# VI Library Drives - Will this work?



## GameBeat (Aug 19, 2021)

Hello All, I have a hard drive question I am hoping someone can answer for me. I have three 4TB hard drives that hold a massive collection of sample libraries and virtual instruments. I would like to switch these traditional “spinning” drives to Solid State Drives for the reliability and speed. I have Carbon Copy Cloner disk images of each of these drives. If I were to purchase the 3 external Solid State drives of identical size and restored the backed-up drives images to these new SSD drives AND named the new drives identically to the old drives then disconnected the old drives, would all of my installed virtual instruments automatically find their sample libraries like usual or would all my software have to be manually “pointed” to their new drives again? Thanks in advance. -dd


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## Marcus Millfield (Aug 19, 2021)

In theory, yes. I just did exactly that. Just as long as you installed the program that runs the library (like Kontakt) on your system disk and you give the new drives the same drive letter/mountpoint, you should be good to go.


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## GameBeat (Aug 19, 2021)

Marcus Millfield said:


> In theory, yes. I just did exactly that. Just as long as you installed the program that runs the library (like Kontakt) on your system disk and you give the new drives the same drive letter/mountpoint, you should be good to go.


Thanks Marcus, I am on a Mac so "drive letters" are not an issue, but I would name the new drives identical to the ones being replaced and as far as my installed software (Kontakt etc), that would not change. My computer itself is unchanged, just changing the external sample/VI drives. Excited to know this should work. Will be giving it a shot soon. Thanks so much for you input!


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## Marcus Millfield (Aug 19, 2021)

Should be a breeze  Good luck and you're welcome! Enjoy the faster drives!


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## kgdrum (Aug 19, 2021)

GameBeat said:


> Thanks Marcus, I am on a Mac so "drive letters" are not an issue, but I would name the new drives identical to the ones being replaced and as far as my installed software (Kontakt etc), that would not change. My computer itself is unchanged, just changing the external sample/VI drives. Excited to know this should work. Will be giving it a shot soon. Thanks so much for you input!


Yes this works, I did this twice in the last 18 months and probably 5 or 6 times overall. From my experience as long as the name is *EXACTLY* the same this will work.
The reason I emphasize *EXACTLY* the last time I did it I had a total WTF moment. I fired up Kontakt and my Kontakt libraries weren’t recognized.
Then I remembered when I named the original hd I accidentally put in a space between the name and a number. As soon as I added the accidental space Kontakt recognized the new SSD.
Good Luck 👍


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## GameBeat (Aug 19, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> Yes this works, I did this twice in the last 18 months and probably 5 or 6 times overall. From my experience as long as the name is *EXACTLY* the same this will work.
> The reason I emphasize *EXACTLY* the last time I did it I had a total WTF moment. I fired up Kontakt and my Kontakt libraries weren’t recognized.
> Then I remembered when I named the original hd I accidentally put in a space between the name and a number. As soon as I added the accidental space Kontakt recognized the new SSD.
> Good Luck 👍


Awesome, thanks kgdrum, your input has helped greatly!


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## GameBeat (Aug 25, 2021)

Hi Marcus & Kgdrum, I have one more question to ask regarding this thread...

I the old hard drive I want to replace is a 2TB disk drive. I have a Carbon Copy Cloner disk image of this 2TB drive. My plan is to buy a 4TB SSD drive to replace it. My question is can a disk image from that 2TB drive be restored onto a 4TB SSD drive or does the disk image have to go to another 2TB SSD drive? Do the drives have to be the same size? I know the new drive can't be smaller but can it be a bigger 4TB DRIVE and successfully restore a 2TB disk image?


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## kgdrum (Aug 25, 2021)

@GameBeat
As long as you have enough available space the size really should not matter.
I’m always moving to larger drives whether I’m cloning a boot drive via CCC or simply copying and moving samples to a larger drive that I need to house samples.
fwiw I really only use CCC for boot drives (system OS),CCC is great & I’m sure it will work but I’ve never used it outside of making some sort of a clone of a boot drive.
In the case of a Sample drive I just(simply)highlight & drag the libraries to the new drive and name the new drive.
btw are you formatting the new drive as journeled extended?


