Can i have folders from another pc added to my emby server

[rcsnoopdog 11]

I am running emby on a windows 10 pc 
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-9400F CPU @ 2.90GHz   2.90 GHz
Installed RAM    16.0 GB
Product ID    00331-10000-00001-AA294
System type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch    No pen or touch input is available for this display

I have 4 sata slots , four 2.0 usb slots & three 3.0 slots & 2 different hdd double enclosures, one from Sabrient & the other from Orico. I have 3 

Sonnics 4TB 3.5" INCH SATA III INTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE 64MB 7200RPM  in them, one enclosure hooked to 3.0 usb and 1 hooked to 2.0 usb

2 weeks ago the drives became hdd is not accessible THE VOLUME DOES NOT CONTAIN A RECOGNISED FILE SYSTEM .I checked disc one of the drives and it became accessible but i lost all my files. The remaining hdd i recovered the files first then disk check & then formatted drives. In trying to figure out what happened i done a malware check & some were found & i put that down as the reason the fault and so removed malware reformatted drives and put the recovered files back on drives & hooked up to pc through enclosures & everything seemed fine until 2 weeks later it happened again and it happened the day after i set up the  folders in emby library . Now there is already internal hdd's attached through sata inside the pc & they are hooked up to emby library and they are perfect.

Are enclosures the problem or HDD's all of which are new or some security feature with power to drive or permissions 

Considering hdd's on sata have no problems and i have no ports left & cant afford a nas system or a 10tb hdd could i use an old pc i have and connect hdds to it through sata and then add folders from there to my emby server on the same network .

I am a bit stupid when it comes to HDD's & hope i am explaining this right ,please forgive

Rich

P.S I am using the usb ports at the front of my pc , one usb 2.0 & one 3.0 usb if that makes any difference

Edited May 26, 2024 by rcsnoopdog

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

Just share and map the desired drive/folder to your network and the, on your server map the share to a new drive letter and then use that drive just exactly as you would an other drive. It is easy (The internet is a great source for Windows functioning info.) I us mapped drives vey often.

[rcsnoopdog 11]

Are you saying yes i can set up folders on another pc , so 2 pc's with say movies on one and tv shows on the other pc and they will connect together on emby server and i will be able to acesss the whole lot say through a tv on another network.

[Happy2Play 9782]

Yes you can add folders from any share available to Emby on your network.  So folders from 10 different computers can be added assuming permissions are in line with the access Emby needs depending on your library settings.

At the same time this may create a bottleneck when streaming media through your Emby server.

[rcsnoopdog 11]

I would be just using my original pc & another pc so that would be only 2 pc's would that create a  bottleneck and when you say bottleneck you mean other users wont be able to stream from it on another network.

What really does bottleneck mean

Edited May 26, 2024 by rcsnoopdog

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

13 minutes ago, rcsnoopdog said:

Are you saying yes i can set up folders on another pc , so 2 pc's with say movies on one and tv shows on the other pc and they will connect together on emby server and i will be able to acesss the whole lot say through a tv on another network.

Yes. Except every show that gets streamed is passed through the server so you add another network step when it must go from source to server through the network then to your TV or other viewing device. Pretty much exactly how @Happy2Playstated.

If you have a good solid network that is not over burdened, as I do, then that extra pass through the network is not meaningful but, if your network is already heavily loaded then adding that one step could adversely impact the streaming.

[Happy2Play 9782]

It will vary a lot on media and playback methods as you may have a man in the middle scenario.  Really not different then media on a NAS and Emby on a PC.  Sometimes the connection between the NAS and PC creates a bottleneck.  But there are really a lot of variables/condition in the scenario.

[rcsnoopdog 11]

Thank you for your reply's & It sounds like it's not for me then, but does anybody know if hdd enclosure's are a good option & if so why i am having problems with them as described at start of thread 

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

1 minute ago, rcsnoopdog said:

Thank you for your reply's & It sounds like it's not for me then, but does anybody know if hdd enclosure's are a good option & if so why i am having problems with them as described at start of thread 

I use 13 external USB drives and I have them directly connected to the server and all works fine. However I use DrivePool to pool the drives and I turned off every sleep possibility for the drives individually and for the server in general and for all the USB ports. Sleep is the enemy of servers. In general no server should ever be allowed to sleep. I also do not allow my server to preform any automatic updates. I try to keep my server as free of interference as possible and sleeping is interference on a grand scale.

