new -- ntfslinker

[pBS]

i've written a util to help make ntfs links to other drives for chosen dir.
basically it pops up a chooser box with your Recordings dir in it, choose a dir/series to move off to another drive, then another popup for where to move it to, then starts moving existing data.
after it's all moved, it makes a NTFS junction from original dir to new one.

after that, it's just like a shortcut to the other drive's directory..
really helps with multiple recordings at one time, as you can spread them over mulitple drives.
and everything looks like it's still in original drive/dir.. so no adjustments necessary..
just lots of free space and less drive torture during simultaneous-records...
i'll add in command line processing so you can do it from the remote later..

right now it looks up your recording dir from config.xml and sets as root, so only those dirs to choose from..and copies everything with progress so you know how long it'll take for those long ones..
also have to check to make sure can make new dir...[can't already exist on target]
only requirement is the main recording dir be ntfs, which it should be anyways for tons of reasons..

gui is just a helper app, tech is all windows...

Now finished: been using it for months with no probs..
Made with Autoit3 so source included inside..
Moves a single dir[Series] at a time with progress, all existing recordings, and any future recordings to that dir will be in the target dir.
Only needs to be done once for each dir you wish to offload..
Can be done in advance if you create the source dir first.

Added as much error checking as i could think of, *should* be interrupt-able at any time without losing anything..Also checks for valid source/destination paths, and limits source choice to gbpvr/config.xml derived recordings dir... makes sure destination is same size as source before assuming copy is good. etc.

It can use network paths as target,as well as non-ntfs drives,[tho i'd suggest against net/fat/fat32]
Added display of existing links on startup..
Will probably add a drive list with space free on startup, and double checking paths for ntfs to lock out fat32 destinations[because of 4gig limits].

To undo a link, simply delete the link and copy the files back from the target.

While you get used to it, keep AutoRemoveMissingRecordings>false

[pBS]

thinking of calling it Show Offloader... as it offloads both recording and playback of files from main recording drive...

Want to add space but not use raid? add as many drives as you wish and link the series you wish to them.
It makes determining free space a bit more complicated, but that's what happens when you get more free space to play with..

I'll be adding a drive list with free space bar for each drv soon just for info while transferring.

[imagn]

I would love to see this automated, where it will somehow determine i am out of free space on the one drive and just use the other. This would be useful in preventing failed recording when i am not at home and run out of space on one drive.

My idea would be to tell it to stop using a drive once it has reached a certain capacity ie there is 10gigs left now use drive 2 only

[pBS]

yea, that's what i was thinking, tho i use it to offload simultaneous recordings too..
easy enough to do, just trying to figure out when to do it..at epg update time?
can't do it just before recording, no way to hook into pre-record kickoff...tho could do it in postproc bat as that's when changes happened last..[last freespace-change on drive]

also, problem is, this moves whole series, not just next recording,..so may require long copy process when kicked off...so i think it's just best for manual now...
will look into single file linking, but i don't think it'll work how we need it..[can only link after file exists]

to just purely add space, use the Super Simple Archiver, it can be automated as well, and doesn't change main recording location..just moves files off to another drive, freeing recording space..

[pBS]

I would love to see this automated, where it will somehow determine i am out of free space on the one drive and just use the other. This would be useful in preventing failed recording when i am not at home and run out of space on one drive.

My idea would be to tell it to stop using a drive once it has reached a certain capacity ie there is 10gigs left now use drive 2 only

technically, you could just make a script to change the recordings dir to new drv when this one is near full...
all the existing shows would be ok without adjustment,as would new ones..simple
[i may just go ahead and make that one..lol]

my app really is for mixing the two together...
cuz with 3 tuners, i could possibly have 3 hd streams + comskip running on each, + one watching stream = 7 hd streams going at once!! that will bring a single drive to it's knees..
this way, each drive may only be doing 1 stream at a time, enabling better drive caching.

even raid doesn't fair as well as total offload, not surprised...complicated reasons why..

[pBS]

one question for Sub, is the filename/location for pending shows determined at recordtime?
so i could say, change the default recording directory in config.xml, restart rec service, and it would use new recording dir for future recordings? without epg update?
[even ones that start say,5 mins later?]

making a little util to auto-change rec dir when drive nearly full..
[for auto-drive expansion without needing raid,etc]
don't know why i didn't make it sooner..

[sub]

one question for Sub, is the filename/location for pending shows determined at recordtime?

Yes. Up until then only a show name is stored.

[pBS]

any way to reload the recording dir [config.xml] without restarting service? [api?]
is it stored in database or just memory? [eg: only loaded once on startup of service]
otherwise, i'll have to try to do it when epg updates instead of after every recording....

[Jaggy]

I have today finally found the time to get all my recordings of my old raid0 2x320Gb drives & have now killed the raid & set them up as two separate drives with the idea of having one of those drives for all my movies & the other for series & was wondering if I should use your ntfslinker to create links to the drive as then (if I understand correctly) new recordings will automatically be added to these directories?

Can I just make an empty directory on my recording drive & then use ntfslinker to move it to the new location creating the link & then copy the old recordings into it & import them from recordingdump as normal, will this work?

[pBS]

it actually will let you create a new folder to move inside program...
also, it will copy over any existing files in dir if you pick it from existing list...so you can move an existing series dir..

here's how it works...
upon starting, it checks registry for gbpvr dir, shows that dir for you to pick an existing dir or create a new one...
once you select the dir you want to move, it asks where to..you pick new root dir to place selected show dir in,
and then it copies over all files in source dir to linked dir, then makes junction from old dir to new one...
done..

sorry i missed your post...i thought i had this thread in notifications..