LFS Forum - Saving to different folders

#1 - piggy501

Saving to different folders

Thu 2 Sep 2010, 21:24

Can't see anything similar so I'll ask...

Is there any way I can save skins, replays and other space-consuming files to a second HDD (it'll be an external one) instead of it filing up my main HDD?

At the moment its over 5GB of skins and replays and I could do with them being elsewhere. Any chance in being able to do this and when skins are used, bringing them to a "temp" folder in the main HDD, assuming running them through a USB cable of an external drive is too slow and laggy of course.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated, and if there isn't a way, I might try the "improvements suggestions".

Thank you for any help you offer in advance.

#2 - E.Reiljans

Thu 2 Sep 2010, 21:34

You can use Junction if you're on Windows XP or mklink if you're on Vista/7.

#3 - piggy501

Thu 2 Sep 2010, 21:45

I'd rather not branch out into 3 party software if necessary, but if its the only way then I will give it a try. Thanks for the reply

#4 - E.Reiljans

Thu 2 Sep 2010, 22:05

It's not 3rd party if you're on Vista/7, and I think software that comes from technet.microsoft.com isn't very third-party either :P

#5 - MadCatX

Fri 3 Sep 2010, 00:05

I thought about symlinking too, but there is a little catch. If you just symlink "skins" directory to the USB drive, you will have to connect it every time you play LFS. Another option would be to create some batch file that would create the symlink for you when needed.

BTW: Am I the only one that finds the fact than windows support native symlinks only since Vista pretty ridiculous?

#6 - MadCatX

Fri 3 Sep 2010, 00:51

I created a batch file that might be used for the job. I'm much more confident with UNIX bash than the crap windows inherited from the DOS ages, so it should rather serve as an example than a really working solution. It's completely untested and needs Vista+ to run.


echo "Creating symlinks"
ren skins skins_bak
if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 goto cannotRename

mklink /d skins E:\LFSskins
if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 goto cannotSymlink

echo "Launching LFS, do not disconnect the drive while LFS is running!"
LFS.exe

echo "Waiting to remove the symlink"
pause
del skins
ren skins_bak skins
if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 goto cannotRestore
echo "Finished successfully"
exit

:cannotRename
echo "Cannot rename existing 'skins' folder. Check if there is 'folder_bak' already present in the filesystem"
exit

:cannotSymlink
echo "Cannot create a symlink."
exit

:cannotRestore
echo "Cannot restore the original status. Please do so manually."
exit

#7 - E.Reiljans

Fri 3 Sep 2010, 04:51

Quote from MadCatX :BTW: Am I the only one that finds the fact than windows support native symlinks only since Vista pretty ridiculous?

It depends on NTFS version. Junctions are supported since NTFS 3.0 (Win2k), and symlinks are supported since NTFS 6.0 (Vista).