Changing the place where Rack Extensions are stored...

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PadShifta
Posts: 92
Joined: 23 Jan 2015
Location: Germany
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30 Oct 2017

Hey there.
I´ll get right to the point. My SSD-Drive is almost full. I´ve had issues concerning the discspace before. My SSD isn´t really large: 130GB (I had to make cuts due to the price).
It is running Windows only and that´s exactly what it is meant to do. I have directed every program on the system to store files onto the built in 1.5TB regular drive so C: wouldn´t clog up.
Apparently though, Reason doesn´t even ask where to install the Rack Extensions to. I just had to discover that C: is packed to the brim with my Rack Extensions... which steal around 28GB! I´ve got 15 Gigs left on C: , which by manual, isn´t even enough to run Windows properly - that needs about 23 Gigs to work fluently.

Is it possible to move the RE folder to my other drive in any way? And can I tell Reason where I want future REs to be installed? this is a biggie to me. Does anyone know?

Cheers Andy

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Carly(Poohbear)
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Posts: 2871
Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: UK

30 Oct 2017

Something like this will work, just put in your name and the new location in.

I have my RE's on my D drive (D:\Mklink\RackExtensions), which happens to be another SSD.

Step 1, close Reason
Step 2, copy the files to the new directory
Step 3, delete the old directory
Step 4, run
mklink /J "C:\Users\carly\AppData\Roaming\Propellerhead Software\RackExtensions" "D:\Mklink\RackExtensions"


PoohBear

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recent Music made with Reason
(Electronic) Poly Madness
(Electronic) Solar Dance
(Electronic) Into The Night
(Upbeat) The Players Took Me There Made in Reason 9 with heavy use of the players
(Electronic) 5 Steps (Video added) Updated
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Soundcloud Page ....... Nektar Mappings
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Carly(Poohbear)
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Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: UK

30 Oct 2017

FYI I only have about 10GB free on my C drive, my machine runs absolutely fine so I'm not sure where you heard that one.

also note: I use MKLINK a lot even if a program allows me to place it on another drive, I install everything on the C then move it. So many programs have issues if they are not on the C drive, mainly with updates or other addons but MKLINK fools them.

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AttenuationHz
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Joined: 20 Mar 2015
Location: Back of the Rack-1

30 Oct 2017

Usually your ram is cached to a pagefile for quicker access or something... but you could probably gain space by disabling hibernation also allocated about 15gb. I have a fair few rack extensions but they amount to about 2Gb. 28GB does not sound right. If its a laptop then I would not recommend disabling the hibernation file.

If you're on windows have a look at a free program called spacesniffer if you need to view space it maps it out and looks cool doing so! Also I would recommend CCleaner I have a 128 SSD myself and try to manage the space on it those 2 programs make it a lot easier. The first time I ran CCleaner on a vista pc it deleted about 16gb of useless stuff. temp files cached stuff internet history cookies etc all useless. I also allocated a partition of 2GB on a external just for temporary internet files Internet Explorer for me was storing way too much stuff I would guess lots of people would not be aware of the C.IE5 folder can be upwards of 6GB in there and then also windows Update the download folder holds onto any update. Also Geforce drivers can take up tons of space 450mb per update there is a scanner for that on CCleaner. spacesniffer will give you a better look at what is where.

Performance does drop slightly but it would barely grind to a halt or anything. When your C drive is nearing capacity sometimes windows will drop the pagefile to compensate until space is available again.
It is not too much of an ask for people or things to be the best version of itself!

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Carly(Poohbear)
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Posts: 2871
Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: UK

31 Oct 2017

AttenuationHz wrote:
30 Oct 2017
Usually your ram is cached to a pagefile for quicker access or something... but you could probably gain space by disabling hibernation also allocated about 15gb. I have a fair few rack extensions but they amount to about 2Gb. 28GB does not sound right. If its a laptop then I would not recommend disabling the hibernation file.
FYI my RE's take up 23GB, so 28GB does sound right, however if you have any installed where the trial has run out then get them removed, either delete them from the directory or use authorizer ..

CCleaner is a good prog.

RandyEspoda
Posts: 275
Joined: 14 Mar 2017

31 Oct 2017

AttenuationHz wrote:
30 Oct 2017
Usually your ram is cached to a pagefile for quicker access or something... but you could probably gain space by disabling hibernation also allocated about 15gb. I have a fair few rack extensions but they amount to about 2Gb. 28GB does not sound right. If its a laptop then I would not recommend disabling the hibernation file.

