Transferring image files and database to new hard drive

[Darren Kirby]

Hi all,

So I've finally run out of room on my 500GB drive dedicated solely to
my image files. I went out today and bought a 1 terrabyte drive to add
more space. My intention is to use the new 1TB for all my images and
keep the 500GB for archived and compressed RAW files. I'm thinking
that if I just go ahead and move the files, including the DB file to
the new drive, update my fstab, and mount the new drive in the same
place that digikam expects it should all go without a hitch? Any
gotchas I need to be aware of? I guess my main concern is that I don't
want digikam to have to go through all 500GB of files and regenerate
the database, as It will take a _very_ long time.

Also, a bit off-topic, but can anyone suggest a Linux file system that
might be ideal for this application? Current FS is ext3, and ideally I
am looking for a FS with a good compromise between stability and
speed.

Gentoo Linux
digikam 1.1.0 on KDE 4.4.5

Thanks,
D
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[jag59]

Darren Kirby wrote

Hi all,

So I've finally run out of room on my 500GB drive dedicated solely to
my image files. I went out today and bought a 1 terrabyte drive to add
more space. My intention is to use the new 1TB for all my images and
keep the 500GB for archived and compressed RAW files. I'm thinking
that if I just go ahead and move the files, including the DB file to
the new drive, update my fstab, and mount the new drive in the same
place that digikam expects it should all go without a hitch? Any
gotchas I need to be aware of? I guess my main concern is that I don't
want digikam to have to go through all 500GB of files and regenerate
the database, as It will take a _very_ long time.



Gentoo Linux
digikam 1.1.0 on KDE 4.4.5

Thanks,
D
--
Support the mob or mysteriously disappear...
I'm on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/badcomputer/
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Hi,
Congratulations for the 1 TB HDD!
I think DK is a very reliable and easy to use application for this work.
Just reconfigure DK 'Database' and 'Collection' pointing to the new locations.
I have successfully copied  my collection from  small partition to another big partition,reconfigured DK as per new locations,confirmed it's healthiness  and then deleted the old data on small partition.
At any time the 'datadase file' can be moved to much safer place/position and it's new path to be given in the 'Database'tab so that DK starts with usual time without rebuilding the database

Regarding file system,I am not the authorized person.Till I get 1 TB disk like you,I am forced to continue with my photos on NTFS and their backup on Ext3 having rw rights only for 'root' .

[jag59]

@ Darren
I am using DK 1.4.0 in PCLinux2010KDE4.5.0.
Don't remember DK 1.1.0,but the basic things like db management must be same in v 1.1.0,pl confirm.
Good luck!

[Darren Kirby]

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:16 AM, jag59 <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hi,
> Congratulations for the 1 TB HDD!
> I think DK is a very reliable and easy to use application for this work.
> Just reconfigure DK 'Database' and 'Collection' pointing to the new
> locations.
> I have successfully copied  my collection from  small partition to another
> big partition,reconfigured DK as per new locations,confirmed it's
> healthiness  and then deleted the old data on small partition.
> At any time the 'datadase file' can be moved to much safer place/position
> and it's new path to be given in the 'Database'tab so that DK starts with
> usual time without rebuilding the database

Thanks for the reply,

It occurs to me I should probably explain a bit more about the
structure of my files. The HDD for my images gets mounted directly on
a directory called 'Pictures' in the top level of my ~user directory.
At the top level of 'Pictures' lives the digikam4.db file, a few blank
model/property release documents and other assorted docs relating to
photography, and two directories, one called 'Film' and one called
'Digital' that serve as the root directories of my 2 digikam
collections. The absolute paths of these whilst mounted would be:

/home/bulliver/Pictures/Digital
/home/bulliver/Pictures/Film

Now I was thinking I could get away without touching digikam's
settings at all, as after I have copied the files and mounted the new
disc they will all live at exactly the same absolute paths as before.
It is my understanding that a program such as digikam should have no
knowledge of the underlying file system and disc structure at
all...and thus would 'just work' at first start after moving the
files. Is this not correct?


