Moving to a new PC

[ReplayHarry]

Next week I am getting a new PC to replace my existing HTPC. My existing HTPC is a Brix with an i3 processor, 8Meg of memory, with internal SSD running Windows 10. All the media files and my recording location is a 3TB USB 3.0 drive (WD Red). I'm running the current release of NextPVR and Kodi Gotham (long story there). I have had this configuration (less the upgrade to Windows 10) for just over 2 years and it has been working great.

But... I did the stupid thing when I upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1. I actually liked 8.1 and had no big complaint about it. It ran pretty well. I waited a long time after 10 was available thinking it would be stable when I finally upgraded. Well, it isn't like it crashes everyday, but is nowhere near as stable as it was under Win 8.1. Ever since I went to Windows 10, I have seen a lot of glitches and have really been pretty disgusted with it. To the extent I am now getting a new HTPC and getting rid of Windows 10. Sure, I could back off Windows 10. That in itself would be a big job and of course while doing that my HTPC would not be available. And if it went badly, it may not be available for some time. I'd rather not face that. My wife is only recently finally started to regularly use my HTPC rather then the old ReplayTVs, and I want to insure our HTPC experience is un-interrupted. So I have already made the decision, just waiting for all my parts to arrive, which should be Tuesday.

The question:

So once I get the system setup and all working as a PC like it should, I will do a fresh install of NextPVR. The question I am looking to get answered by the much more experienced people on this forum is, "what NextPVR files and/or directories do I need to copy to the new HTPC", and is there anything else I need to worry about? My goal is to copy all those files/directories over, reboot and basically have my old configuration but on a new PC. I realize I have to stop all the NextPVR services before I copy things over. My concern is that I copy the right stuff. I'd rather not reconfigure everything from scratch if I don't have to. The new system will be Windows 7. Why, because it comes with it and I expect it to be much better then Windows 10. I don't rule out someday upgrading to Windows 8.1, but not now. My new drive for all my media files (and recording location) will remain drive "D", but be an internal 4TB WD Red. My 3TB WD red on the old system gave me zero problems, so I am sticking with them. So it will have all the old systems drive structure. I know there will be no issue coping those files. It is the system files used by NextPVR that I am concerned with. With NextPVR all setup and working well, I will just install Kodi Gotham on the new system and run restore (from XBMC Backup) to get it's settings back. I don't see a problem there.

When done, I will retain the old Brix HTPC for a "backup".

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Reddwarf]

You will have to install npvr on the new computer the usual way, including decoders and other utilities you may use. After that, stop the npvr system and copu \Users\Public\npvr directory three from the old computer to the new one and you should be good to go. And your recording directory as well, make sure it has the same drive letter on the new computer as the old or npvr won't find your recordings.

[ReplayHarry]

Thanks for the info. So hopefully when I do this I will:
1. retain all my channels
2. retain all my scheduled recordings
3. all my existing recordings will still be in the database.

My new system will be here tomorrow, but I am somewhat under the weather today, so may be a couple more days before I get at it.

Thanks again,

[Reddwarf]

You should. Provided your recording files have the same drive/directory as the old system. The channels and so on are stored in the npvr.db3 database so the tuners must be accessible also and don't forget the exceptions for the npvr executables in the firewall.

[jcjefferies]

The most important thing is to keep a copy of the database on a USB stick during the upgrade process just in case something goes wrong. Also for extra security copies of recurring-backup.xml and recording-backup.xml as they are the most difficult things to recreate if things go really wrong!!

I think there is a lot to be said for avoiding the latest versions of Windows for a server. Most of the "Improvements" in Windows are to do with user interface to add fancy new features which are not relevant when being used as a server. I had been using Vista for about three years on my NextPVR server until last summer and as it is almost at the end of support would have liked to upgrade to Windows 7 but was unable to get hold of a copy.

However I found my old Windows 8 +Media Centre desktop PC disk from 2012 which activated when run on my server. So after a refresh have been running that as my server. I was going to upgrade the server to Windows 8.1 but that was mostly a "visual" upgrade for people like me who wanted the "Start Menu" back. As a fall back for the future I have activated Windows 10 on the server but don't intend to use it at the moment.

The two copies of Windows 8 I bought plus two free Media Centre licenses I requested have given me 4 activated copies of Windows 10 although for the server will stick with Windows 8! The first thing I always do to the server disk is disable around 20 unwanted services. Things like Printing, Camera, Tablet, Audio, IPV6, indexing, fancy Windows styles etc.

Chris

[ReplayHarry]

Thanks for the info. I will be on Windows 7 Pro on the new system. Won't touch Windows 10 with a 10 foot pole on my HTPC again.

[Graham]

The most important thing is to keep a copy of the database on a USB stick during the upgrade process just in case something goes wrong. Also for extra security copies of recurring-backup.xml and recording-backup.xml as they are the most difficult things to recreate if things go really wrong!!

Ditto. Do the recording files first so that the .ts files are at the same drive and folder as before when "new" NextPVR starts. NextPVR defaults to deleting recordings from the database if it can't find the .ts files ... http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?...nced#toc91

[ReplayHarry]

Ditto. Do the recording files first so that the .ts files are at the same drive and folder as before when "new" NextPVR starts. NextPVR defaults to deleting recordings from the database if it can't find the .ts files ... http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?...nced#toc91

Good point. I'll copy the .ts files first before I update the new NextPVR with the files from my old NextPVR. The .ts files will be in the same drive (D and same drive structure.

[Reddwarf]

Thanks for the info. I will be on Windows 7 Pro on the new system. Won't touch Windows 10 with a 10 foot pole on my HTPC again.

Good choice, I totally agree

[ReplayHarry]

Success.
Took a bit longer then anticipated due to an unforeseen 5 day stay in the hospital. But it went pretty smoothly. I am now happily on Windows 7 Pro on my new HTPC. Everything is working just as before and no "glitches". As with anything you change on a computer, I won't call it done for a couple of weeks. Until it gets in a daily workload, I won't exercise everything, but as it looks now, I am very happy.