[Happy2Play 9782]

Without trying the setup out, it is really impossible to say how it will perform.  As no one has the same media in the same bitrate/codec conditions.  So what works for one may fail miserably for another.

[rcsnoopdog 11]

I turned off every sleep possibility for the drives individually and for the server in general and for all the USB ports. how do i do this ? & them 13 external USB drives ,are they enclosures & how come you have so many usb ports & are they all 2.0 or 3.0 or mixed , sorry so many questions 

[rcsnoopdog 11]

I found that my power options had turn hdd off after 20 mins would this have caused all my problems ? i have switched it to never and have come across option hybrid sleep  should i also turn off hybrid sleep or leave on ?

& also allow wake timer setting is set to enable should i keep or change ? 

Edited May 26, 2024 by rcsnoopdog

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

37 minutes ago, rcsnoopdog said:

I found that my power options had turn hdd off after 20 mins would this have caused all my problems ? i have switched it to never and have come across option hybrid sleep  should i also turn off hybrid sleep or leave on ?

& also allow wake timer setting is set to enable should i keep or change ? 

Yes. the turn off of HHDs is actually very similar, but worse, than allowing sleep if a drive is off Emby has to wait for it to get to speed before even beginning processing and that just adds unneeded overhead to Emby.

As far as my number of drives goes. I mostly, use a hub (actually two) to spread the load out. Some hubs are better than others and i went through about four before I found a hub that worked correctly. I have so many drives because I have about 47 gb of data and I use DrivePool's duplication feature for about 2/3 of that. In other words I have the data so I need the storage. 
BTW: If my library seems large there are people here that have MUCH larger collections. I could trim it down at least half but I think that since I own the media it should be available for me to watch. Others use the understandable excuse of having many users but I have only me but i still want all my media available all the time.

I use "device manager" and went through every device it listed and, in it settings I think, turned of every option that involved turning off power. It seemed like even many USB ports had power management features and i turned all of them to the setting where Windows just leaves them alone. I think I stumbled of other power options and I turned all of them to whatever assured that the power would never be interrupted.

My server is just not ever allowed to sleep or spin down or power off anything. Windows does not like it when you take power control away I I make a general check after any updates. After the last one I found that two of my drives had been reset to allow sleep. I changed that back to where i wanted it but it is possible that the update process does not take enough care to avoid changing settings. 

If you know Linux you might want to consider moving you server there. I have not mainly because I cannot find a good replacement for DrivePool under Linux. The other reason is that I mostly understand Windows a LOT better that I do Linux and servers can, occasionally, get complex and Linux might bring a complication to the party that requires expertise beyond what i have in Linux. Also I am getting old (76) and excessively complex  problems can frustrate me and that is actually not good for my health.

I hope this helps.  

Edit: Yes turn off any form of sleep you find. No form of sleep is good for servers. I do not even sleep my monitor, but i do turn it off when I am not actually working on my server.

Edited May 26, 2024 by Gilgamesh_48

[rcsnoopdog 11]

Thanks so much for that reply .How much does drivepool cost and can you recommend one ?

[rcsnoopdog 11]

Which removal policy should i use for external hdd  quick removal or better performance ?

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

5 minutes ago, rcsnoopdog said:

Which removal policy should i use for external hdd  quick removal or better performance ?

I use "quick removal" but i am not sure if it really matters much. 

as far as DivePool goes I do not remember that exact cost as I got it years ago, See DrivePool for the info you need, They are also very good about answering questions.

Hope you have a good day.

[pwhodges 2012]

I presume "quick removal" means less write caching - so an important difference when writing, but not reading or streaming.

Paul

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

3 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

I presume "quick removal" means less write caching - so an important difference when writing, but not reading or streaming.

Paul

Yes, that is exactly what my initial thought was/is. I saw that it worked well for an extended period of time (several years) so I made it my "normal" for all my computers. 

I almost wish I had done it years before but I foolishly though the Windows team actually wanted to provide a good environment but it appears that all Microsoft really wants is to make money. I do not mind companies wanting to make money but when it is their main focus customer service suffers and the code gets excessively complex. It think the Windows "Bloat" is the result of their excessive greed.