> Regarding file system,I am not the authorized person.Till I get 1 TB disk
> like you,I am forced to continue with my photos on NTFS and their backup on
> Ext3 having rw rights only for 'root' .

You know, I have used ext3 because it is stable and rock-solid, but I
am strongly considering trying ext4 for the first time to take
advantage of it's purported speed improvements. Unless someone warns
against, I think that is exactly what I will do. It will require a
kernel recompile for me, so I will start this process tomorrow after
some sleep!

> -----
> Jagdeesh Deshpande.
> Registered Linux user #492893
>

Thanks again Jagdeesh!

D

--
Support the mob or mysteriously disappear...
I'm on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/badcomputer/
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[Robert Zeller-2]

Hi,

I am using a 750 GB disk with an ext4 file system to store my pictures
and music files. Digikam works without any problems on the ext4
filesystem and speed seems to be ok.

Robert Zeller


On 08/31/2010 09:32 AM, Darren Kirby wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:16 AM, jag59 <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>  
>> Hi,
>> Congratulations for the 1 TB HDD!
>> I think DK is a very reliable and easy to use application for this work.
>> Just reconfigure DK 'Database' and 'Collection' pointing to the new
>> locations.
>> I have successfully copied  my collection from  small partition to another
>> big partition,reconfigured DK as per new locations,confirmed it's
>> healthiness  and then deleted the old data on small partition.
>> At any time the 'datadase file' can be moved to much safer place/position
>> and it's new path to be given in the 'Database'tab so that DK starts with
>> usual time without rebuilding the database
>>    
> Thanks for the reply,
>
> It occurs to me I should probably explain a bit more about the
> structure of my files. The HDD for my images gets mounted directly on
> a directory called 'Pictures' in the top level of my ~user directory.
> At the top level of 'Pictures' lives the digikam4.db file, a few blank
> model/property release documents and other assorted docs relating to
> photography, and two directories, one called 'Film' and one called
> 'Digital' that serve as the root directories of my 2 digikam
> collections. The absolute paths of these whilst mounted would be:
>
> /home/bulliver/Pictures/Digital
> /home/bulliver/Pictures/Film
>
> Now I was thinking I could get away without touching digikam's
> settings at all, as after I have copied the files and mounted the new
> disc they will all live at exactly the same absolute paths as before.
> It is my understanding that a program such as digikam should have no
> knowledge of the underlying file system and disc structure at
> all...and thus would 'just work' at first start after moving the
> files. Is this not correct?
>
>
>  
>> Regarding file system,I am not the authorized person.Till I get 1 TB disk
>> like you,I am forced to continue with my photos on NTFS and their backup on
>> Ext3 having rw rights only for 'root' .
>>    
> You know, I have used ext3 because it is stable and rock-solid, but I
> am strongly considering trying ext4 for the first time to take
> advantage of it's purported speed improvements. Unless someone warns
> against, I think that is exactly what I will do. It will require a
> kernel recompile for me, so I will start this process tomorrow after
> some sleep!
>
>  
>> -----
>> Jagdeesh Deshpande.
>> Registered Linux user #492893
>>
>>    
> Thanks again Jagdeesh!
>
> D
>
> --
> Support the mob or mysteriously disappear...
> I'm on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/badcomputer/
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users
>
>  

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[Robert Zeller]

Hi,

I am using a 759 GB disk with an ext4 filesystem to store my pictures
and also music files. Digikam works without any problems on the
ext4-filesystem and speed seems to be ok.

