Changing drive letter for game collections.

[smackm]

Hi, just bought a huge SSD to put my LB collection on it . I want to migrate all my data on to the same drive letter . Currently i have two drives with games on it.  F: drive and an O: drive ( currently a HDD that will be rplaced with SSD ). The folder structure from F:  will remain the same but just the drive letter will change form F: to O: . Basically getting rid of the F: drive. What would be the best way to do that so LB finds the new path ?  Example f:\roms is now going to be O:\roms, same subfolders ect just diffrent drive letter.    

[CTRL-ALT-DEFEAT]

if you want to change the volume label (letter) of a drive, you can do that easily from Disk Management in Windows (just use Windows search and type the word disk. You'll see something populate above that will say Create and format hard disk partitions).

At the top of the window, you'll see a list of currently connected SSDs/HDDs. Click on the one in the list you want to change the volume label for and then right-click it and choose change driver letter and paths..

Click the Change button

Next to Assign the following drive letter, click the drop down and then choose the letter you want associated for that drive.

If you have a drive connected already assigned as O:\, you'll either need to disconnect it or change it to another letter so you can use O:\ for the new one.

Then just click OK and close out of Disk Management.

 

If you already have a drive with O:\ assigned to it it and you are wanting to merge the data on the drive labeled F:\ to the one labeled as O:\, then so long as the filesystem is the same as you mentioned, you could just copy the root folder on F:\ to O:\ and just let it copy. Not really going to be fast way to accomplish it, but if the filesystem is setup the same way, then all of the data would just copy over into their appropriate folders.

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by CTRL-ALT-DEFEAT

[smackm]

Hey thx for the answer. Guess my post was kind of missleading, sorry. In simpler terms i want LB to find the content that is currently on F:  on drive O: . Example F:\roms\"subfolders"  to O:\roms\"subfolders". I thought there is a simple way within LB to do that but it seems more complicated or iam just missing something.

[CTRL-ALT-DEFEAT]

Ohhh.. sorry about that guess I misunderstood you.

Unless I'm misunderstanding the questions still (and I may be; its late), it sounds like you are not wanting to physically move/merge the data on F:\ to the one labeled O:\? You are just wanting LB to think everything on F:\ is on O:\?

If that is the case, then it might just be easier to put everything onto one drive, if there is enough space for all of it.

You might be able to pull something off by creating a symbolic link (symlink) for F:\  to O:\ , but then there isn't going to be any easy way in LB itself to modify the drive letter in your paths for the games on that drive. The bulk editing wizard will let you update paths for Music and Manuals, but that's it. Anything else, if it has an absolute path set, would have to be updated one by one or re-imported.

 

[smackm]

All good 😉 

That is exactly my plan. Like you said there is a way for all the media but i couldnt find anything for the roms itself. I was just trying to find a way not having to re-import 😁. I will get that sorted out somehow. Maybe making 2 partitions with the new drive. Thx for your help 😊

[JoeViking245]

There is the option to do it platform-by-platform.   Select a platform then select all games in that platform.  Then...

Tools - File Management - Change ROMs Folder Path for Selected Games...

 

But don't think it'll work if the ROMs (games) for the given platform are in separate subfolders

i.e. 
F:\Roms\my1stPlatform\gameA\rom.ext
F:\Roms\my1stPlatform\gameB\rom.ext

 

[smackm]

Thx for the hint. Didnt see that option. I will give it a try 🙂

 

[Belgarath]

You could just edit the .xml files with a text editor. find F:\ and replace with O:\

Symlinks are also good though. My LaunchBox thinks pretty much everything is on f: but my actual games are spread over 6 HDs.

Edit: Even though LaunchBox makes backups, you still might want to manually backup your xml files first before editing them with a text editor.

Edited November 18, 2023 by Belgarath

[smackm]

Thx for the tips. My intention was to get everything onto one drive ( 8GB SSD ) . Like you i have my data spread over many HDDs. It realy takes a toll on the performance. I allways make a backup of my DATA folder when i do some major changes. I just split my new drive into two partitions copy everything over and give these partitons the old drive letters. Never worked with Symlinks but i will look into it.Sounds very usefull. Thank you 😊