SSD Drive install - confusion

[choliscott]

I have not really used it lately. Is there anything in regards to that, that I should move. While I haven't used it recently, i did use quite a bit in the past

Do you use PlayOn or vmcPlayIt much?

[barnabas1969]

If you use them frequently, I suggest that you move the buffer directory.

For PlayOn, see this FAQ.

For vmcPlayIt, it is a manual process. Are you pretty experienced with Windows administration tasks? Only consider this option if you really use vmcPlayIt a lot. Let me know if you want more details.

[choliscott]

I would like to have more details, if it not too much of a problem. I can't say for sure how often playit would be used. I would want to move it, to be done with it & not have to worry about it later on I am pretty experienced with win admin tasks

Thanks

If you use them frequently, I suggest that you move the buffer directory.

For PlayOn, see this FAQ.

For vmcPlayIt, it is a manual process. Are you pretty experienced with Windows administration tasks? Only consider this option if you really use vmcPlayIt a lot. Let me know if you want more details.

[barnabas1969]

OK, is your PlayOn server on the same machine? Did you run the program in the link to the PlayOn FAQ that I linked above?

[choliscott]

I did not get a chance to run it. I wasn't sure if I needed to, since my Playon server is on my media machine. However I was playing with the idea of adding my media to my HTPC. I will probably start by moving Playon to my HTPC, but I'm not sure which folder on C drive I would need to "move" to another folder

OK, is your PlayOn server on the same machine? Did you run the program in the link to the PlayOn FAQ that I linked above?

[barnabas1969]

If the PlayOn service is running on the machine with the SSD, simply go to the PlayOn FAQ that I linked above, download the program and run it. You don't need to know which folder it is moving... you just need to tell the program where is the new location that you want.

I'll have to do a little digging on my machine at home to get you the answer to which folders need to be manually moved for vmcPlayIt... but I've gotta warn you that if you don't know what you're doing, you can really mess things up.

[barnabas1969]

Here's the info... you may need to set Windows Explorer to show hidden files and folders. It may also be helpful to run Windows Explorer in elevated mode if you have UAC turned on. You should also stop the PlayOn service and make sure nobody is running vmcPlayIt before you do this. Remember to start PlayOn after you're done.

You'll have to create some new folders on your HDD first. For the folders you're going to move, I recommend creating identical folder structures on your HDD to what's on your SSD. For example, my SSD is drive C:, and my HDD is drive E:. I created "E:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local" for each user on my machine. I also created "E:\ProgramData".

Then, you'll need to move (not copy... "move") the following folders from your SSD to the new folders you created on your HDD:

• C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\vmcPlayIt_Data (do this for each user who will run vmcPlayIt, including all MCX users... and don't forget to come back and do this again if you ever add more extenders in the future)
• C:\ProgramData\vmcPlayIt_Data

Finally, you will need to open a command window (cmd.exe) and create junctions for all the original folders on your SSD. So, for example, you will need to change directory to the C:\ProgramData directory (assuming that C: is your SSD), and create a junction using the following command:

mklink /J vmcPlayIt_Data E:\ProgramData\vmcPlayIt_Data (assuming that E: is your HDD)

Then, change directories to each of the Users directories on your SSD:
C: (assuming that C: is your SSD)
cd \Users\<username>\AppData\Local
mklink /J vmcPlayIt_Data E:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\vmcPlayIt_Data (assuming that E: is your HDD)

One word of warning: Once you create all these junctions from your system disk to your data disk, Windows Backup does something a little strange... when you try to create a System Image, which would normally only image your system disk (drive C), Windows Backup will make an image of your system disk AND your data disk... which will mean that your backup storage location needs to be big enough to store all of your data. I found this out the hard way. Fortunately, Acronis True Image software does not have this limitation... but Windows Backup does.

[barnabas1969]

Oh, and you'll also want to move and create junctions for the following folder, for all users:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp

It contains some stuff from vmcPlayIt as well. There are more things you can do, such as moving C:\Windows\Temp (this does not require creating a junction... Windows has a built-in way to move this folder). However, to get an understanding of what folders get written to a lot when you run things such as vmcPlayIt or NetFlix, the best way to see that info is to run the Windows Resource Monitor to monitor Disk activity... and then sort descending by the column "Write B/sec". This will show you what is writing the most... and where. Obviously, a little bit of write activity is OK on your SSD... but if you see a process that is writing lots of data, you might want to consider moving the folder.

As I said earlier, some folks will disagree with me... but if you use PlayOn and vmcPlayIt frequently, like I do... you'll end up writing to the buffer literally TERABYTES of data to your SSD in a short period of time. The "play later" feature is addictive... especially if you have young children who like to watch the same program over-and-over... and/or you like saving movies off NetFlix to be able to view them after NetFlix has removed them from instant streaming availability.

EDIT: And you should also make sure that the users all have Full Control access to those new target directories on your HDD.