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clrmamepro [English] => clrmame Discussion => Topic started by: PoulpSquad on 04 November 2021, 12:26

Title: How do I check ROMs/ISOs split across several directories?
Post by: PoulpSquad on 04 November 2021, 12:26
Hello,

It is my first post on these forums, so I'll start by greeting everyone!

How do I scan a set that is split across several directories/drives?

Example:

F:\ROMS_1
G:\ROMS_2

Both directories containing ROMs from the same set. How do I have to set up cmpro for this to work?

Thanks a lot for your time reading this.
Title: Re: How do I check ROMs/ISOs split across several directories?
Post by: Roman on 04 November 2021, 12:31
Well, generally multiple rompaths aren't a problem since you can setup as much rompaths as you want (Settings->Rompaths).
If you now say that one set is split up on two drives....I actually wonder why :)

If you want to fix it, a rebuild to a new destination would be good thing to do where the source are your 2 folders (either drag'n drop or multiple rebuild runs or setup the 2 paths as addpaths)

If you want to keep one set split on two drives (I still don't see any usecase for that), you will run into issues during scanning since cmpro will complain that it found a set multiple times.
Title: Re: How do I check ROMs/ISOs split across several directories?
Post by: PoulpSquad on 04 November 2021, 12:40
Thank you Roman for your super-quick reply!

Quote
Well, generally multiple rompaths aren't a problem since you can setup as much rompaths as you want (Settings->Rompaths).
If you now say that one set is split up on two drives....I actually wonder why

That is correct, the set is split over 2 drives. That's because it is too big to fit entirely on a drive (complete set is about 6.26 TB, hard drive has 5.45 TB available space).

I tried setting multiple ROMs folders, but I must be doing something wrong, because cmpro either only scans the System-Default path ignoring all other paths, or doesn't scan anything if I don't set the System-Default path.

I was thinking, is there a way to make 2 or more directories appear as one outside of cmpro?
Title: Re: How do I check ROMs/ISOs split across several directories?
Post by: Roman on 04 November 2021, 12:51
let's discuss terminology. For me one set corresponds to 1 game

A set is a collection of roms and/or samples and/or chds....so e.g. pacman (which only has roms)

Now there are collections out there where the datfile is structured to keep all games in one set....for example a NES collection which may have some thousand single nes files in one set "NES collection".

You've mentioned 6.26 TB as set size...so I think it's more one of the latter ones?

If so, you can modify the datfile used for scanning and simply break it into 2 sets....one holding files with for example 0-9-H and the other J-Z or something
Title: Re: How do I check ROMs/ISOs split across several directories?
Post by: PoulpSquad on 04 November 2021, 13:05
Good call!

By your terminology, I have a collection of ISOs that don't fit on the hard drive. This collection has 1369 sets, each of which consists of a single ISO of either 4.37 GB or 8.74 GB.

If that helps, we're talking about a Redump collection (I don't know if we're allowed to discuss/give details about this kind of things on these forums).

Sorry I wasn't more specific.
Title: Re: How do I check ROMs/ISOs split across several directories?
Post by: Roman on 04 November 2021, 16:33
well....as long as the used datfile holds all in one set defintion (so you got a trillion isos in just 1 set), you won't succeed in testing.
You need to either:
- buy a bigger hd :)

- or split up the datfile...which is pretty easy. Load the datfile in a texteditor and decide where you want to split it. Generate a second set instance which holds the files from your 2nd hd), save this datfile and load it in the profiler.

This solution of course has a downside....since you need to know which parts are on the first and which are on the second disk...

...or you change the dat completely to 1 iso per set...then you don't need to care which file is on which disk, but you have to follow the storing methology which is always:
rompath\setname\file 1...file n for decompressed sets
rompath\setname.zip (.rar/.7z) for compressed sets where the archive holds file 1 ... file n

always keep in mind, usually a set contains more files, like a pacman arcade dump which is a collection of various IC rom dumps (sound, grafics, code,...:)

So in the last case you'd need to store isos separately in subfolders....
Title: Re: How do I check ROMs/ISOs split across several directories?
Post by: PoulpSquad on 04 November 2021, 19:40
Quote
- or split up the datfile...

Duh! Of course, that's the way to go!

I need to see if mounting a directory in another directory could work (eg, mount G:\ROMS2 in F:\ROMS1). That way I'd have a single directory with everything in it (I should have mentioned I'm using Windows 10 x64, so NTFS).

Thank you for the tip! I'll get busy on the dat and make 2 or 3 separate dats.
Title: Re: How do I check ROMs/ISOs split across several directories?
Post by: yescabernetnointernet on 23 November 2021, 09:17
Why don't you merge the two paths into a new single one with mklink?  ;)