I see most people with large

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April 23, 2011 at 4:51 pm #3645
RehabMan

    I see most people with large movie libraries (larger than a single hard disk) are resorting to multiple shares.  I thought I’d share my (untested) plan…

    I think what might work instead is to store the movies on the separate drives (no choice there), but then create a single share with symlinks to the individual movie folders.  For example, say you have four movies on 3 different drives, e:MoviesMovie1, f:MoviesMovie2, f:MoviesMovie3, g:MoviesMovie4.  You would then create a single share on d:Movies, with the following symlinks, d:MoviesMovie1 -> e:MoviesMovie1, d:MoviesMovie2 -> f:MoviesMovie2, d:MoviesMovie3 -> f:MoviesMovie3, d:MoviesMovie4 -> g:MoviesMovie4.

    Then the d:Movies folder is shared out as a single share \ServerMovies (I plan to use the same computer name for my WHS 2011 server, which will mean I will not have to change anything in the MyMovies database).

    Initially, I’ll create/maintain the symlink redirecting folder with a simple Powershell script, but may investigate writing a custom service that monitors the destination folders and adds/removes symlinks as necessary to keep everything in sync.

    At this point, it is only an idea/plan, as I have not yet built my new WHS 2011 server.  I’m going to use some parts (Core i3 + 1156 motherboard) from my HTPC as I plan to upgrade it to SandyBridge when I’m able to find the appropriate Intel motherboard for sale.  The Intel “media” boards w/ integrated video seem to be in short supply at this point.

    // Dean