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Table of Contents
Merging Drives for Large Collections
RomVault does not currently have the ability to assign multiple ROM paths to a single DAT. For example, you cannot assign X:\PS2
and Y:\PS2
to your PlayStation 2 DAT at the same time. This may be problematic if you use multiple drives and a particular collection cannot fit on a single physical drive. However, you can use other applications to merge multiple drives or paths together so they appear consolidated and can be accessed as if it were a single drive.
ⓘ NOTE: This guide should not be necessary if you use an array such as UnRAID or TrueNAS, but it may be helpful if you have several drives and do not use an array. The example below outlines one merging solution for Windows using WinFsp and rclone. There are many solutions available, but this solution should be suitable for simple use cases and allows flexibility so you do not need to change the format of any of your existing drives. |
Setup WinFsp
First, you will need to download and install WinFsp which is used for mounting virtual filesystems.
- Go to the WinFsp site.
- Download the latest version for your operating system. For this example we will use the standard WinFsp Installer.
- Open the WinFsp installer by double clicking on the
.msi
file that was downloaded. If prompted with a security warning, choose the “Run” option. - Install the application by following the prompts. The default settings should be sufficient.
Setup rclone
Next, you will need to download and setup rclone which is used for mounting various remote sources so they can be accessed through Windows Explorer. This may not seem intuitive at first if your drives are all connected locally with different drive letters. In this example we will be using rclone just for its merging capabilities, however it can also be used to connect to remote sources such as WebDAV, Google Drives, etc.
- Go to the rclone site.
- Download the latest version for your operating system. For this example we will use the “Intel/AMD - 64 Bit” version for Windows.
- Extract the contents of the
.zip
file to a location of your choosing. Note that rclone is like RomVault and does not have an installer. For this example we will extract the contents toC:\rclone
Configure an rclone Union remote
Next, we need to configure rclone using a special type of remote called a “Union”. The Union remote allows you to virtually merge the contents of multiple sources into a single mount point. This does not impact the filesystems of the source drives and does not require you do to do any reformatting or drive preparation.
- Open a command prompt by typing “cmd” into the Windows search bar and selecting “Command Prompt”
- Navigate to the rclone directory, in this case:
cd C:\rclone
. Note you can also typecd
then drag and drop your rclone directory onto the command line to populate the correct path. - Launch rclone by typing
rclone config
and pressing Enter. A configuration wizard will display. - Choose option
n) New remote
by typingn
and pressing Enter. A name prompt will display. - Give your remote a friendly name so you know what it is. For this example we will be merging two drives that contain a Redump PlayStation 2 collection, so we will call this remote “PS2”. Press Enter and a long list of remote types will display.
- Choose the
union
option by typing the number or the word “union” and press Enter. The config wizard will ask for a list of upstreams, or paths to merge. - Type or drag and drop the paths you want to include separated by a space, for example:
"X:\PS2" "Y:\PS2"
. Press Enter and the wizard will continue to walk you through various settings. - Choose the default for
action_policy
by pressing Enter. - Choose the default for
create_policy
by pressing Enter. - Choose the default for
search_policy
by pressing Enter. - Choose the default for
cache_time
by pressing Enter. - When prompted to edit the advanced config, choose “no” by pressing Enter.
- When prompted to keep the remote, choose “yes” by pressing Enter. You will be taken back to the main menu of the remote configuration wizard.
- Choose to quit the configuration wizard by typing
q
and press Enter.
Configure directory rules
Work in progress
Configure directory rules
Work in progress