What is the easist way to use multiple hard drives with Ortho4XP?

[exodus1977 37]

With my main Ortho4XP drive full of tiles, I'd like to use a second hard drive in conjunction. What would be the easiest way to do this? (I don't want to span the drives). I tried to simply put another copy of Ortho4XP on the second drive, but I'm getting some error messages in the DOS shell window. (I can post them later). Can my main Ortho program point to multiple hard drive locations?

[PDX Flyer 111]

On 3/7/2017 at 8:15 AM, exodus1977 said:

With my main Ortho4XP drive full of tiles, I'd like to use a second hard drive in conjunction. What would be the easiest way to do this? (I don't want to span the drives). I tried to simply put another copy of Ortho4XP on the second drive, but I'm getting some error messages in the DOS shell window. (I can post them later). Can my main Ortho program point to multiple hard drive locations?

I have exactly the same question.

[anden145 2,285]

Can't you make a symlink between the ...\Custom Scenery\<ORTHO-TILES> to <NEW DRIVE>\<ORTHO-TILES>?

For instance - symlink between:

C:\X-Plane\Custom Scenery\<ORTHO SCENERY TILE> to D:\X-Plane Scenery\<ORTHO SCENERY TILE>

Did that make sense?

Caution: Be careful with this solution, as to excessive use can lead to quite confusing folder structure 

[exodus1977 37]

On 4/15/2017 at 2:29 PM, Anders Gron said:

Can't you make a symlink between the ...\Custom Scenery\<ORTHO-TILES> to <NEW DRIVE>\<ORTHO-TILES>?

For instance - symlink between:

C:\X-Plane\Custom Scenery\<ORTHO SCENERY TILE> to D:\X-Plane Scenery\<ORTHO SCENERY TILE>

Did that make sense?

Caution: Be careful with this solution, as to excessive use can lead to quite confusing folder structure 

If I understand you correctly, this just creates a simlink (or junction link) between C:\x-plane\custom scenery\<ortho tiles> and the storage drive on which the actual tiles are stored (in my case, D:\ortho4xp\tiles\<ortho tiles>). I'm at the point where I'm now using multiple non-system storage drives (D:\, E:\ etc.)

The problem is that I'd like to open the Ortho4XP program and look at one map and see all the tiles on all my different hard drives. I'm not sure that it is possible. Right now I have a separate Ortho4XP "install" on each hard drive, and I just open up those individual maps to see what is on that hard drive. It works, but I was wondering if there was a more elegant solution.

 

[anden145 2,285]

Ah okay...

Yearh, you can't do that with multiple folders symlinked into one folder...
Would be nice, if that was possible, though... 

[virtualstuff 758]

I'm using a junction with this tool ;-)

http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html

 

[michelh 43]

I have my Ortho4xp tiles on one drive until it get filled up.I create a shortcut for all with my tiles. Take for example a filename zOrtho4XP_+24-081, create a shortcut it is now call "zOrtho4XP_+55-114 - Shortcut" and place it in your X-Plane Custom Scenery folder. When I create a new tile,  I create another shortcut. Update your yOrtho4XP_Overlays and overwrite the one in the Custom Scenery folder. Do not bother rearranging the scenery_packs.ini,  just delete it, X-Plane will  initiate a new one. I have a 7200rpm drive so it loads up fast.

 

[hesynergy 67]

On 4/23/2017 at 3:50 PM, awf said:

I'm using a junction with this tool ;-)

http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html

 

Me too, but it is getting ponderous....So I am trying to keep track of drive D:, J:,W:, K:.  ... and actually thinking aloud as I type this... because my online search was "Organizing Ortho4Xp tiles over muiltiple drives"

My current situation and rational is ;

1. I have two copies of X-Plane.  One, K:\"XP11 Testbed",for testing, and One Stable copy, D:XplaneBase, using symlinks(http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html) into certain folders in Testbed such as Resources, Custom Scenery and Aircraft, thus availing me of proven resources on K: Even though I fly with "Base", I have a Symbolic link to K: Custom Scenery while maintaining Base folders that can be brought back should things on K Drive go awry. So there is  on original folders D:Xplane.Base such as Aircraft.Base, CustomScenery.Base, etc etc.

2. thus I've decided( for now ) to have the XP K drive version keep All the tiles...real and symlinked from D:, J:,W:, K:.containing everything.  It works, but...I can see its going to get to be a mess unless I am proactive.
3. Keeping 2 is fine, but;
    a. I need to know the SOURCE file locations....always....hopefully by consulting a table I've made AND something Visuallike the wonderful FREE WinDirStat https://windirstat.net/ !

