Advice On How To Switch Out One External Hard Drive For Another

[WeerdMunkee1978 3]

Hello everyone, hope life is treating you all well during all this craziness...I have run into a snag I'm not sure how to handle. I recently had to order a new external hard drive because the one I currently use for my Emby server is about to max out! I currently have both my movies and tv shows on one drive, but am going to need to separate them onto two drives once my new drive arrives. My movies is what I will be transferring to the new drive, but I already have everything set up so perfect now, and have put a lot of time and effort into the set-up. The thought of having to re-do everything is quite an unnerving thought, to say the least! How do I go about doing this without any loss of what I've already set up, or is there even a way to do it at all? Am I just S.O.L??   Lol

Edited May 30, 2020 by WeerdMunkee1978

[crusher11 851]

Why move anything, if the old drive will still be in use?

 

Do you save your images and metadata with your media?

[WeerdMunkee1978 3]

I am separating them because my library is always growing as well as being updated with better files, therefore I have run out of external hard drive space. I have 27gb left. I need to put my TV shows on one hard drive, and put the movies on the other, so I can continue to add to both of them...yes, I save my images and metadata. 

Edited May 30, 2020 by WeerdMunkee1978

[pwhodges 1523]

A library can include files from multiple directories, so you could simply add new TV and Movie directories on the new drive and add them as second links in the libraries concerned.

 

Paul

[moviefan 183]

As long as you are using local metadata there shouldn't be any issues here.  Feel free to move and update the path - or as pwhodges says just add the new stuff on the new one and link both in the same library.

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

I am separating them because my library is always growing as well as being updated with better files, therefore I have run out of external hard drive space. I have 27gb left. I need to put my TV shows on one hard drive, and put the movies on the other, so I can continue to add to both of them...yes, I save my images and metadata. 

 

My suggestion is to attach your new drive to your computer and use StableBit's DrivePool to combine the drives and then all you need to  do is move your video files into the PoolPartxxxx directory and add the DrivePool drive letter to your library. You do that once and as your data grows all you need to do is add a new drive to your computer and then to the pool and you are set. DrivePool will move your data around in the background and keep the drives balanced. (There is a free addon that helps DrivePool do that better than DrivePool alone can do it) I setup my Pool years ago and have even moved the entire pool to a new computer once. DrivePool makes that very easy.

 

I firmly believe that it is best to let well designed software like DrivePool do the work of maintaining drive space.

 

If you acquire enough space DrivePool even has a duplication feature that gives you good solid redundancy. I recommend at least three good size drives to take advantage of the duplication feature and that you do not use duplication on folders that can easily be recreated.

 

I currently have 14 drives ranging from 4tb to 8tb in my pool and I can add a new drive as needed and should a drive fail I lose nothing important.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Gilgamesh_48