External Hard Drive - 2 Traktor PC's
External Hard Drive - 2 Traktor PC's Posted on: 28.09.2012 by Nestor Epper This may be a stupid question. And I'm really just trying to confirm my theory. I currently have all my music on an external hard drive. Also on the same drive I have My iTunes library files. What I do with iTunes is hold shift when opening and point it to the hard drive library file. This allows me to sync my iPhone and all my music to one library so no matter what (or who's) PC I am using I have my music. This works for iTunes so long as I close iTunes before moving the drive to the other PC. I want to be able to do the same thing with my Traktor collection, settings, mappings etc. This way I can use my desktop to manage my tunes, beatgrid tracks, and so on but still be able to take that hard drive to my laptop and DJ from it as with all the new changes I've made. Do I just tell Traktor where the files are in the folder settings? What should I copy to the hard drive? I use windows on both my laptop and desktop. | |
| Brunilda Kora 06.02.2014 | |
| Leoma Larouche 05.02.2014 | Yo, I am working on this right now. I figured a way to have the music collection span multiple drives and still be portable (i.e. get the drive letters right every time). I'll be releasing it soon. |
| Lanita Kosanovic 03.02.2014 | So I was wrong again, apologies Great idea and even better execution |
| Leoma Larouche 31.01.2014 | My utility simply ensures that the drive letter of all Traktor paths is correct before Traktor starts. Once all paths are correct it then proceeds to launch Traktor. This way, by the time Traktor starts, any incorrect drive letter assignments have already been amended, and Traktor will work as if nothing had happened. My utility is mainly geared towards a single user working on multiple computers. The user's settings and music collection follow the user on an external hard drive. This way the user can plug his hard drive into any computer and have his own configuration up and running with a single click, loaded directly from their external drive. When Traktor is launched via my utility, any local setting will be ignored and settings will be loaded from the external drive instead. The beauty of it is that paths are always correct regardless of which drive letter Windows decides to assign to the external drive. The main advantages of this are:
Note also that my utility does not overwrite any existing settings stored locally on the computer. It only points Traktor to the files on the external hard drive. The utility continues to run in the background waiting for the Traktor window to cease to exist (which happens when you close Traktor), at which point it restores anything it changed back to its original state, thus leaving absolutely no traces. This is useful if you are using another DJ's computer, as it won't screw up their configuration. Here is a teaser screenshot of what the UI looks like at the moment (appearance may be different from final release): Notice how the @ character stands for "any drive letter". The important thing is that the drive letter it stands for is the same for all paths that have the @ in them. If you want to use fixed drive letter paths you can simply manually replace the @ with the desired drive letter e.g. D. I might replace this with checkboxes in the final release. All paths are saved in a file named TraktorLauncher.ini which is next to TraktorLauncher.exe and can be edited manually in Notepad. The UI is only shown if CapsLock is engaged when the utility is run, otherwise Traktor is launched directly (which is what you'd want once you've got everything set up). |
| Lanita Kosanovic 29.01.2014 | Yes,I see the point. My sloppy reading I couldn't edit my post, because it wasn't approved yet. I also understand the use of your program now. Good work btw. So my post about managing storage should serve only as an info. @Alexisk Yes, but if I understand it correctly, next time your friend will be playing,he will have to re-import his settings..His collection will be intact if this clever program will give instructions to traktor to work with the files on the external drive (although I'm not 100% sure about that).Except if he will also be using this program. Messy |
| Britt Bjordahl 28.01.2014 | Yes Scoox, that's correct but in addition to that there is an additional advantage, which is playing the collection without importing while still maintaining an existing 2nd collection (already imported) on that laptop. Correct me if i'm wrong... But this would also give me the ability to play everything from a USB stick on a friends Traktor without importing any songs while leaving the current database intact on the friend's computer? You could point to the nml file in Traktor's browsing tree without screwing up the current database and without importing additional songs on a friend's laptop whereas if that letter was taken by the friend's hard-drive (where his music is), then it would be a mess where you have to copy all his folders somewhere else + replace with yours and then put back everything of his but even then Traktor would boot up all screwed up on first attempt after saving the database by closing the software. And why not use the export playlist then (iernei would ask)? Well cuz then you would have to choose export from the main computer every time where as in this case. You can save everything from a main computer directly on a jump drive (with static assigned letter) but then use that same drive on any other traktor without having to import on the other traktor or even without having to export from the previous computer. Do you believe this would work?!?!? Try it if you have the time and let us know. |
| Leoma Larouche 28.01.2014 |
Originally Posted by iernei
If Traktor expects E: as the drive letter, but that letter is already taken up by a USB stick, you simply won't be able to use that drive letter unless you unplug the USB stick. Some times the USB stick will be an internal drive in which case the only solution is to change the paths in the TSI file, which is what my little program would do. You can edit the TSI file by hand but having a program do it for you and launch Traktor all with one click is very convenient. I'll release the program as soon as I get a chance, please be patient. assigns drive letters it doesn't know what drive letter Traktor expects. I have a desktop computer with fixed drives C: D: and E:, and a laptop with only C: and D:. On the desktop computer the drive would get the next available drive letter which is F:, and E: on the laptop. So paths will be broken on one of the two. Or even if you have a USB stick plugged in before |
