LaunchBox zip File?

[angelobodetti]

Hello - When I was loading roms, I noticed there is another option for "LaunchBox zip File". What is this? Am I able to export and import my LaunchBox database to another PC? Thank you

[SentaiBrad]

Your entire LaunchBox install is already portable, the zip is just there to create it as 1 file, but if you have a large LaunchBox install or it has games inside then that process could take a very long time. If you want to move your install to a new PC then there are a few ways you could do it. Copy over your information to a thumb drive and delete the LaunchBox.xml. This will remove all your games but keep all your images, but this is a big deal if your second PC has games on it's own drive. If you have your games on an external hard drive, then keep your entire LaunchBox install intact and just make sure that the external hard drive has the same drive letter on both machines, as your current LaunchBox install is looking for your roms in their current location, so breaking the file paths will break loading your games. If breaking the path is inevitable, deleting the XML and re-importing your games on the new machine would probably be best. Just during import, don't download any images since you'll already have them. If you have all your games in your LaunchBox folder (which I don't personally recommend but it can be useful) then just copy your LaunchBox folder and everything should be fine. In all 3 instances, you may need to set up your emulators again. If they are in the same location, just like the roms, then they should be fine though.

[evancroby]

Generally speaking most modern compression algorithms give roughly the same compression, and with regard to the number of cores that you can use at once, it is up to you to decide how many you want to use. Generally speaking (unless you are creating large archives) there is no reason to need more than one though. In addition, with multiple cores doing the compression, the bottleneck may become the hard drive. If you want to compress something to use as little space as possible, you should definitely use 7z. You can even crank up the compression settings to save even more space, although it will take longer to compress and decompress.

[SentaiBrad]

If the method in which you are moving your install is limited (say a 32GB USB Stick or something), then compression could help. However, and especially on Ultra compression settings in either WinRar or 7zip, it would just be faster to move the entire LaunchBox folder or move it in parts even. Compression, moving to and from then decompression can take a long time, especially on older PC's and higher compression methods.