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[tunetyme]

I am contemplating adding several removable drive bays so I can accommodate video and my ever increasing music collection.  If I add 3 drives (E:,F:,G:) and store music on drive E:. Later, I put this drive into tray F: or G:.  Will MC recognize the drive and see all the files or would I have to import the info again.

Is there another way to configure this?

[rjm]

When you change your media drive letter, you can use find and replace in MC to change the drive letter for all files in your library.

Or you can go into Windows Computer Management console and modify the drive letter for your new bay such that your media drive does not change.

[horse]

see if anything in Benn600's  thread may help hide the drive letters.
Others (and me) have the same expanding problem and resolved it pretty much the same way.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=41958.0

[benn600]

By bays...what are you referring to?  I was almost thinking optical drives but that wouldn't make much sense.  If you're talking about adding more hard drives to store your media collection, then you should simply go to the Computer console and manually set each drive to a letter below your typical letters--such as M or lower.  This way, they will be forced to use this letter instead of using the highest unused letter (such as E or F).

And in auto-import you can configure MC to not delete files I believe.  Other people have more experience with customizing auto-import.

But I'm compelled to remind you (and everyone else) to backup!  Don't rely on a single copy of your important media collection!  I can definitely understand your need for more drives, though!  As soon as you start storing your movies on your computer it becomes a major issue.  Music (even lossless) isn't too bad.

[jgreen]

On my laptop I have 2 internal drives plus an additional 2 USB external drives, one which I connect occassionally, the other very infrequently.  My library is spread across all 4 drives.  I make sure that my 3,4 and 5-rated tracks are on the internal drives, and the 1s and 2s are on the external.  Additionally, any 2s that are frequently played get moved to the main drives.

This means that I have tracks belonging to the same album spread across 2 or even 3 drives--a necessity given my disk drive constraints.  While this may seem hopelessly mangled, MC handles it all seemlessly.  I see contiguous albums, and the MC icon indicates whether the track is present.  As for tracks on the USB drives, MC will remember them and reconnect them when the drive is brought online. 

Under tools/auto import options/auto import folders/options, be sure to select either "fix broken links--no", or "fix broken links--yes (protect network files)."  Also, benn's advice is good regarding the lower-alphabet drive letters. 

[benn600]

That's great to hear jpgreen.  I know if I used my laptop more and relied on it more heavily I would be likely to follow something similar to your setup.  As of now, though, I usually get internet and then just stream all my content from my server--have done that at school, work, vacation, other places, etc.

I'm still waiting for my next laptop which will likely have a 250GB hard drive!  It's simply amazing--I believe I saw one!  Of course then there is the issue of should I be forward looking and get a solid state storage system--significantly lowering my capacity to 64GB?  And LED backlit screen?  Yep, we're on the verge of some major changes in our portable devices!  And of course, our battery technology is right there up to par...oh wait, that's why we need these other improvements!  We can't figure out better batteries!

If only someone could examine the world's resources amazingly efficiently--that person could create amazing, small, safe batteries--gasoline alternatives--free power with inexpensive generators....

[tunetyme]

By bays...what are you referring to?  I was almost thinking optical drives but that wouldn't make much sense.  If you're talking about adding more hard drives to store your media collection, then you should simply go to the Computer console and manually set each drive to a letter below your typical letters--such as M or lower.  This way, they will be forced to use this letter instead of using the highest unused letter (such as E or F).


But I'm compelled to remind you (and everyone else) to backup! 

Bays use a 5 1/4 slot on the front of your computer.  You have a tray that slides into the bay (or docking bay) flip the switch (key) and the drive powers up.  You can have multiple trays with drives storing all your nedia files.  All you need to do is decide what you want to listen to or watch and plug that drive in.  If you have mutiple bays then you can plug in several different drives.  It also facilitates back-ups.  If I have 250G drive with rock music then I have a 250g back-up drive with the same files.  I plan to migrate to 500g drives so I can have 1.5t available for media files on these removable drives.  When we move to the solid state storage systems... well I guess it's time to build a new media PC.

A tool that I have been using for backing up is called "SyncToy." A free utility from Microsoft.  It will even identify changes in the tags and make sure your backup is identical to your primary drive.  I am a big believer in backing up as I lost my internal media drive a few months ago.  It has taken a sustantial amount of time to verify my backup has all the files and rip what was missing.  Hence the move to removable drives.

[benn600]

I am a big believer in backing up as I lost my internal media drive a few months ago.

That's good to hear.  Too many folks don't even take backup into consideration.  Not to spoil your coolness of deciding what to watch and plugging in that drive (like locating a DVD but each drive has tens of DVDs) but maybe you'd want to just use motherboard RAID?  With a little effort you could have RAID with redundancy.  Unless you really are going to back it all up.  I personally cannot backup my entire server because it's not financially feasible nor even needed.  But the important stuff is backed up.  So in a way, I heavily rely on my RAID 6 setup to not fail or I will lose a lot of data--but all of which is easily recreated with lots of time for re-ripping.  Music is on the top of my backup list.  I have three complete copies.

[tunetyme]

So in a way, I heavily rely on my RAID 6 setup to not fail or I will lose a lot of data--but all of which is easily recreated with lots of time for re-ripping.  Music is on the top of my backup list.  I have three complete copies.

Some years ago, I learned a hard lesson on trusting hard disks inside your PC.  Unless you are on a true UPS (not a switching UPS) where the ground is isolated you are at risk of having damage from low level current that can occur between your ground and neutral.  This will fry hard disks, all of them if the current gets above 3 volts.  Copiers are notorious for producing these currents as well as other types of equipment.  Therefore I make a complete copy that has absolutely no electrical connections.

[Bobo4567]

... I have tracks belonging to the same album spread across 2 or even 3 drives ... MC handles it all seemlessly.  I see contiguous albums, and the MC icon indicates whether the track is present.  As for tracks on the USB drives, MC will remember them and reconnect them when the drive is brought online. 

For me that sounds like a perfect way to organize a large quantatiy of music. Thanks @jgreen for this great idea!

But how is this realized? Do I have to move the files, depending on their rating, by hand? Or is their an automatism / easy way of doing that?

Is the directory structure the same at every harddrive? e.g.
Drive 1:\AC-DC - High Voltage\
                                01 - It's A Long Way To The Top.mp3
                                03 - The Jack.mp3
Drive 2:\AC-DC - High Voltage\
                                02 - Rock 'N' Roll Singer.mp3
                                04 - Live Wire.mp3
etc.

Thanks for the help!
Markus
(BoBo4567)