Can I put my Daz files on an external drive and how

vincent.a.vermeulen

I installed DAZ3D on my new laptop and after 3-4 months I'm getting a warning that I need to make space on my computer.

I checked and it seems I already have 335GB used out of 435GB available.

Of that 147 Gb is DAZ related.

I do not think I can upgrad my Hard drive because opening the laptop will invalidated the warranty so the only option I can think of is putting my DAz resources on an Extenal drive. I have a 1 TB drive I was planing on using as a babckup.

My question is can I do this and how would I go about doing this?

Thanks

 

Richard Haseltine

Yes, as long as you are careful that it keeps the same identifier (drive letter in Windows) then you can use it like any other location - but be aware that it will be slow (reformatting to NTFS may help a bit, a lot of externals ship with a lowest-common-denominator formattign system - switching noticeabbly improved the perfomance of the drive I use for my DIM downloads, though it is still much slower than an internal HD).

Chezjuan

If your files are currently in the default locations (C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library and C:\Users\<your username>\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\), you can move them, but you will have to point DAZ and the DIM/Daz Central at the new location in the settings. Be sure to copy the entire folder tree under each to the new location. I currently have my content on a network drive, and created paths starting with "Public\documents\" and "<my name>\documents\" to house the paths. So I have something like "H:\Public\Documents\My Daz 3D Library\" and "H:\<my user name>\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\" in the root of the drive.

First, copy the files to the external drive then:

To change the Daz Studio setting:

1. go to Edit -> Preferences then click Content and select Content Directory Manager. 
2. Click on DAZ Studio Formats and click "Add," then browse to the new location for both the Public and the <your username> folders.
3. You can remove the entries for the C: drive folders
4. Accept the changes.

Note, if you use Daz Collect (the installation through Daz Studio) you need to change that file location in the Content Directory Manager as well.

In DIM

1. Click on the gear in the upper right corner of the window, then select "Advanced settings" 
2. Click the "Downoads" tab and then click the three dots next to the "Content" entry
3. Browse to the external drive location for the "public" folders content and click "select folder"
4. You can also change the package archive and thumbnail archive locations by clicking their three dots and following the procedure above. 
5. Click Accept.

I would suggest renaming the current C: drive folders after copying and doing the above before deleting. That way, you can open Daz Studio and make sure your content is still showing up properly.

Unfortunately, I do not use Daz Central, so I am not sure how to change that install location.

For speed, I would suggest picking up an external SSD if that is in your price range.

I also want to add that the first thing that came to mind when I saw the title was was adding punctuation:

"Can I put my DAZ files on an external drive?" "And how!"

Based on the old informal use (I think American English only, but could be wrong) use: The phrase "and how!" is used to show that one agrees emphatically with what someone else has said or done. The origin of the phrase is unclear, and there is little information confirming whether it was first used in the mid-19th century or the early 20th century.

barredavideo_db5f76cbda

Chezjuan, thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks!!!!! you are a perfect teacher for a newby like me!!! and Im 70 yo, so....and abour the meaning of And how...you are compltely correct