Windows system drive almost full on my Emby server

[Bingie 99]

Hi all,

OMG!  I just noticed the Windows 10 system drive on my Emby server is over 90% full DOH!  The Emby app is installed on the windows system drive, but all my media libraries are on an external 10TB hard disk, which is over a third full, about 3.5TB so far.

The Windows 10 pc came with win10 installed on an internal 118GB nvme ssd drive, which now only has 11gb free.  Is that Emby filling it up with metadata?  I installed Emby on the internal drive, was that a mistake?

Should I re-install Emby server to the external drive, to get it off the internal ssd?  Or can I just tell Emby to use the external drive for metadata storage, instead of the internal ssd?

I'd appreciate any help, before I go uninstalling/reinstalling anything.  Work smarter not harder, as the saying goes.

Thanks

 

[Carlo 4560]

Hi, yes the cache and meta-data folders will be using that space.

What can bloat this is not storing graphics and index files (bif) with the media.  This is an option you can set for each and every library.
Ongoing Transcodes and Live TV Recordings can also use that space as well.
What settings do you have setup for your libs?

If you like I could do a remote support session with you and review your settings and help you move some content like possibly transcode folder, DVR, cache, metadata to a different drive.  This can be done without needing to reinstall.

If you would like to do this send me a PM.

Carlo

 

[Bingie 99]

ahh, I see the paths on the dashboard, didn't realize they would fill that sucker up, plenty of room on the external drive for that stuff

[rbjtech 5284]

It's probably just the metadata that is filling the SSD - opt to keep it with the media and emby will remove it from the SSD when it sees the item has moved.  Change this in the library settings.

For the emby cache and any form of 'temp' files - it's usually best/quickest for it to stay on the SSD - if that is an option.

[Bingie 99]

Thanks, yeah making data dirs on the external drive now...

 

[Bingie 99]

Okay, I found where to change the cache, but not the logs, metadata or transcoding... still looking around

[Bingie 99]

I moved the location of cache and transcoding-temp

Can't locate where to change location for metadata or logs

[Carlo 4560]

8 minutes ago, Bingie said:

Can't locate where to change location for metadata or logs

Library->Advanced Tab->Metadata path:

[Bingie 99]

Thanks, I must've missed that one, manually copying the directories over now, so it doesn't have to relearn everything (I hope).

[Bingie 99]

SOLVED

Holy cow, it was the transcoding temp directory, over 50,000 items, deleted it, windows drive is back to normal.

I moved the transcoding to the external drive, so it can eat all it wants over there.

Thanks all

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

I would not recommend moving the metadata folder as you are required to maintain default and new location as all previous stuff has database entries looking in a specific location and new stuff will look in new location.  So this can be problematic and require you to manually move everything and manually update the database to new location.

[Luke 42077]

35 minutes ago, Bingie said:

SOLVED

Holy cow, it was the transcoding temp directory, over 50,000 items, deleted it, windows drive is back to normal.

I moved the transcoding to the external drive, so it can eat all it wants over there.

Thanks all

 

You may just want to make sure that performs quickly enough for what you are doing.

If you're seeing cases of transcoding temp files left over after playback has completed, we've identified a couple scenarios of that and it is resolved for the next release of the server.

[Bingie 99]

My mom binged all weekend on a tv show that was transcoding, even though I had ripped from our dvd's.  It filled the drive.

For performance reasons, I would prefer to keep all temp activity on the internal SSD, but not if it's gonna fill the drive.

I'll do some testing, and when the next release comes out, I'll put it back to the internal drive.  Here's hoping!

(I did leave the metadata and logs on default, just moved the cache and transcoding-temp)

[Bingie 99]

UPDATE

Okay, just did some testing, played a big fat movie that has to transcode down, and everything looks fine.  Hardware utilization is still very low.

Actually, watching the performance utilization on the server, I see it's hitting the external hard disk between 0 and 20%, which is fine, which makes me realize... I really don't want to hit the internal SSD drive constantly with all of those writes... they DO have a limit to how many times each sector can be written to, and even though it's a very high number these days, that is still a lot of wear and tear easily avoided.

I think I will keep the cache and transcoding-temp directories on the external hard drive.  Performance seems fine, and I don't want all of that wear on the ssd.

Cheers

[rbjtech 5284]

11 hours ago, Bingie said:

UPDATE

Okay, just did some testing, played a big fat movie that has to transcode down, and everything looks fine.  Hardware utilization is still very low.

Actually, watching the performance utilization on the server, I see it's hitting the external hard disk between 0 and 20%, which is fine, which makes me realize... I really don't want to hit the internal SSD drive constantly with all of those writes... they DO have a limit to how many times each sector can be written to, and even though it's a very high number these days, that is still a lot of wear and tear easily avoided.

I think I will keep the cache and transcoding-temp directories on the external hard drive.  Performance seems fine, and I don't want all of that wear on the ssd.

Cheers

On the SSD wear, unless you are constantly writing Tb's worth of temp data to the SSD every week, the drive will become obsolete through tech advances (ie you can buy a new one with 3 or 4 times the capacity for half the price..) well before it wears to a state of becoming unusable.

So personally,  if you have an SSD, you may as well use it and gain the performance it gives.. 

To add - any decent disk toolset will also tell you the wear level - so you can keep an eye on it and if you do see wear more than to your liking, then you can take action to reduce the wear.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Yep 8 year and still only Life used 22%.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Happy2Play

[Bingie 99]

3 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Yep 8 year and still only Life used 22%.

Which disk utility is that one?

Thanks

[rbjtech 5284]

47 minutes ago, Bingie said:

Which disk utility is that one?

Thanks

It looks like Stablebit Scanner.

If you just want to look at the TRIM/Life - then you may be able to d/l some tools from your SSD manufacturer - I know Samsung etc have free online tools for this.

[Bingie 99]

Figures, 30-day eval of Stablebit then buy it.

Also figures, my computer ssd drive is made by Kioxia, so I downloaded their utility, and it says no drive found.  That's my luck.

I've also tried several other free utilities, and none of them tell me the ssd health either.  Oh well, maybe the next major windows update will include a utility.  It can wait.

[Carlo 4560]

Have you tried CrystalDiskInfo?

[Bingie 99]

13 minutes ago, cayars said:

Have you tried CrystalDiskInfo?

Thanks, just tried it.  It measured read and write performance, but doesn't say anything about ssd health %.  That's what I was looking for.

[Happy2Play 9780]

1 minute ago, Bingie said:

Thanks, just tried it.  It measured read and write performance, but doesn't say anything about ssd health %.  That's what I was looking for.

 Then that was CrystalDiskMark not CrystalDiskInfo.

[Bingie 99]

DOH!  not sure how I missed that hah will try again

 

[Bingie 99]

11 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

 Then that was CrystalDiskMark not CrystalDiskInfo.

Voila!

My ssd drive is 94% health, after a couple years of abuse, so that's good.

Thanks

Edited September 14, 2021 by Bingie

[Bingie 99]

That was my desktop pc.  Just checked my Emby server, the ssd is 100% w00t!  So filling it with temp files the first time didn't seem to hurt it none.  That's good.

Hopefully the next Emby update will prevent filling the drive with temp files in the transcode-temp directory.