Add media to original location from another location

I have 2 3tb hard drives which are full and use for different types of media. I would like to add 2 more drives without having to reformat and combine drives to place more media in the same original folder I already created. Example - main location c:\media and add media to that location from another drive location d:\media. Is this already possible and if not, I would like to request it.

[atc98092]

I have 7 different hard drives (over 17 TB), with a total of ten different folder locations, and I use all of them in Serviio. I just add each location to the Library tab. Serviio combines them under all headings other than folders.

If you want all the new videos to appear in the same folder as your c:\media, that's not a Serviio issue but an OS issue. Yes, under Windows and Linux you can make a new hard drive appear as a folder under an existing C: folder, but I am unsure why you would want to. As I mentioned, there's no need to do so with Serviio to have everything appear under your Titles or Movies listings.

Another option that you have is you could make a folder and create the structure out of symbolic links or junctions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link

Eg.
You have a computer with drives C: (OS, 1tb), D: (data 3tb), M: (data 3tb), N: (data 3tb), O: (data 3tb)

You could create a folder on C: (lets call it C:\Video), in this folder you could have directory links to each of the drives ( mklink /D "C:\Video\D Drive" "D:\" )

This is an example you could do any sort of link style that you want such as making a folder for series and symlinking the actual series folders in that series folder.

Hi Cerothen,

Thanks for the tip. However, isn't this method restricted to linking only 1 folder at a time instead of many folders together? For example, how do you link (connect) the folders 'C:\Media', 'D:\ Latest Audio', 'F:\Music', 'H:\My Pictures' etc all together as say, 'C:\My Collection' to be displayed within Serviio?

Cheers!

Hi Cerothen,

Thanks for the tip. However, isn't this method restricted to linking only 1 folder at a time instead of many folders together? For example, how do you link (connect) the folders 'C:\Media', 'D:\ Latest Audio', 'F:\Music', 'H:\My Pictures' etc all together as say, 'C:\My Collection' to be displayed within Serviio?

Cheers!

Good morning Satjit,

To do this the easiest way I would fire up your favorite text editor (in my case Notepad++) and use it to create a bat file with the following contents:

  Code:

REM Select directory to make links in
cd "C:\My Collection"
REM Create symbolic links to folders
mklink /D "Media" "C:\Media"
mklink /D "Latest Audio" "D:\Latest Audio"
mklink /D "Music" "F:\Music"
mklink /D "Pictures" "H:\My Pictures"


Should you wish you could also do junctions but I never can remember the difference and I typically just use symbolic links. This method also works for remote media if you map it as a network share.

This also could be done without the bat file in command prompt directly its just more convenient to make them using a bat file if you have lots.

The end result will be a folder containing a bunch of folders that each link to a directory that you indicated.

Hi Cerothen,

Thanks for the tip. However, isn't this method restricted to linking only 1 folder at a time instead of many folders together? For example, how do you link (connect) the folders 'C:\Media', 'D:\ Latest Audio', 'F:\Music', 'H:\My Pictures' etc all together as say, 'C:\My Collection' to be displayed within Serviio?

Cheers!

Good morning Satjit,

To do this the easiest way I would fire up your favorite text editor (in my case Notepad++) and use it to create a bat file with the following contents:

  Code:

REM Select directory to make links in
cd "C:\My Collection"
REM Create symbolic links to folders
mklink /D "Media" "C:\Media"
mklink /D "Latest Audio" "D:\Latest Audio"
mklink /D "Music" "F:\Music"
mklink /D "Pictures" "H:\My Pictures"


Should you wish you could also do junctions but I never can remember the difference and I typically just use symbolic links. This method also works for remote media if you map it as a network share.

This also could be done without the bat file in command prompt directly its just more convenient to make them using a bat file if you have lots.

The end result will be a folder containing a bunch of folders that each link to a directory that you indicated.

Hello Cerothen,

Thanks for the revert and apologies for the much delayed response...

I've tried what you suggested and have the following results:

C:\>cd "My Collection"

C:\My Collection>mklink /D "Photos" "C:\Pix"
symbolic link created for Photos <<===>> C:\Pix

C:\My Collection>mklink /D "Photos" "D:\Pix"
Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

I understand that this is a limitation where Windows cannot have two symbolic links by the same name even if they point to two separate & differently named folders.

Wish there was a way around, wherein a single link titled 'Photos' could point to multiple folders having similar content spread across drives