[apachehaovk]

Hello all! 2 quick questions for ya if you dont mind.

1 - I have an xbmc media center setup with a few internal and external hard drives. I am upgrading to a new mobo, proc etc... and will be re-installing windows. Provided I have the drives with the media on them named EXACTLY the same and have them set to the same drive letters, I should be able to migrate the install correct? I would install xbmc on the new windows install, then copy over what folders from the old install?

2 - Certain hard drives are full and scrapped correctly. Is it safe to remove them from the files list to scan? I want to make refreshing content go faster and was wondering if by removing drives that are already fully scraped from the files menu will still keep what was scrapped?

Thanks all!!!

[pkscout]

1 - I have an xbmc media center setup with a few internal and external hard drives. I am upgrading to a new mobo, proc etc... and will be re-installing windows. Provided I have the drives with the media on them named EXACTLY the same and have them set to the same drive letters, I should be able to migrate the install correct? I would install xbmc on the new windows install, then copy over what folders from the old install?

Assuming you are using the built-in SQL-Lite databases, you need to grab a copy of your XBMC data folder in Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\Roaming\XBMC In theory if all the drive paths are exactly them same the database will probably work.

2 - Certain hard drives are full and scrapped correctly. Is it safe to remove them from the files list to scan? I want to make refreshing content go faster and was wondering if by removing drives that are already fully scraped from the files menu will still keep what was scrapped?

I wouldn't remove them. If you ever use the "clean library" option, anything on non-existent shares will probably be removed from the library.

[apachehaovk]

1 - I have an xbmc media center setup with a few internal and external hard drives. I am upgrading to a new mobo, proc etc... and will be re-installing windows. Provided I have the drives with the media on them named EXACTLY the same and have them set to the same drive letters, I should be able to migrate the install correct? I would install xbmc on the new windows install, then copy over what folders from the old install?

Assuming you are using the built-in SQL-Lite databases, you need to grab a copy of your XBMC data folder in Users\<your_user_name>\AppData\Roaming\XBMC In theory if all the drive paths are exactly them same the database will probably work.

2 - Certain hard drives are full and scrapped correctly. Is it safe to remove them from the files list to scan? I want to make refreshing content go faster and was wondering if by removing drives that are already fully scraped from the files menu will still keep what was scrapped?

I wouldn't remove them. If you ever use the "clean library" option, anything on non-existent shares will probably be removed from the library.

Ahh thanks for the info!! How can I tell if I am using the built in SQL-Lite? I am using universal media scraper but dont use any addons or anything like that. Just default install stuff.

Also! I am running the last version of FRODO. Can I just download the latest stable gotham and run the installer? Will it mess anything up or just keep my settings? Using windows 7. Thanks!

[pkscout]

Ahh thanks for the info!! How can I tell if I am using the built in SQL-Lite? I am using universal media scraper but dont use any addons or anything like that. Just default install stuff.

The SQL-Lite is the default database. Unless you specifically edited the advancedsettings.xml file to point it to a MySQL database (which you would have also installed), that's what you're using.

Also! I am running the last version of FRODO. Can I just download the latest stable gotham and run the installer? Will it mess anything up or just keep my settings? Using windows 7. Thanks!

In theory, yes. Many folks (myself included) were able to upgrade to Gotham just by running the installer and launching the new version. The database should upgrade itself and then be ready to go. If you haven't done the hardware migration yet, I would do the upgrade to Gotham first, test it, and then do all the hardware swaps. If you do the hardware and Gotham at the same time, you may end up with issues that are going to be hard to track down.

[apachehaovk]

Sounds good! Thanks a bunch PKscout!!!

[skylarking]

In my view it is better to scrap your media info and then export your library metadata (nfo& jpegs) as separate files. In that way you end up with 'movie' directories containing for example film1.mkv, film1.nfo, film1-fanart.jpg, film1-fanart.jpg, film2.kmv, film2-fanart.jpg, etc and an .actors directory containing actor1.jpg, actor2.jpg, etc (for all actors within the films on a specific movie directory).

You do get a bunch of what some people consider extra and unessesary files but by using such a method, it makes it rather quick to wipe a system of all xbmc bits and bots and then reinstall a fresh xbmc. Simply add your movie directories with the scraping now pulling in your local files which happens very very fast in comparison to pulling in files from some remote possibly loaded web server... And as storage is relatively cheap, i am not concerned about the extra or unessesary files that concern some. It would be nice if such metadata could be inserted into the mkv file itself and xbmc could first look inside the container during scraping... after all it's a container file format so why not use the container?

Anyway, as a result of such local files, recovering from crashes, upgrade issues, etc is rather simple... If you want to keep your watched status, then this can be resolved by periodically re exporting the library metadata and replacing files that exist. When importing the metadata, a simple advancedsettings.xml file can specify importwatchedstate=true which pulls in such info into the database when scraping. Alternatively there are addons that can help to preserve watchedstatus which may be simpler to use but i haven't looked into them as yet.

So, simply export your library, rebuild your new htpc, install your advancedsettings.xml file and then add your movie directories within xbmc which scrapes your local files...
QED, and you don't need to care about the drive letter the OS assigns matching the sql database or about xbmc sql database version issues or upgrade issues in general...

[apachehaovk]

Wait so is that a suggestion or is that something that can be done right now? Cause that seems WAY better