The external hard drive that I use to store media is rapidly running out of space, and I’ll soon be purchasing a second one. Rather than have multiple drive letters for my external hard drives, I am going to combine both hard drives into a single drive using Windows Disk Management. However, in order to do that, I need to format my existing external hard drive that has all of my media. Therefore, I was planning to backup all my current media to my desktop, combine the drives to the same external drive letter I am currently using, and then move all of my media back.
My question is: will moving all the files off, formatting the drive, and then moving the files back cause any issues with my media library? I am assuming Plex doesn’t store any server files on the actual external drive itself, so moving the files around there won’t compromise anything. But better safe than sorry. Thanks!
The external hard drive that I use to store media is rapidly running out of space, and I’ll soon be purchasing a second one. Rather than have multiple drive letters for my external hard drives, I am going to combine both hard drives into a single drive using Windows Disk Management. However, in order to do that, I need to format my existing external hard drive that has all of my media. Therefore, I was planning to backup all my current media to my desktop, combine the drives to the same external drive letter I am currently using, and then move all of my media back.
My question is: will moving all the files off, formatting the drive, and then moving the files back cause any issues with my media library? I am assuming Plex doesn’t store any server files on the actual external drive itself, so moving the files around there won’t compromise anything. But better safe than sorry. Thanks!
I think it would be as simple as stopping PMS, do the formatting, then as long as you make the drive letter (and probably structure) the same afterwards you should be good and Plex will know no difference…
However…
If i’m not mistaken… one drive dies and EVERYTHING is gone.
If in the future you need to add another drive… well, it just seems a lot of hassle as you will have to repeat the process.
Another option is Division-M - Order
It more or less does the same thing and is only $20. I know it t also works but back in 2011/12 when I made the choice i went Drivepool so i’m more familiar with it.
I know Drivepool does a 30 day trial and would be surprised in DriveBender doesn’t offer the same.
Either way there is no formatting involved and you can simply add further drives (Internal or external) in the future.
I’m guessing you are not on Windows 10? Though i’m not a fan of Storage Spaces i would still opt for that above software raid.
