10 computers which has the drives on the MP3 server mapped as network drives with the same drive letters (E:, F: and G:) as they have on the server. Then I do all maintainance on the server (usually with the laptop and Remote Administrator), backup the library and restore it on the other computers. Oh, and I make sure that those other computers only have read access, so nothing bad can happen if my kids get adventurous...

Then I have a full backup of all files on identical harddrives in the carputer, and that's using the same library as well.

[glynor]

Mastiff, one of these days I want to pick your brain about how you set up your carputer....

Do you have a site where you describe all the components and software you used anywhere?  Basically, I'd like to start small (mostly MP3 playback with maybe a GPS/Nav system) and be able to use some of my existing stuff (motherboard, RAM, and processors).

I assume you use MC+Netremote to control it...

I'm not there yet, but it's something I'm planning for "down the road".

[runemail]

I use the same solution as mr. Mastiff.

Works great exept sometimes when I backup and restore, some data, like all my playlists, never shows up when I restore on the other computers. So be shure you always backup from the same computer, or you may be in for a unpleasant surprise.

Keeping old library backups is very important if you use this solution.

[glynor]

I use the same solution as mr. Mastiff.

Works great exept sometimes when I backup and restore, some data, like all my playlists, never shows up when I restore on the other computers. So be shure you always backup from the same computer, or you may be in for a unpleasant surprise.

Keeping old library backups is very important if you use this solution.

If you use my script solution, it does migrate the playlists and it also performs automatic backups every time the script runs.   

[runemail]

Will try, thanx

[tombert]

I would like to suggest the following:

*) Buy two harddiscs (200 GB are cheap now),
*) keep the 100 GB for the operating system only,
*) run your library on one of the new 200 GB and on the other,
*) keep a regular ! backup ! via script,
*) set permissions for your kids that they can't ruin your library;

... external NAS are to expensive,
USB1 - no problem if you copy new files from your notebook to your server via LAN ...

[Mastiff]

Glynor, I'm gonna write about my carputer when it's set up. And yes, I use NetRemote, MC, Girder and a few other niceties.

Running backups via scripts is dangerous! You may migrate an error. I used to do full bit by bit compares to check that everything was intact, now I have changed my system to using Quick SFV to crate a checksum for all files and then I can just check that every now and then. Oh, and I don't use tags in the files, I went to a fully library centric system a few weeks ago. And I have library backups all the way back to MC9, if I remember correctly. And of course the library backups are backed up as well, so I don't think there's much chance I'll loose data. If I do, it means that my house and car has burned down, and that's not really possible without a bomb since my car isn't parked in the house. If that happens, I guess loosing data is the least of my worries! But I'm going to do a full backup to DVD's anyway...

[Alex B]

Works great exept sometimes when I backup and restore, some data, like all my playlists, never shows up when I restore on the other computers.

This has never happened to me. I have restored libraries hundreds of times during the last few years and I have never lost a single playlist. The backup files are simple zip packages that contain only the jmd files from the library data folder. Something must have prevented MC from zipping or unzipping the files properly like I explained here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=34398.msg234752#msg234752

Running backups via scripts is dangerous! You may migrate an error...

Hmm... I prefer to duplicate the library folder with bat files. I start them manually when needed and when it is safe. More info is here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=32484.

[Mastiff]

I misunderstood the script thing. I wasn't talking about the library folder, I was talking about the actual MP3 files.

[glynor]

Hmm... I prefer to duplicate the library folder with bat files. I start them manually when needed and when it is safe. More info is here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=32484.

Yeah.  I run my scripts (which are for now just bat files, though I plan to re-write them using Windows Scripting Host so that I don't see the black DOS window while they're running) manually all the time too.  Mainly the "Publish Local to Shared" script, but sometimes the "Import from Shared" script too.  Particularly on the HTPC when I want to update to see changes from the other machine right away (I just VNC into the HTPC and run it from the Start Menu -- works great).

The nice thing about the way I have it set up, where the "Export to Shared" script checks for a flag set by the special "Publish Local to Shared" script (which I run from the non-HTPC machine when I've made changes on that library), is that I just have it set up to run once per day automatically.  Generally, it always keeps the "shared" library up-to-date without having to manually update anything.  And since the scripts always keep the "last" copy of the database in reserve (and archives those every so often), I've never had a problem rolling back on the one or two occasions where I did lose data from an automated script run.

[runemail]

This has never happened to me. I have restored libraries hundreds of times during the last few years and I have never lost a single playlist. The backup files are simple zip packages that contain only the jmd files from the library data folder. Something must have prevented MC from zipping or unzipping the files properly like I explained here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=34398.msg234752#msg234752

I save and restore to a network share, I belive the problem is writing a complete backup-file. Because when it happens there is no way I can get a complete restore from the corrupt backup. So I have to make a new backupfile.

[Mastiff]

Then save to a regular physical drive and copy the backup to the network drive. Or is that a problem?