...but I need something more concrete...Perhaps a scenery organizer?...all I Know is that I need to get organized...NOW...more to come

[Glenn_C 135]

12 hours ago, hesynergy said:

Me too, but it is getting ponderous....So I am trying to keep track of drive D:, J:,W:, K:.  ... and actually thinking aloud as I type this... because my online search was "Organizing Ortho4Xp tiles over muiltiple drives"

My current situation and rational is ;

1. I have two copies of X-Plane.  One, K:\"XP11 Testbed",for testing, and One Stable copy, D:XplaneBase, using symlinks(http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html) into certain folders in Testbed such as Resources, Custom Scenery and Aircraft, thus availing me of proven resources on K: Even though I fly with "Base", I have a Symbolic link to K: Custom Scenery while maintaining Base folders that can be brought back should things on K Drive go awry. So there is  on original folders D:Xplane.Base such as Aircraft.Base, CustomScenery.Base, etc etc.

2. thus I've decided( for now ) to have the XP K drive version keep All the tiles...real and symlinked from D:, J:,W:, K:.containing everything.  It works, but...I can see its going to get to be a mess unless I am proactive.
3. Keeping 2 is fine, but;
    a. I need to know the SOURCE file locations....always....hopefully by consulting a table I've made AND something Visuallike the wonderful FREE WinDirStat https://windirstat.net/ !

...but I need something more concrete...Perhaps a scenery organizer?...all I Know is that I need to get organized...NOW...more to come

To be honest I think you are overly complicating things. Why not just use folder shortcuts to the tiles and place these in the Custom Scenery folder? Yes symbolic links and junctions work but in my experience folder shortcuts work just as well unless you have some specific reason for not using them?

[hesynergy 67]

19 hours ago, Glenn_C said:

To be honest I think you are overly complicating things. Why not just use folder shortcuts to the tiles and place these in the Custom Scenery folder? Yes symbolic links and junctions work but in my experience folder shortcuts work just as well unless you have some specific reason for not using them?

 

[hesynergy 67]

You are not entirely wrong, Glenn, but I don’t believe you can  link shortcuts to other shortcuts...lemme ‘splain 

 

[FlyIce 354]

wow, what kind of setup in your PC lets you connect with so many hard drives? Most motherboards only have 6 to 8 SATA slots? 

I just bought a 10TB harddrive dedicated to Ortho4XP. Once it's filled I'll probably buy another one for making more tiles. 

I have a home NAS (unRAID) setup of 25TB with 6TB left. I'm going to backup Ortho4XP with all the orthophotos only. In case the drive crash I shall only need to reconvert orthophotos to jpg to rebuild the tiles. 

[hesynergy 67]

16 minutes ago, FlyIce said:

1.wow, what kind of setup in your PC lets you connect with so many hard drives? Most motherboards only have 6 to 8 SATA slots? 

I just bought a 10TB harddrive dedicated to Ortho4XP. Once it's filled I'll probably buy another one for making more tiles. 

I have a home NAS (unRAID) setup of 25TB with 6TB left. I'm going to backup Ortho4XP with all the orthophotos only. In case the drive crash I shall only need to reconvert orthophotos to jpg to rebuild the tiles. 

Howdy Flyce, 

1. Bought an Extra 4 port Hi-Speed SATA board...and Yes...it is highly inefficient and energy wasteful...Its an accumulation of 15 years of OS/Hardware iterations, and fear of loosing some data from previous installs, and lazyness at the notion of having to sift through all the files to see if some teeny Tiny tidbit should be retained.

2, The notion of putting all my aigs in one basket scares the shite out of me....I bought a two TB and started backing things up on it only to see it crash and become unaccessable.  Slowly bringing back important data, but again...its a big PainInTheButt.

19TB?????? Dont you dare talk to me about excessive drivage!!..

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!

Chas

[hesynergy 67]

I have updated my process with some success... see my posts at https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/128660-how-to-get-ortho4xp-to-show-tiles-on-another-hard-drive/

 

Chas

[ReXNeB 0]

MKLINK in CMD Admin :

mklink /D (Directory) [my x-plane installation] [the drive that have more space]

mklink /D "C:\Program Files\X-Plane\Custom Scenery" "E:\HDD2\X-Plane 11\Custom Scenery"

(Move source folder to destination first)

Edited June 25, 2018 by ReXNeB