I have 2 disks (soon 3) in a user share called Media, I left split level blank and set to most free allocation, I just have one "Media" share where I put all my files, I don't care what drives my files end up on, so should split level be blank ? or something high like 999?

 

These might help:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3509.0 "Disk Shares (SMB vs NFS), User Shares, Split Levels - Options/Questions?"

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/FAQ#What_should_I_set_.27Split_Level.27_to.3F "What should I set 'Split Level' to?"

 

The data will write to disk1 until it reaches the "Min. free space" level and then start writing to disk2 etc.

 

AFAIK Split level blank is the same as split level 0.

Thx.

 

After re-reading the docs a few dozen times, I think I came up with a user share of "Media", allocation level of most free, 20 gigs min space free, and a split level of 999 to just put the file on any drive with most free space in the Media user share.

 

 

Thx.

 

After re-reading the docs a few dozen times, I think I came up with a user share of "Media", allocation level of most free, 20 gigs min space free, and a split level of 999 to just put the file on any drive with most free space in the Media user share.

 

the problem with this is the potential to have files from a single movie or music CD split across multiple drives.

For example a DVD rip might end up with the VOB's on 2 or more drives causing the movie to stop and buffer while the next drive is spun up to get the next VOB. the same when listening to a CD.

 

also thumbnails and nfo files for a movie/cd could get put on a different drive from the movie causing additional browsing lag with some media players or windows explorer.

Yea this I understand, but all my media files are just single file backups of my DVDs or MKV files, ISO files, etc, not DVD structure style backups.

I Imagine I could use the [ thing I read about in the manual in certain cases I don't want it to split?

 

 

 

 

If your directory tree looks like this:

 

/Media/movie1.mkv

 

then the way you have it setup will work fine.

 

If it looks like this:

/Media/Movie1/Movie1.mkv

 

It will also work fine

 

IF it is like this:

/Media/Movie1/Movie1.mkv

/Media/Movie1/Movie1fanart.jpg

 

then unraid may have to spin up 2 disks when you access the folder. While this won't cause serious lag, it is less efficient from a power stand point, and would cause unnecessary use on your drives.

Yeap I just have it set up as your first/second examples, there is no fan art, no metadata or anything like that, its just an MKV.  There are folders for series like Childrens and Walking Dead containing more movies and TV shows, again no concern if it splits across 2-3 drives.

 

 

The other time it may skip is if you have any movies which are in two parts, such as:

"The Matrix - Part 1.avi"

"The Matrix - Part 2.avi"

 

I'm not sure how much media you have but I used to keep all my movies in a single folder, trying to keep everything as one file but I found as the collection got bigger the folder became nearly inaccessible due to the fact that Windows kept trying to load thumbnails & metadata for 800+ movies. I now have a separate folder for each movie and the lag issues are gone, plus you have a place to store that fanart, NFO's, extra features etc. if you ever acquire them.

Plus most front ends(if you use one or ever decide to) require movies to be in separate folders.

 

As long as your windows user has read/write priviledges for the share, there is a simple batch script that will move all movies into their own folders, keep in mind it wouldn't work for multi-part movies, but any single file movies like you describe it would work fine.

 

If having them all in a single folder works for you, by no means change, just letting you know scenario's where it would be a hindrance.