Robert Zeller

On 08/31/2010 09:32 AM, Darren Kirby wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:16 AM, jag59 <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>  
>> Hi,
>> Congratulations for the 1 TB HDD!
>> I think DK is a very reliable and easy to use application for this work.
>> Just reconfigure DK 'Database' and 'Collection' pointing to the new
>> locations.
>> I have successfully copied  my collection from  small partition to another
>> big partition,reconfigured DK as per new locations,confirmed it's
>> healthiness  and then deleted the old data on small partition.
>> At any time the 'datadase file' can be moved to much safer place/position
>> and it's new path to be given in the 'Database'tab so that DK starts with
>> usual time without rebuilding the database
>>    
> Thanks for the reply,
>
> It occurs to me I should probably explain a bit more about the
> structure of my files. The HDD for my images gets mounted directly on
> a directory called 'Pictures' in the top level of my ~user directory.
> At the top level of 'Pictures' lives the digikam4.db file, a few blank
> model/property release documents and other assorted docs relating to
> photography, and two directories, one called 'Film' and one called
> 'Digital' that serve as the root directories of my 2 digikam
> collections. The absolute paths of these whilst mounted would be:
>
> /home/bulliver/Pictures/Digital
> /home/bulliver/Pictures/Film
>
> Now I was thinking I could get away without touching digikam's
> settings at all, as after I have copied the files and mounted the new
> disc they will all live at exactly the same absolute paths as before.
> It is my understanding that a program such as digikam should have no
> knowledge of the underlying file system and disc structure at
> all...and thus would 'just work' at first start after moving the
> files. Is this not correct?
>
>
>  
>> Regarding file system,I am not the authorized person.Till I get 1 TB disk
>> like you,I am forced to continue with my photos on NTFS and their backup on
>> Ext3 having rw rights only for 'root' .
>>    
> You know, I have used ext3 because it is stable and rock-solid, but I
> am strongly considering trying ext4 for the first time to take
> advantage of it's purported speed improvements. Unless someone warns
> against, I think that is exactly what I will do. It will require a
> kernel recompile for me, so I will start this process tomorrow after
> some sleep!
>
>  
>> -----
>> Jagdeesh Deshpande.
>> Registered Linux user #492893
>>
>>    
> Thanks again Jagdeesh!
>
> D
>
> --
> Support the mob or mysteriously disappear...
> I'm on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/badcomputer/
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users
>
>  

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[Andreas Tono]

Am Dienstag, 31. August 2010 schrieb Darren Kirby:
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:16 AM, jag59 <[hidden email]>
wrote:

> > Hi,
> > Congratulations for the 1 TB HDD!
> > I think DK is a very reliable and easy to use application for
> > this work. Just reconfigure DK 'Database' and 'Collection'
> > pointing to the new locations.
> > I have successfully copied  my collection from  small partition
> > to another big partition,reconfigured DK as per new
> > locations,confirmed it's healthiness  and then deleted the old
> > data on small partition. At any time the 'datadase file' can be
> > moved to much safer place/position and it's new path to be given
> > in the 'Database'tab so that DK starts with usual time without
> > rebuilding the database
>
> Thanks for the reply,
>
> It occurs to me I should probably explain a bit more about the
> structure of my files. The HDD for my images gets mounted directly
>  on a directory called 'Pictures' in the top level of my ~user
>  directory. At the top level of 'Pictures' lives the digikam4.db
>  file, a few blank model/property release documents and other
>  assorted docs relating to photography, and two directories, one
>  called 'Film' and one called 'Digital' that serve as the root
>  directories of my 2 digikam collections. The absolute paths of
>  these whilst mounted would be:
>
> /home/bulliver/Pictures/Digital
> /home/bulliver/Pictures/Film
>
> Now I was thinking I could get away without touching digikam's
> settings at all, as after I have copied the files and mounted the
>  new disc they will all live at exactly the same absolute paths as
>  before.

Think about the timestamps for each file in the filesystem.
If digikam keeeps that also in the database you may get a problem.

On Linux i would use the rsync command.
rsync -a sourcedir targetdir

Beware: there is a differenc in if you put a slash after sourcedir/

If you are not familiar with rsync read manual an do some exeriments
on testfolders till you know what you are doing.

With rsync you kan keep folders and files the same on different
filesystems.

