Link directories on MULTIPLE DRIVES to a single folder

jimbo45

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Hi there

Is there any way to link directories on several DIFFERENT HDD's to the SAME top directory / library.

Trying a Multi-media server with video files on HDD1, HDD2, HDD3.

What I want is to say create a top level directory videos, then under that directories video1, video2 and video3,so my application which says Multi-media folder -- I could point to directory videos -- then I'd get the 3 folders as part of the top level directory.

(Using Spanned disks can work but I'd rather not go down that route these days as the 3 disks I want to use are EXTERNAL HDD's and spanned disks need ALL the drives to be available and if there's any error you lose THE LOT. !!! )

With Linux it's easy -- just create 4 directories in your /home folder say /mnt/videos as top level, then in this directory create 3 sub directories /mnt/videos1, /mnt/videos2, mnt/videos 3

then mount the devices /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdb2, /devsdb3 in /mnt/videos1, mnt/videos2, mnt/videos3

then browsing your home directory with mnt/videos you'll see all the data files in the 3 directories from all 3 HDD's -- no matter what their size, -- you only need a FEW BYTES too in your home directory !!. You don't actually copy or move any data from the HDD's to these directories. Things like search are great too since you point the search at the top level directory and the system will scan all the sub directories (so all 3 disks) too.

A lot of multi-media type programs seem only to handle ONE top level folder so when the HDD is full you are stuffed -- maybe limitations of the windows file system. I've seen somewhere that you can use some type of links if you have multiple devices but can't find it.

How does a NAS device handle multiple HDD's within the server.

The old library feature was half way there but in W8.1 that feature seems to have GONE.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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Hello Jimbo,

You should be able to use Libraries for this in Windows 8.1 as well. :)

You could add folders from different locations to say your Videos library.
Afterwards, you could set the "Default Save Location" and "Public Save Location" to what folder you want in the library.
 

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Hi there

Thanks for the replies -- Brinks answer is probably the nearest -- to use Libraries. The Linux symlinks would have been the best but I have to have these multi-media files on a Windows server --- I'm still fighting that battle even though I know that the Windows clients can easily access from Linux server via SAMBA and the users wouldn't even KNOW the difference !!! - they would just be network shared files -- but you know what some people are like.!!!

I'll try the Libraries route. That other piece of software looks like you could at times easily lose data.

Here's a few diagrams of what I'm trying to do

1) Linux machine 3 separate HDD's on devices - weirdly labelled opensuse DVD (just my sloppy installation - but I'm only testing) !!
with two samba shares audio and data

2) the audio share is also seen in the HOME directory (doesn't have to be but it's easier while testing - this would of course go on to a separate public directory rather than a users HOME. Files can be seen -- these are components of ALL 3 HDD's (around 4.2 TB !!)

3) Windows client machine sees the same audio files as ONE top level directory - and it's 4.2TB in size. Updating the directory the Linux OS will just manage where the data actually goes - doesn't matter as it's a LIBRARY of sorts so it's easy to find any particular item.



Cheers
jimbo
 

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
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