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## GameBeat (Aug 25, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> @GameBeat
> As long as you have enough available space the size really should not matter.
> I’m always moving to larger drives whether I’m cloning a boot drive via CCC or simply copying and moving samples to a larger drive that I need to house samples.
> fwiw I really only use CCC for boot drives (system OS),CCC is great & I’m sure it will work but I’ve never used it outside of making some sort of a clone of a boot drive.
> ...


The new SSD drives have not arrived yet, I expect them on Friday. But I am not sure what is the best way to format them. What do you recommend?


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## kgdrum (Aug 25, 2021)

GameBeat said:


> The new SSD drives have not arrived yet, I expect them on Friday. But I am not sure what is the best way to format them. What do you recommen


Mac OS Extended (Journaled)


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## rnb_2 (Aug 25, 2021)

GameBeat said:


> The new SSD drives have not arrived yet, I expect them on Friday. But I am not sure what is the best way to format them. What do you recommend?


I would recommend formatting as APFS if your version of the OS supports it. It's made for SSDs.


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## GameBeat (Aug 25, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> journeled extended





rnb_2 said:


> I would recommend formatting as APFS if your version of the OS supports it. It's made for SSDs.


Because of a variety of compatibility issues I am sort of stuck on Mojave for now. Will the APFS work on Mojave?


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## kgdrum (Aug 25, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> I would recommend formatting as APFS if your version of the OS supports it. It's made for SSDs.


for samples? I think I’ve heard this causes issues for some users. I agree APFS for a system drive but I’ve been under the impression extended journeled is a better option for samples.

my boot drive & my CCC clone (backup) (Mojave) is APFS but I have my sample drives as Extended Journeled.
*note:I might have kept it this way as the drives were already being used .


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## rnb_2 (Aug 25, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> for samples? I think I’ve heard this causes issues for some users. I agree APFS for a system drive but I’ve been under the impression extended journeled is a better option for samples.
> 
> my boot drive & my CCC clone (backup) (Mojave) is APFS but I have my sample drives as Extended Journeled.
> *note:I might have kept it this way as the drives were already being used .


I haven't encountered any issues with samples on APFS, and I'm not sure why there would be, but if you know of specific issues, I'm happy to hear them. I know that APFS is not recommended for spinning hard drives, as it is specifically designed with SSDs in mind.


GameBeat said:


> Because of a variety of compatibility issues I am sort of stuck on Mojave for now. Will the APFS work on Mojave?


APFS does work with Sierra and newer, so Mojave is fine.


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## kgdrum (Aug 25, 2021)

@rnb_2 @GameBeat
Well this quote is from Evil Dragon discussing formatting a sample drive imo his advice and recommendations with anything related to samples and Kontakt are Gospel! lol 🙏


EvilDragon
KSP Wizard​Apr 20, 2021

Add bookmark
#26
Mac or Win?

*If Mac - make sure SSD is not formatted as ExFAT, but macOS Journaled.*


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## gsilbers (Aug 25, 2021)

GameBeat said:


> Hello All, I have a hard drive question I am hoping someone can answer for me. I have three 4TB hard drives that hold a massive collection of sample libraries and virtual instruments. I would like to switch these traditional “spinning” drives to Solid State Drives for the reliability and speed. I have Carbon Copy Cloner disk images of each of these drives. If I were to purchase the 3 external Solid State drives of identical size and restored the backed-up drives images to these new SSD drives AND named the new drives identically to the old drives then disconnected the old drives, would all of my installed virtual instruments automatically find their sample libraries like usual or would all my software have to be manually “pointed” to their new drives again? Thanks in advance. -dd




IF I remember correctly, Kontakt sample libraries that have authorization will need to be re-installed if its placed on another disk. 
you still can re direct the installation to the new disks but keep in mind you might need the serial numbers if native app gets iffy. 
Not sure if things have changed though. so maybe with just the login info in Native app and re directing to where the sample content is might be enough. not a pain but still something to do. 

some other plugins might be the same. like nexus and vengeance.