| Britt Bjordahl 27.01.2014 | Let me know when you have it ready, I wouldn't mind paying for it! You would believe NI would have done something like that but *sigh* |
| Lanita Kosanovic 27.01.2014 | You need to copy transients',stripes',covers'... folders. Playlists are stored in collection.nml so you import collection and settings and copy those above-mentioned folders to mydocuments traktor 2.x directory. You don't need a special program for assigning drive letters. Right click on my computer and choose manage..Under storage you can also change a drive letter. Google it for detailed tutorial |
| Leoma Larouche 27.01.2014 |
Originally Posted by Alexisk
2. If you effect the changes while Traktor is already running, then it won't work, because Traktor saves its settings upon exit. So any settings enforced manually or by means of an external program will be overwritten. 3. The idea is to keep everything on an external drive, so absolutely everything follows the portable drive. The key is that the TSI file is modified before Traktor fires up, therefore when it finally fires up it looks into the TSI file which now contains the correct paths to the folders on the portable drive (including the currently assigned drive letter), and so everything works. 4. The small program is essentially a launcher, which on my system I have named TraktorLauncher.exe. It even uses the same icon as Traktor.exe. All I do is double click TraktorLauncher.exe and it launches Traktor with all the paths correctly set. You don't have to set anything manually. If I am to release it I'll have to tidy it up a little because now all the paths are hard-coded to meet my personal needs. I'd have to create a small dialog to allow users to initially specify their own paths. After that it's set-and-forget. Traktor up and running anywhere with one click. 2014-01-27-225641 Traktor Launcher.png |
| Britt Bjordahl 26.01.2014 | .. |
| Britt Bjordahl 26.01.2014 |
Originally Posted by Scoox
I got 4 questions for ya.. 1. Could you send it to me somehow? How big is it? 2. I would assume, a reboot is needed after each change? Reboot of windows or Traktor only? 3. Now, I understand that the Traktor settings will not follow, only the copied files will be transferred but the next question is... What happens with playlists, stripes and all other kinds of info? And how does that work with remix sets? 4. How do you load it in 2nd PC? Using "import playlist"? But how can I grab the rest of the stuff in question 3? |
| Leoma Larouche 26.01.2014 |
Originally Posted by Alexisk
There are two solutions to this. 1) USBDLM: This program ensures that specific drives are assigned the same drive letter every time. I have mine set up so that my DJing external drive always gets assigned to T:\ on both my desktop PC and my laptop. The downside of this method is that it won't work if you connect your hard drive to, say, the evening club's computer, unless you also run USBDLM with your configuration file. Use this method if you plan to use Traktor only on your own computers--it is guaranteed to work every time. 2) Edit Traktor Settings.tsi: You can open Traktor Settings.tsi in Notepad. go Edit > Replace... and replace all instances of t:\ (the letter specified in the Traktor preferences) with the new drive letter k:\ (the actual drive letter assigned by Windows). You also need to change the drive letter in the registry under: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Native Instruments\Traktor Pro 2 2.6.5\RootDirectory Start Traktor and basically it will work. This method works on any computer that has Traktor installed, and you don't need any third-party software. Method 2 is the most effective but is a pain in the ass to do by hand, so I have written a small program to automate the process. The program detects the drive letter of the drive from which it runs and writes it to both the TSI file and the registry; finally it fires up Traktor. When Traktor closes, the program restores the original registry settings. If anyone is interested in the program I am happy to share it. |
| Nestor Epper 28.09.2012 | This may be a stupid question. And I'm really just trying to confirm my theory. I currently have all my music on an external hard drive. Also on the same drive I have My iTunes library files. What I do with iTunes is hold shift when opening and point it to the hard drive library file. This allows me to sync my iPhone and all my music to one library so no matter what (or who's) PC I am using I have my music. This works for iTunes so long as I close iTunes before moving the drive to the other PC. I want to be able to do the same thing with my Traktor collection, settings, mappings etc. This way I can use my desktop to manage my tunes, beatgrid tracks, and so on but still be able to take that hard drive to my laptop and DJ from it as with all the new changes I've made. Do I just tell Traktor where the files are in the folder settings? What should I copy to the hard drive? I use windows on both my laptop and desktop. |
| Britt Bjordahl 30.10.2012 | Dude, I have the same idea as you for Traktor but I cannot find the answer anywhere... NI does this very hard. I am about to try it myself. Here's to answer your 3 questions first: 1. Yes, I would suggest changing traktor's default location (but what if the drive letter changes, I have brought that up bellow) 2. I would copy everything under settings, "file management" - "music folders" to that location you want, but again as set previously what if the drive letter of the external drive changes. Honestly, it require some big testing... Here's how i'm planning on testing it: 1. Backup all music to another folder 2. Wipe both traktors with nothing and use same locations on both PCs for folder settings in traktor 3. Use 1 small USB flash drive with just a few songs 4. Map the USB drive in windows to always be the same drive when you plug it in (on both computers) 5. Make changes in the library on one PC, swap external drive to other computer. AND THEN THE BIG QUESTION, What happens???!?! Main inquiries: - Can this be done without hard mapping a drive in step 4? What happens if the drive is recognized as a different letter? - Location of stripe settings, etc... have to be saved on the mobile drive, what happens to the stripes if the drive letter also changes? - If PC 1 saves to drive with track updates and drive is inserted in PC 2, will PC2 overwrite tags or will PC2 be updated. Two brains are better than one for this.. |
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