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Internal or External HDD?


Wallimann

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Hi!
First, I'm thrilled to see that this forum has a noob section. Way to go! :)
I just ordered an Alienware Alpha PC with 1TB internal HDD. The machien will be used exclusively for Big Box and Kodi.

What is the recommended installation destination for Big Box and the additional assets (media + roms)?

Should everything be on the internal drive?
Should the app and media be on internal and roms on external?

I want to have a clean instal and would love some tips! :)

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Yes, you will need a large folder for your LaunchBox install, especially if you take the recommended approach of keeping all your ROMs and emulators inside of the LaunchBox folder, which will allow you to move the folder later if you put it all inside of the LaunchBox folder. If you only have one drive, you should be fine putting LaunchBox in the root of Drive C. Personally I would not put anything on an external USB hard drive because performance will likely be slower.

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If you expect to keep all your roms, emulators (including the MAME software list) and artwork inside the LaunchBox folder, you're going to need a 3tb or larger SSD.

And if you want to try other front ends, you'll end up duplicating all your roms and support files onto additional drives or else struggling with setting tens of thousands of paths individually and by hand.

That is the price of FE's prefering everything to be inside their own application folders (frustrated!).

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From experience ROMs on external HDD's work great in LB especially if you have USB 3.0 most games actually will work great over Gigabit LAN from my server but at a certain point (PS2, Dreamcast, GameCube WII) you need to have a data drive be it an internal or external If you are comfortable opening your case up though and have room I would definitely go SSD with 5TB internal drive for future proofing and expansion but I am a serious data hoarder so that just how I do it.

Edited by DOS76
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I have MAME merged no chd, the popular consoles, PS1 USA, GameCube, NeoGeo, Saturn, Dreamcast, Commodore 64 etc. Only the basic systems everyone has. No Wii or PS2 yet (I'd need another HDD). HyperSpin, LB (currently missing most of the art), and all the art HyperSync downloads. My 3tb is nearly full.

Sorry if I came off negative. LB/BB is great. I'm just stuck since I switched systems and had to reformat my hard drive. I copied LB over to a flash drive but the artwork wouldn't fit. On the new system, I let LB download metadata overnight and it was only 1/4 finished the next afternoon. Most of the art is in my HS folder already, but I can't use it the way LB is setup (and HS). I have to duplicate everything or else go game by game pointing all the paths. So for the time being, I'm back to HS.

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Thanks for all the responses.

If I went with an internal SSD for the OS and BigBox and kept all the roms in an external 3TB drive, where should the media (movies, artwork) go? Internal SSD or external drive?

I'll will mostly play older systems, the newer being Wii.

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