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## kgdrum (Aug 25, 2021)

@rnb_2 @GameBeat 

This is from Troells the head honcho at 8dio:


“If your drive is formatted to APFS or ExFat, Kontakt won't be able to retrieve data fast enough from the drive and can cause Longer load times, Kontakt to hang or within a DAW setting and can cause Kontakt to crash. (Depending on the size of the instruments). This will only be a problem on larger libraries with big .nki files. What happens is Kontakt has to scan the folder you have selected and find every sample, which is not an issue for most libraries but for libraries that use a lot of large samples in a single .nki file you can run into some issues if the hard drive is not optimized for Kontakt.

- *The most efficient format for Mac Users is Mac OS (Journaled)*
- The most efficient format for Windows users is NTFS.”


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## kgdrum (Aug 25, 2021)

gsilbers said:


> IF I remember correctly, Kontakt sample libraries that have authorization will need to be re-installed if its placed on another disk.
> you still can re direct the installation to the new disks but keep in mind you might need the serial numbers if native app gets iffy.
> Not sure if things have changed though. so maybe with just the login info in Native app and re directing to where the sample content is might be enough. not a pain but still something to do.
> 
> some other plugins might be the same. like nexus and vengeance.


Not for me (Mac)as long as you name the drive EXACTLY THE SAME NAME.

I did this recently,I transitioned from a 2tb SSD ———-> 4tb SSD I don’t think I had to reauthorize anything.


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## GameBeat (Aug 25, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> I haven't encountered any issues with samples on APFS, and I'm not sure why there would be, but if you know of specific issues, I'm happy to hear them. I know that APFS is not recommended for spinning hard drives, as it is specifically designed with SSDs in mind.
> 
> APFS does work with Sierra and newer, so Mojave is fine.


Cool, thanks rnb and kgdrum, I am getting two 4TB Thunderblades from OWC and they come with their own formatting software called "Softraid", not sure if I should use that or only use apple formatting tool. I watched a couple of YouTube videos and the drives were formatted in Raid 0 or Stripped format and I am told I should also put them on separate input busses on the mac (trashcan macPro) So many options has me nervous to get it right. But at this point I think I will give APFS a try and if the OWC formatting tool has the APFS option then that's what I will use. Any yes both these drives will be holding 98% sample and VI libraries. I appreciate the tips and advice guys. Wish me luck.


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## kgdrum (Aug 25, 2021)

Personally I avoid raid. For me a SSD is fast enough for samples,I prefer keeping things simple.
Good luck


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## GameBeat (Aug 25, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> @rnb_2 @GameBeat
> 
> This is from Troells the head honcho at 8dio:
> 
> ...


That sounds scary and exactly what I want to avoid. Maybe I will go the Journaled Extended instead of APFS. And use Apples formatting too instead of the OWC SoftRaid software that comes with the drives. Really can't afford to screw this up.


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## rnb_2 (Aug 25, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> @rnb_2 @GameBeat
> 
> This is from Troells the head honcho at 8dio:
> 
> ...


Interesting - sounds like NI has a lot of work to do to modernize that Kontakt code base. I haven't encountered any issues with Kontakt VIs, but it's certainly possible that I don't have any with enough samples in the NKI for it to happen.


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## rnb_2 (Aug 25, 2021)

GameBeat said:


> Cool, thanks rnb and kgdrum, I am getting two 4TB Thunderblades from OWC and they come with their own formatting software called "Softraid", not sure if I should use that or only use apple formatting tool. I watched a couple of YouTube videos and the drives were formatted in Raid 0 or Stripped format and I am told I should also put them on separate input busses on the mac (trashcan macPro) So many options has me nervous to get it right. But at this point I think I will give APFS a try and if the OWC formatting tool has the APFS option then that's what I will use. Any yes both these drives will be holding 98% sample and VI libraries. I appreciate the tips and advice guys. Wish me luck.


SoftRAID only just became usable with APFS, and I'm not sure if the latest version (6) is compatible with Mojave, so sticking with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is probably best. SoftRAID handles some of the weaknesses of the older format, so you should be fine.


