[Question] Hard Drive Transfer

[Yourname942]

I plan on getting a 4tb hard drive. However, in the meantime I want to utilize my time and start from scratch to build up a Hyperspin library on my current Hard drive.

 

My question is:

As long as both hard drives have the same directory (lets say- Drive G for example) will everything work okay once I transfer all the files over to the second drive? Thank you.

[progets]

There are a bunch of variables. If you use relative paths (such as .\, ..\, ..\..\) when you build it will be much easier to move. If you use fixed paths (such as C:\HyperSpin, C:\HyperSpin\Emulators, C:\HyperSpin\Roms) it will be a lot more work to move. This will hold true for just about everything (such as where you are installing your emulators and roms).

 

My advice for your specific goal is to create a mapped drive that points to your existing drive (G: will just point to C: in your example) and give it the letter you will assign to your new drive and install everything to the mapped drive letter. When you get the new drive copy over your data, delete the mapping and assign that drive letter to your new drive. This would be very easy and just about fool proof even if you use fixed paths.

[Yourname942]

I plan on having everything located on drive itself. So, say the 1st HDD was set as (G:) and the 2nd HDD is (F:) I would first start from scratch and have everything, including Hyperspin, within Drive (G:)

I would eventually copy everything from HDD1 to HDD2, then wipe HDD1, and then set the HDD2 as (G:).  Now with all the files being on Drive 2, wouldn't all the paths remain pointing to (G:)? [ ie. all paths in tact and everything working the same as it did on HDD1 ] 

[progets]

Yes, that should work fine since the drive letter isn't really changing. This is assuming that you have a C: drive and it's not changing. Depending on the emulators you are running, even though you might install them on a G: or F: drive some still have files in the Windows user profile (C:\Users\<username>).

[Yourname942]

Oh really? Then yes, eventually It will be on a different computer entirely.

[progets]

Take a look in C:\Users\<useranme>\AppData\Local\ and C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming and see if any of the names of your emulators there. By default, Windows will hide these folders so you will need to turn that off to see them.