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[tangolovers]

Hi,

My travel laptop does not have enough storage space and I would like to be able to have my music stored on an external hard drive.  Can MC15 work just as well in this fashion or will it result in excessive crashes?  If this is possible, can you please tell me how to set it up?  I currently have it pointing to my music on the internal drive and I need to change this - if it's possible.

Thank you,
Susie

[Alex B]

An external USB2 drive should be fine if your laptop works reliably with an external drive in general (I am not suspecting that it should not do that, but I think some old motherboard USB chipsets had problems with fast USB2 drives or with "slim" external enclosures that are powered from USB, i.e which don't use a power adapter.)

You can copy the files to your external drive outside MC and fix the base path (or paths) with the Rename, Move, & Copy Files tool so that you don't need to recreate your library. I have posted RM&CF instructions several times. Here are some links:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=55224.msg375699#msg375699
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=55547.msg377589#msg377589
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=52086.msg356211#msg356211
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=51635.msg352515#msg352515
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=49835.msg341255#msg341255
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=46894.msg321403#msg321403

If you don't already have a full backup set of your files this would a good time to also fix that deficiency. Instead of copying the files to a single external drive purchase another similar drive and copy the files to both drives. Later on you can keep the drives synced with e.g. Karen's Replicator.

[tangolovers]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the fast reply.  

My music is now like 60GB and it's already on my external drive.   Is it really that complicated to just plug it into the travel laptop and make the Libraries (from my main laptop) point to that drive?  What do you recommend?  I would like to preserve my current playlists and organization from my main laptop when I do this.  I was thinking I could copy my Backup Library from one machine to another and then just tell it to look on the external drive, but not sure how to do this. What can I do here?   Please help me with some detailed instructions on this so I get all the pointers in the right direction.  

Thanks,
Susie

[MusicHawk]

I use a laptop with external USB drive with excellent results. In fact, I listen to it while bouncing down the road in a car or motor home.

My method, slightly simplified, is this:

My MC library on my desktop is on a second drive, letter M: (MC itself is installed per default on drive C).

On the laptop with MC I assign the external USB drive letter M: (via Windows > My Computer > Manage, or other utilities).

I store my library (which includes playlists), music files, cover art, saved views, visualizations, and everything else that is configurable in MC on M: (actually, M:\data\, my preference).

Note: I feel it is better to not use MC's "Default" library. My library is called "music".

Both computers use exactly the same M: paths, so there's no need to modify the library. I just copy all the files from desktop to laptop. (Of course, if having identical drive letters is not possible, the step of editing the path is necessary as explained by Alex B.)

To do the copying I use a backup program (SyncBackSE, but just about any should work) because it's fast, smart about only copying files that have changed, and because I can set up all the folders I desire to copy and do it with one click.

Periodically I connect the USB drive to the desktop and run the backup process. (Of course, the USB drive gets another letter when on the desktop because M already exists, but that doesn't affect the "M:" letter it is assigned on the laptop.)

I've been doing this method for several years (been using MC/MJ since version 7) -- it's simple and reliable. Because I'm copying my entire MC "data" set, it doesn't matter that I add or delete or change music or cover art or views or whatever. It all gets handled by the backup process. The only "challenge" arises when MC moves to a new version (14 to 15, for instance); then I check and possibly do a little tweaking of MC config and the backup setup.


There are other methods built into MC, such as using MC to synchronize to the USB drive as a device, or using MC client on the laptop to synchronize with MC server on the desktop, but for my situation these are more complex, not as versatile, and slower to do the job. But in other situations they are the best methods.

[Alex B]

Is it really that complicated to just plug it into the travel laptop and make the Libraries (from my main laptop) point to that drive?...

I guess you didn't read the links. It isn't complicated. I essentially explain exactly what you want to know in each linked post. I.e. "what to do if the base path in the library is not correct when the files are in a new location". It is useful to see the original questions and related posts for understanding how the instructions can be adopted to various situations.

...Both computers use exactly the same M: paths, so there's no need to modify the library. I just copy all the files from desktop to laptop...

Your approach is similar to mine. I have my "travel media" currently on two external 1 TB drives. I have set the drives to show up as V: and W: on all PCs so that the same library can be used on each PC when the drives are connected. I use "high" letters to prevent any temporary devices from grabbing the same letters. The X:, Y: & Z: letters are already reserved for my network shares on all PCs.

(Actually, I do some additional tricks to create virtual X:, Y: and Z: letters from the folders on the V: and W: drives so that I can use exactly the same "server" library that I use at home. However, explaining that in detail in this thread might cause unnecessary confusion.)

[tangolovers]

I guess you didn't read the links. It isn't complicated.

My apologies Alex, how I didn't see your links is beyond me... I just read past them.  I will take a look now.  I think it's coming together already.

Thank you very much!!

-- And Thank you to MusicHawk too! --  Lots of great information and great ideas.

Susie

[nedam]

If you are running the NTFS file system you can also mount a folder on the C drive to insure there is never a "drive letter swap" issue.  This will also allow you to get past the limit of 26 drives (Not that I have ever seen anyone with that many drives on one PC.) that is imposed by Windows.

Just create a new folder on C drive (I have a C:\MOVIES folder with three sub-folders MOVIES_1, MOVIES_2 and MOVIES_3 within the C:\MOVIES folder and have each of the sub-folders mounted to an external USB drive.) and open Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Computer Management-Disk Management or you can just type in diskmgmt.msc at the in the search box of Windows 7 or after clicking the Run command in XP. Right mouse click the drive and choose Change Drive Letters and Paths, click Add, browse to the folder of choice and your done. These folders will always be assigned the same drive irrespective of the drive letter.

This also allows me to scan all drives for new movies just by choosing the C:\MOVIES folder in Media Center.  I also have my music setup the same way.