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## kgdrum (Aug 25, 2021)

fwiw whatever @EvilDragon says, for me is all I need to know 👍 😂
It’s great also hearing @Troels Folmann confirm the same.


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## rnb_2 (Aug 25, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> fwiw whatever @EvilDragon says, for me is all I need to know 👍 😂
> It’s great also hearing @Troels Folmann confirm the same.


Absolutely, though ED will be the first to admit that he's not a Mac guy, and his statement didn't actually mention APFS. Troels' statement was unambiguous, though.


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## kgdrum (Aug 25, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> Absolutely, though ED will be the first to admit that he's not a Mac guy, and his statement didn't actually mention APFS. Troels' statement was unambiguous, though.


True he’s not a Mac user but but over the years working as a scripter/developer and someone that now actually works for NI honestly I take his recommendations without reservation. ED has also scripted enough libraries over the years from so many different developers I’m confident he knows what he’s talking about for developers and libraries across the all of the system OS options.


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## GameBeat (Aug 31, 2021)

Just wanted you all to know I completed the SSD upgrade this yesterday and it went flawlessly. No glitches, worked beautifully. Boy are these drives FAST! These Thunderblade SSDs from OWC are the real deal. Thank you all for the advice and direction. I'm a happy camper.


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## kgdrum (Aug 31, 2021)

GameBeat said:


> Just wanted you all to know I completed the SSD upgrade this yesterday and it went flawlessly. No glitches, worked beautifully. Boy are these drives FAST! These Thunderblade SSDs from OWC are the real deal. Thank you all for the advice and direction. I'm a happy camper.


Congratulations! 
Please give us the juicy details,how did you format the SSD’s? Did you go raid or not go raid etc………


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## GameBeat (Aug 31, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> Congratulations!
> Please give us the juicy details,how did you format the SSD’s? Did you go raid or not go raid etc………


Sure, well after doing some research on if and how APFS was better for SSD and for Audio Samples as was recommended in this thread, I decided to try formatting APFS, however I got an ERROR after two tries and the format failed when trying to format APFS so I didn't try a 3rd time and just did journaled extended. I did not use a raid because I wanted to replicate the source drives I was transferring from and they were not raids. So I formated non-raid.

Opened Carbon Copy Cloaner, located the back up disk images of the old drives (which I have set to back up 3 times a week), restored them to the newly journal formatted SSDs and went to lunch. I came back and it was done in about 3 hours. It was 5TB of data going to an 8TB SSD drive and my second was 2TB of data going to a 4TB SSD drive. I made certain to name the new SSD drive IDENTICAL to the drives they were being replicate from.

Then I opened ProTools and checked various random VIs and Kontakt and my 8Dio instruments and a few other libraries I have and everything was just fine. Best of all I could defiitely notice how fast my libraries were loading. Like 1/3 of the time it took before.

I disconnected my old drives from my MacPro and shrink wrapped them for storage. Will likely reformat them later and repurpose them for something else.

But I have a mission critical music production system and do a lot of client work and I could not afford prolonged down time so and I was determined to make my system as reliable as possible. If one of those old drives failed on me it would have be disastrous so these new SSDs with no moving parts give me some serious piece of mind. 

Couldn't have made this move at a batter time as I was just offered a sound designer composer position with a big 3 game developer so I am super happy and ready to rock.

Thanks again for the tips guys!

Darryl
www.gamebeatstudios.com


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## kgdrum (Aug 31, 2021)

@GameBeat 

I will recommend NOT wiping the drives. 
keep them as backups,just in case………….


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## GameBeat (Aug 31, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> @GameBeat
> 
> I will recommend NOT wiping the drives.
> keep them as backups,just in case………….


Man I have already made copious backups of the new drives. I believe in super redundancy. I have a two 32TB Promise raid back up drives and have all my data backed up in 3 seperate locations so I have 4 copies of each drives including the drive itself. but thanks


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## kgdrum (Aug 31, 2021)

@GameBeat 

Great just want to make sure 😉


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