I thought I figured this out, but... after trying to track down a duplicate copy of a movie ( as per syslog ), I've noticed multiple duplicate directories across the array, yet the contents are all different ( movie.iso on disk1, movie.jpg on disk3, movie.nfo on disk5 ).

 

I set my split level as 4, but I am thinking it should have been 5 ( as I really prefer all the directories stay together ).

 

My share is "media" and beneath that I have "dvd" and "tv" and then beneath that are folders for each movie/show

 

My question now is "What if I change the split level to 5 or 6?"  Will the array try to shuffle everything around or do I have to manually go through with Windows Explorer and drag and drop files for the next week 

 

Thanks

I thought I figured this out, but... after trying to track down a duplicate copy of a movie ( as per syslog ), I've noticed multiple duplicate directories across the array, yet the contents are all different ( movie.iso on disk1, movie.jpg on disk3, movie.nfo on disk5 ).

 

I set my split level as 4, but I am thinking it should have been 5 ( as I really prefer all the directories stay together ).

 

My share is "media" and beneath that I have "dvd" and "tv" and then beneath that are folders for each movie/show

 

My question now is "What if I change the split level to 5 or 6?"   Will the array try to shuffle everything around or do I have to manually go through with Windows Explorer and drag and drop files for the next week 

 

Thanks

 

Manually, unRAID will not do it automatically

You need to use level 2. Media can split and the subdirectories DVD and TV can split but nothing underneath can split.

 

You have to drag and drop to put the data back.

 

I think this could work, it's more data intensive but less personal time intensive.

 

Set the "Media" share split level to 2 and enter the disks you want it to use in the future.

Create a new share called "New Media". Set the spit level to 2 and the disks you want the movies to be on -this should mirror the "Media" share settings.

Go to the "Media" share and move a group of movies or TV to the "New Media" share.

Do this each night before going to bed so that they are all eventually moved into the "New Media" share - figure out how much data you can move per night. I'd try about 200gig or so the first time and work from there so it's completed by the time you want to use the server the next day.

 

Once the above is done;

Share the disks.

Go to each disk and delete the "Media" directory and re-name the "New Media" directory as "Media" - Make double sure the Media directories are empty before deleting them.

Go to the server admin page and delete the "New Movies" share settings.

Turn off the disk shares.

Reboot the server and ensure these settings get applied.

 

This basically allows the server to sort out the files for you. You machines have to be given the time to move the data across the network but you don't have to sit there and sort the media out one directory at at time. I recommended this before and didn't get a come-back post saying it didn't work so I'm assuming it worked out fine.

 

Peter

 

 

 

Interesting method lionel. I have some left over sorting to do from back when I first brought my server online without properly setting split levels. I think I'm willing to do this test and confirm whether or not it works... what I'm on the fence about is that I probably have close to 6TB's of data to move haha. If I decide to follow through, I will definitely reply for others to see how my operation went.

You need to use level 2. Media can split and the subdirectories DVD and TV can split but nothing underneath can split.

 

I misinterpreted the split levels.. didn't  I  ( and I thought I grasped it before setting them ) 

 

For now, i will change to split level 2, so at least everything that moves from now one will be kept together.

 

Like drealit, I have about 5TB of data I have to move around.    Although, if always move all the other files ( images, nfo's , trailers ) to the drive the iso/img is on, the moves will be quick.    If I can play farmville on facebook, I should be able to handle this ( for those that aren't familiar with farmville, you click hundreds of times each day to play the stupid addictive game ) 

 

EDIT:  If anyone else runs into this issue like me and you manually move the files over, make sure you turn on your View -Hidden/System files.  I thought it was odd to have an empty directory on on of my drives, but hidden was:  Thumbs.db

I'd like to say search by file type or such but just can't think of a way to get rid of the empty directories and to make sure that you only move the small files easily using just the windows tools.

 

I'd have to think a script run on each drive moving the directories with only small files to the cache would do it but I'm not a script writer. You'd have to check the files in the directory and then if they're just the support files move them and the directory structure to the cache and get rid of the directory on the data drive. The mover would then put things back.

 

So, my method posted before is my best try at a fairly automatic way of sorting the mess out. Like I posted it's not very fast but you just have to do a little setup and then do a bunch of big highlight and moves to the new share and let the server do the work (which can take a while). I think with GigE that the drive write speed will be the limiting factor so it doesn't matter if you log in at the server or use a Windows machine the time required will be about the same.

 

 

Interesting method lionel. I have some left over sorting to do from back when I first brought my server online without properly setting split levels. I think I'm willing to do this test and confirm whether or not it works... what I'm on the fence about is that I probably have close to 6TB's of data to move haha. If I decide to follow through, I will definitely reply for others to see how my operation went.

 

Ok, let us know. Got a vacation coming up so you can let it work for a week?

 

Maybe you could go by date and then move the stuff back into the old share again?  Or by date move the whole directory to the cache drive and let the mover work - the parity protection is temporarily lost but it's another possible way.

 

Peter

OK..I've been at this for hours and I am up to the letter M on each of the 5 drives.  I'm using both monitors with 5 windows open and dragging and dropping all over the place.  I have to say my wrist is getting sore     Files aren't as clustered as much as I expect them to be.  As mentioned, I have View System/Hidden files on and their is one Thumbs.db file for every movie.    I'm not sure if I had to move them, but I am.    I have almost 900 DVDs + TV shows ( shit, I just thought of them as they are in a different share and I expect they are all over the place too.. urgg ).

 

I have some degree of OCD, so I won't sleep until I get this done

 

What's the lesson to be learned here:

 

Make sure you understand split levels 100% BEFORE you start moving data on to your drives! 

 

I thought I was preventing my data from being moved all over the place with a high split level number, but in reality, it has to LOW!

You must be running XP. You can just delete the thumbs.db files and the extra directory it's in. No need to move it. It's just a Windows generated file and will get created again (or not if you change your XP settings). You do have to delete the extra directory as well or a file will go there again.

 

Here's a good explanation of the thumbs.db file.

 

http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/98

 

Peter

 

On a Mac you end up with the creation of . and ._ files, which ware similar to the thumbs.db.  I talked about it briefly here and that it might be beneficial to create a cron job to take care of them.  My server is shut down right now and I am not at home, but when I get a chance I will post the script I created that searches /mnt/ and deletes the above said files.  I am sure something similar could be done to remove thumbs.db files and any other that you do not want hanging around.

Now you tell me! hehehe

 

Well, I spent many hours yesterday (more than I care to admit) and then verified I moved everything ( compared my folder count to my .iso/.img counts as well as my .nfo counts ) 

 

I only accidentally deleted one .iso (which considering all the dragging, dropping and deleting I did, that is an acceptable loss) .

 

I did notice that for whatever reason, there were empty folders on some of the drives, that I didn't create.  There were not even any system files in them.    I don't think it hurts anything, but I wonder why it was created.  Maybe it did have content in it , at one point.

 

After I completed the first part of shuffling files around, I re-ran my YAMJ to make sure it was ok with all the file movement, and all went well.  It took about 10 minutes to process 800 entries over 5 drives, which is a decent time for my PC.

Just to verify I have correct split levels set.  Here's what I have so far

 

Movie files are set to 2, directories are as follows:

Movies/HD Movies/*movie title*/movie.iso

Movies/DVD Movies/Example2/video ts folder/

 

Music files I have set to 1

Music/Album folder/mp3's.

 

TV Shows I have set to 2

TV Shows/ER/Season 1/Season 1 episodes

 

Do those sound alright?