Merging multiple drives to be seen as one.

[Hashybot]

Hey Mezzmo Team!

It would be great to see a feature where I could merge say 3 physical drives to be seen as 1. For example I have 3 TV drives (C,D,E) and could make Mezzmo present them across the network as one drive (TV). This option would be excellent, in addition possibly including the ability to organize (for example) those 3 drives folders in A-Z order, or other variations of organization while still retaining the one drive view.

Anyway just some food for thought.

Great product and works great with my WDTV Hub. :)

[Paul]

We have just added Windows junctions and symlinks support into Mezzmo v2.6.3. This lets you combine drives & folders at the Windows operating system level and Mezzmo will follow these junctions or symlinks just as they were another sub-folder on a drive. See http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/3131-Do-Junction-Points-still-work-in-Mezzmo?highlight=junctions and http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/2013-Searching-for-best-way-to-organize-my-mediafiles-in-MEZZMO?highlight=junctions for some other Mezzmo user requests/experiences with junctions. Perhaps do a quick search on the internet about junctions to learn how they work for your version of Windows. Let us know if you need help in setting it up.

[Hashybot]

Thanks Paul,

I looked into this but found a couple of issues. When I created a symlink it could only be linked to one drive. For example, I created a folder as suggested, then I created within that folder symlink (drive 1), symlink (drive 2) etc, however when adding them to Mezzmo I end up with a Folder with 3 symlinks within it to 3 separate directories.

When I tried junction it wouldnt allow me to add files from across the network. Ill explain again what Im trying to achieve.

I have Q:drive (which is running directly from my computer, then i have Z: and Y: which are both network drives. Within all 3 drives are folders named TV Series Q,Z and Y and within those 3 are other folders to the TV series. I want to be able to merge all three into one directory that only shows the TV series folders (ie Prisoner, MASH etc) in one directory from all 3 of those folders.

Im not sure this can be done but help from anyone is welcome and appreciated. :)

Thanks again for the reply.

[Hashybot]

I thought for clarity I would elaborate further:

Currently my structure is like this:

Q:\TV Series Complete Q\TV series Folder\files
Y:\TV Series Complete Internal Hub\TV series Folder\files
Z:\TV Series Complete External Hub\TV series Folder\files

Y and Z are via the network share (both running from the WDTV Live Hub downstairs, Q is upstairs running directly from the computer usb.

What I want is all 3 Drives to be listed in Mezzmo as One folder, but only have the TV Series Folders in there like this:

TV Series Complete\TV series Folders < this represent all 3 drives merged into 1 in alphabetic order. However when I do the process you mention it ends up like this:

TV Series Complete\TV Series Complete Q\TV series Folder\files
TV Series Complete\TV Series Complete Internal Hub\TV series Folder\files
TV Series Complete\TV Series Complete External Hub\TV series Folder\files

So basically although there is one folder, within that folder there are still the 3 directorys rather than the TV series folders themselves.

I hope this is a little clearer. :)

[Paul]

Using symlinks or junctions on drives or folders, you will still have 3 sub-folders rather than merging all the files into a single folder.

One suggestion - instead of creating a symlink/junction for each of your drives, create the symlink/junction for the actual sub-folders where the files are. This will mean only one sub-folder to navigate to get to your files.

For example, this creates a new folder on your C drive and create 3 junctions for your 3 folders where your files are:


md "C:\TV Series"
mklink /J "C:\TV Series\Q" "Q:\TV Series Complete Q\TV series Folder\files"
mklink /J "C:\TV Series\Y" "Y:\TV Series Complete Internal Hub\TV series Folder\files"
mklink /J "C:\TV Series\Z" "Z:\TV Series Complete External Hub\TV series Folder\files"

This should let you have a folder structure like:


C:\TV Series

Q

<file1>
...
<file100>
Y

<file1>
...
<file100>
Z

<file1>
...
<file100>

[KGriff]

Sorry for poking my nose into this discussion, but this is the first time I have read about Junctions and Symlinks myself and it has me wondering if it is possible to do the following using the mklink command:


md "C:\TV Series"
mklink /J "C:\TV Series\" "Q:\TV Series Complete Q\TV series Folder\files"
mklink /J "C:\TV Series\" "Y:\TV Series Complete Internal Hub\TV series Folder\files"
mklink /J "C:\TV Series\" "Z:\TV Series Complete External Hub\TV series Folder\files"

This should let you have a folder structure like:


C:\TV Series

<file1>
...
<file100>


In other words can a single folder like "C:\TV Series" have multiple hard links to several folders both on the original PC and network drives. If you can, then I assume mezzmo will then combine and sort all the files from all the folders alphabetically in its library?

Hope that makes senses, however I am not sure if multiple links are allowed? In which case my post should be disregarded.

[Paul]

Sorry you cannot assign the same named Windows symlink or junction to many locations.

[Hashybot]

Thanks for all the help Paul. Ive given up on it for now, but I was never unhappy with the original setup, I just thought it would be cool to have 3 drives merged. Anyway Mezzmo is best product for streaming regardless of drive merging.

Thanks again
Hashy :)

[Paul]

Just an update - Mezzmo v3.4 now has a new feature called Merged Folders and this lets you combine folders from different drives (NAS, USB and internal) so that you can browse a single folder structure in Mezzmo and on your devices. See this FAQ for more details - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6338-Tutorial-How-to-merge-folders-from-different-drives-%28NAS-USB-or-internal%29