>  It is my understanding that a program such as digikam
>  should have no knowledge of the underlying file system and disc
>  structure at all...and thus would 'just work' at first start after
>  moving the files. Is this not correct?
>
> > Regarding file system,I am not the authorized person.Till I get 1
> > TB disk like you,I am forced to continue with my photos on NTFS
> > and their backup on Ext3 having rw rights only for 'root' .
>
> You know, I have used ext3 because it is stable and rock-solid, but
>  I am strongly considering trying ext4 for the first time to take
>  advantage of it's purported speed improvements. Unless someone
>  warns against, I think that is exactly what I will do. It will
>  require a kernel recompile for me, so I will start this process
>  tomorrow after some sleep!
>
> > -----
> > Jagdeesh Deshpande.
> > Registered Linux user #492893
>
> Thanks again Jagdeesh!
>
> D
>
> --
> Support the mob or mysteriously disappear...
> I'm on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/badcomputer/
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users
>

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[jag59]

Andreas Tono wrote

"Think about the timestamps for each file in the filesystem.
If digikam keeeps that also in the database you may get a problem.

On Linux i would use the rsync command.
rsync -a sourcedir targetdir "

Thanks for your post.
Long back I had done some rearrangements on my hard disk and now I think
1) I didn't move the 'photos' directory,but moved 'backup of photos' directory from smaller partition to bigger one.
2) This 'backup of photos' directory was not in Digicam's 'collections',hence did not make any difference for me.
3) I made more space for 'photos' directory by moving 'other than photos' stuff from that partition to other partition.

@Darren Kirby...pl. excuse me if I have caused any inconvenience to you....that was never my intention....but sometimes it may happen in the enthusiasm of helping the fellow beings....any how I shall be more conscious while posting hereafter.

Regards.

[Darren Kirby]

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Andreas Tono <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Think about the timestamps for each file in the filesystem.
> If digikam keeeps that also in the database you may get a problem.
>
> On Linux i would use the rsync command.
> rsync -a sourcedir targetdir
>
> Beware: there is a differenc in if you put a slash after sourcedir/
>
> If you are not familiar with rsync read manual an do some exeriments
> on testfolders till you know what you are doing.
>
> With rsync you kan keep folders and files the same on different
> filesystems.
>

Thanks Andreas, that's the gotcha I was looking for. I am familiar
with rsync, and I was going to use it to transfer the files but I
likely would have overlooked the flag to preserve timestamps.

I've just realized I don't have a spare SATA cable, so I'll have to
delay this another day :(

D
--
Support the mob or mysteriously disappear...
I'm on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/badcomputer/
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[Darren Kirby]

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:54 PM, jag59 <[hidden email]> wrote:

> @Darren Kirby...pl. excuse me if I have caused any inconvenience to
> you....that was never my intention....but sometimes it may happen in the
> enthusiasm of helping the fellow beings....any how I shall be more conscious
> while posting hereafter.
>
> Regards.
>
> -----
> Jagdeesh Deshpande.
> Registered Linux user #492893

Certainly no inconvenience Jagdeesh, I am appreciative of your reply.
I just wanted to clarify how such a move would affect digikam
specifically. I have done this with ~user directories before with no
ill effect, and so I assumed it would work here as well.

Thanks,
D
--
Support the mob or mysteriously disappear...
I'm on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/badcomputer/
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[jag59]

Darren Kirby wrote

Certainly no inconvenience Jagdeesh, I am appreciative of your reply.
I just wanted to clarify how such a move would affect digikam
specifically. I have done this with ~user directories before with no
ill effect, and so I assumed it would work here as well.

Thanks,
D
--

Thanks gentelman.I was feeling guilty but your reply gave me solace.

[Jean-Michel Pouré-4]

On Mon, 2010-08-30 at 20:17 -0600, Darren Kirby wrote:
> Current FS is ext3, and ideally I
> am looking for a FS with a good compromise between stability and
> speed.

I am using a 5 disc server installed with RAID5 + lvm + ext3, which
makes around 4Gb. I connect using SMB and it seems to suit my needs. I
noticed the output was around 35Mb/s, which is okay compared to 80Mb/s
on a SATA disc.

I can only encourage you to use lvm+RAID to keep your photos. You can
start using two discs only. This is very suitable on a desktop.

Today, if you have a separate room to keep a server running, there are
very cheap NAS solutions. I even found that one on Internet recently:

http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360286798360

This server has 30 sata disc enclosures. But you need to configure it
from scratch. I have one of these, but with 5 enclosures. It makes a lot
of noise!

Delivery is a little bit expensive, you can probably ask the seller for
less.

Kind regards,
Jean-Michel

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