Daz folder over 400GB in size. What to do about it?
eroguysensei
Posts: 41
I have kept purchasing, downloading, and installing Daz products on almost daily/weekly basis for almost a year now. Naturally, with each new asset installed, my Daz folder keeps getting bigger and bigger, but there is not enough space on my C-drive to keep all this information. Of course, I could relocate the Daz folder to my external drive where I have more space for it, but that can be a risk in case the external drive gives up on me one day.
I was wondering what are all my options since my Daz folder will keep getting bigger and heavier each month. Is there a way to reduce the size somehow? How do you keep your Daz products safe and the overall Daz file size optimal for the best performance?
I have a lot of custom characters purchased outside the Daz store also, would take me weeks to install them all and reorganize them. These are something I cannot simply just reinstall using Daz's product download manager. I was also wondering what is the best way to store these custom characters so that they would be easy to reinstall in case I need to reinstall Daz at some point.
Any tips and tricks is appreciated, thanks.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
It's not recommended to keep content on your root drive. I download all my installers and install my content on a NAS. Are you deleting the zips after installing? I don't, but that's definitely a way to save some space.
Externals are the best way to store content. I'd get 2, one to store all the zips and another for all the content. Externals is a pretty standard practice among users. Just move your content folders to the new drives and link them in DS and you should be ready to go, depending on how you installed all the products. If you're using an SSD drive then you absolutely don't want to store content on it since they are pretty small and will use up the space in no time.
Is there a tutorial or a simple instruction on how to link the files back to Daz Studio after moving the content folder to an external drive? I did indeed install the entire Daz studio and all my content on my SSD, which was a bad choice, I see it now. However, my argument back then was that on SSD things load and operate faster.
In order to get Daz Studio to read the files, you you need to add the library path, found in Edit > Preferences > Content > Content Directory Manager under Daz Studio and Poser formats.
How are you installing content?
I have Daz installed to my c drive, content on an internal ssd, zips on another internal ssd, and my content backed up to an external hd. I backup each evening using the free AOMEI Backupper and its basic sync.
Basically, I just install Daz store content using their official install manager and for custom assets purchased elsewhere I just extract them from their zip file into the "My Library" folder. All of which are located in my SSD.
Then I will suggest:
A) Create the new library folder (where you want to store your content)
B) Change DIM installation path to the new library folder
C) Add new library folder in Daz Studio under Daz Studio and Poser formats
If you have the DIM zip files, you can get DIM to update the installation to the new library.
If not
D) Move your files to the new library
E) Best is to update the manifest files, with the new library path. It is the manifest files that tells DIM where content is installed.
This operation requires to update a bunch of text-files, but can be done with e.g. Notepad++
Alternatively, if you have sufficient bandwidth, you can redownload and install everything.
Thank you, Felis.
Well as I see it it is a terrible idea to keep all the content installed in a huge database always growing up in time. The whole database concept is a design flaw. Best way is to only install the content you need for the current project. When you change the project just switch the content folder. Then backup. That's what I do with every software.
I keep DAZ Studio and all related files on an internal 2TB SSD.
Studio is faster than if I had it all on a USB drive.
An NVME drive would be even faster.
Both can be found for less than $140.00.
That includes 160 pages in my Product Library (Over 6000 items)
and a bunch of non-DAZ items.
SSDs aren't too small at all.
Well, I do several things. First things first... definitely invest in a NAS storage unit; preferably one which can use 4 storage devices. As for HDD's, they're a lot more reliable than you may be giving them credit for though of course external ones do have a habit of creating issues, especially if you constantly turn them on and off.
First I use 2 storage units in my PC: one is an SSD for the system and common datafiles, the other is a 4Tb HDD where I keep my media libraries (audio and 3D related). Speaking of Daz Studio I also separated my libraries between my official Daz Library (this is where I install all contents in which I buy on the Daz marketplace), my "Local library" which is where I manually install assets from 3rd party websites and a more specific library which is where I install contents from some more specific websites. As a result it makes my library decently manageable and because it's on a local storage unit I can always get to work asap.
As for security measures: backup software. I make a full backup of my system drive (C) at least once a week (sometimes in 2 weeks). I also make a full backup of my datadrive every 6 - 8 months or so which is a very time consuming process, but because I don't change that much in my libraries these days... it's useful to keep my stuff safe.
Seriously: when it comes to crashing devices I'd be more worried about an SSD than a HDD, because when an HDD goes you're bound to notice it and in most cases can still scrape data from it. But when an SDD suddenly starts to misbehave you could be loosing all your data within an instant.