network drive error - Directory could not be created error

[zoemorn]

Hey all, i presume this is a common known thing but i didnt readily find a thread about it, and maybe i need to make it a feature request..

I've got a network drive mapping to my NAS which has media for LB. Now if the NAS is off, or theres a connection issue, or i have the paths mapped wrong in the xml, upon opening launchbox an error (or multiple errors) popup saying:

A directory could not be created: (provides the path to the folder i presume it couldnt find)

Please make sure you have proper permissions to create the specified folder and that the folder path is valid. This also could be a sign of hard drive or file system failure. LaunchBox cannot continue

Could not find a part of the path '(path it couldnt find/access)'  

 

So of course if theres a legit disconnect the error makes sense (if i'm interpreting the error right that it simply doesnt find the path, which makes perfect sense) but my issue is that it crashes LB. When you click OK on the box, launchbox closes out. Seems like we could soften up the error or requirement for LB so that it doesnt kill launchbox but instead just informs you that the stuff cant be accessed. I've read here that some use external drive to house their rom files, swapping drives that have certain games, but maybe it only throws the error if on disconnect with the media, not the roms?

Or maybe i have a setting wrong or something else i can do to soften this error?

thanks all!

 

[DOS76]

What do you have on this network drive that is related to LB? I use a Windows Server but the only thing that it host related to LB is the ROMs them selves and I never get that error even if my server is turned off the only issue I will have is that it will say ROMs are missing if I try to launch while the server is off.

[zoemorn]

5 hours ago, DOS76 said:

What do you have on this network drive that is related to LB? I use a Windows Server but the only thing that it host related to LB is the ROMs them selves and I never get that error even if my server is turned off the only issue I will have is that it will say ROMs are missing if I try to launch while the server is off.

its the media thats on the nas, thanks DOS, and the error path mentioned is the paths pointing to the cart graphics etc

Edited January 12, 2020 by zoemorn

[Jason Carr]

This does make sense. Media is used so heavily in LaunchBox/Big Box that generally it's not recommended to put any media in a network location, as it's cause for performance issues (and potentially stability issues as well). ROMs do work fine over the network, but media is not recommended.

That said, if you would, please create a BitBucket ticket for this, and we'll address it when we can, based on feedback. Thanks!

[zoemorn]

1 hour ago, Jason Carr said:

This does make sense. Media is used so heavily in LaunchBox/Big Box that generally it's not recommended to put any media in a network location, as it's cause for performance issues (and potentially stability issues as well). ROMs do work fine over the network, but media is not recommended.

That said, if you would, please create a BitBucket ticket for this, and we'll address it when we can, based on feedback. Thanks!

Thanks Jason! And maybe I need to rethink my storage strategy.  I went this way because it appeared that the graphics and videos etc were gonna be heavier than roms. But I never could find where anyone with  a large collection provided this detail (how much the media weighed in contrasted to the roms).

But maybe I need to turn it around and see if I can increase the local pc storage enough to handle the media.(again I'm just unsure what that will end up as, I'm wanting to have a big collection from oldies to recent gen.. not necessarily a completist but dont want to be limited by storage if I can help it). 

Thanks for your efforts, I'm a licensed holder and always dig seeing what y'all come up with.

[zoemorn]

3 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

This does make sense. Media is used so heavily in LaunchBox/Big Box that generally it's not recommended to put any media in a network location, as it's cause for performance issues (and potentially stability issues as well). ROMs do work fine over the network, but media is not recommended.

That said, if you would, please create a BitBucket ticket for this, and we'll address it when we can, based on feedback. Thanks!

i dont have a bitbucket acct,  i tried signing in via google but then it wanted me to create cloud bitbucket acct which, i wasnt sure if there were fees or not so backed out.    maybe someone who's already got an acct might post it?

[DOS76]

It is free to create an account.

[fromlostdays]

Curious, I went ahead and checked the size of my video folder in my full build. That includes 150ish systems, and 80isk games, however, obviously videos don't exist for every game. Also note that I downloaded some bigger videos for steam games directly from youtube, playlist videos, a few alternate sets for platform videos etc.:

Video Folder:

Total: 160 Gigs

Files 24,746

For perspective, Nintendo Entertainment System video folder:

Total 9.5 Gigs

Files 1099 (That includes over 200 theme videos)

Theres so many files in the images folder I don't feel like waiting for it to calculate size haha, but its pretty negligible in comparison. The other space heavy assets are definitely music and manuals with manuals taking second place.

Could not have been more wrong about the images! I let it sit for about 15 minutes.

Images folder:

Total size: 132 gigs

Total files 412,933

Music

15 gigs

Manuals

30 gigs.

Bear in mind that I downloaded everything, never unchecked a box on import. Nor have I run the images cleanup function.

So with all of those systems and games, and with zero curating on media, looks to be about 337 gigs of total media.

Hope it helps!

Another thing to think about is how the lions share of all of this media was automatically available to me via automatic download, automatic sorting and naming with the just the price of launchbox and an emumovies sub. That's one hell of selling point, and cheers to the people who helped build the LB database.   

Edited January 14, 2020 by fromlostdays

[zoemorn]

On 1/14/2020 at 12:18 AM, fromlostdays said:

Curious, I went ahead and checked the size of my video folder in my full build. That includes 150ish systems, and 80isk games, however, obviously videos don't exist for every game. Also note that I downloaded some bigger videos for steam games directly from youtube, playlist videos, a few alternate sets for platform videos etc.:

Video Folder:

Total: 160 Gigs

Files 24,746

For perspective, Nintendo Entertainment System video folder:

Total 9.5 Gigs

Files 1099 (That includes over 200 theme videos)

Theres so many files in the images folder I don't feel like waiting for it to calculate size haha, but its pretty negligible in comparison. The other space heavy assets are definitely music and manuals with manuals taking second place.

Could not have been more wrong about the images! I let it sit for about 15 minutes.

Images folder:

Total size: 132 gigs

Total files 412,933

Music

15 gigs

Manuals

30 gigs.

Bear in mind that I downloaded everything, never unchecked a box on import. Nor have I run the images cleanup function.

So with all of those systems and games, and with zero curating on media, looks to be about 337 gigs of total media.

Hope it helps!

Another thing to think about is how the lions share of all of this media was automatically available to me via automatic download, automatic sorting and naming with the just the price of launchbox and an emumovies sub. That's one hell of selling point, and cheers to the people who helped build the LB database.   

@fromlostdays Sweet! i hadnt noticed your response til just now but thanks man! i was just going to try and peg you big collector types for just this kind of  information!  And yes, i do have launchbox premium and emumovies and totally agree. sometimes i mess myself up in duplicating media downloads due to the autodownloading but they keep upgrading LB and adding clean up functionalities that undoubtedly will even help my messups. I dont presume i'll have as big O collection as you have (yet) but i may also do a  virtual pinball collection as well so want to try to be prepared storage-wise for that (and have no idea how big of a foot print to allow for there.) .. but maybe i'll keep the pinball on separate storage..

So if any virtual pinball folks out there have an idea of  storage footprint for a multiplatform (visual pinball, pinballFX etc) collection .. that'd be great to know as well.