If you're on windows have a look at a free program called spacesniffer if you need to view space it maps it out and looks cool doing so! Also I would recommend CCleaner I have a 128 SSD myself and try to manage the space on it those 2 programs make it a lot easier. The first time I ran CCleaner on a vista pc it deleted about 16gb of useless stuff. temp files cached stuff internet history cookies etc all useless. I also allocated a partition of 2GB on a external just for temporary internet files Internet Explorer for me was storing way too much stuff I would guess lots of people would not be aware of the C.IE5 folder can be upwards of 6GB in there and then also windows Update the download folder holds onto any update. Also Geforce drivers can take up tons of space 450mb per update there is a scanner for that on CCleaner. spacesniffer will give you a better look at what is where.

Performance does drop slightly but it would barely grind to a halt or anything. When your C drive is nearing capacity sometimes windows will drop the pagefile to compensate until space is available again.
I second this, I also use both Ccleaner and spacesniffer. With those two you have everything you need to clean up your drives.
Some AV's like avast do NOT clean up their old definitions like they should, so check their folders with spacesniffer to see if that's the case, you can get a few extra pounds from that as well.

Also if you're on windows, and you haven't already, you can use the Disk Cleanup utility to have the cummulative updates cleaned. Be sure you are not planning to uninstall any of them in the future, cause that won't be possible once you have them cleaned, but it can yield several gigabytes.

Then as suggested, just use mklink for creating those hardlinks to keep your C drive spacious.

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PadShifta
Posts: 92
Joined: 23 Jan 2015
Location: Germany
Contact:

09 Nov 2017

Hey folks.
Wow, thanks a ton for the tips. Up until now, I was using "treesize" to show me what was eating up my diskspace but I´m actually going to try "spacesniffer" now and see what it can do for me. And CCleaner has always been a part of my weekly clensing-routine. What I find really interesting though is "Mklink", which I am looking into right now.
Thanks to everybody for their help. I´ll let you guys know how it went.

Cheers Andy :-)

thotbott
Posts: 97
Joined: 22 Jan 2015

05 Jan 2018

Just bringing this topic back up. Am trying to use the mklink command, and it works, just when i try to sync my res or anything i get an error from authorizer as well as the downloads fail. I am too useing a small ssd for my cdrive and am just curious ( and frustrated) to try and a get a work around going

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Carly(Poohbear)
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Posts: 2871
Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: UK

05 Jan 2018

thotbott wrote:
05 Jan 2018
Just bringing this topic back up. Am trying to use the mklink command, and it works, just when i try to sync my res or anything i get an error from authorizer as well as the downloads fail. I am too useing a small ssd for my cdrive and am just curious ( and frustrated) to try and a get a work around going
So I take it you followed the steps, what version of Windows are you using?
Did you use MKLINK with an admin account? (can't think why that would make any difference! )

I use MKLINK a lot without any issues..

AJ_3000
Competition Winner
Posts: 98
Joined: 19 Jan 2015

29 Nov 2018

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... K_examples has recently added feedback :

'..that mklink requires admin rights for most operations'

My bloated C: hard drive is undergoing a clean up ready to migrate to a ridiculously cheap 512Gig SSD courtesy Amzn BF deals. Thanks to this thread's knowledgeable posters, I have now new tools to add to TreeSize. Particularly useful is MkLink ... Thanks !

MarzT
Posts: 18
Joined: 29 Oct 2018

27 Dec 2018

You really saved me with this... thanks so much. Worked perfectly. Now I can do the same for VST's. Thank you.
Carly(Poohbear) wrote:
30 Oct 2017
Something like this will work, just put in your name and the new location in.

I have my RE's on my D drive (D:\Mklink\RackExtensions), which happens to be another SSD.

Step 1, close Reason
Step 2, copy the files to the new directory
Step 3, delete the old directory
Step 4, run
mklink /J "C:\Users\carly\AppData\Roaming\Propellerhead Software\RackExtensions" "D:\Mklink\RackExtensions"


PoohBear

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recent Music made with Reason
(Electronic) Poly Madness
(Electronic) Solar Dance
(Electronic) Into The Night
(Upbeat) The Players Took Me There Made in Reason 9 with heavy use of the players
(Electronic) 5 Steps (Video added) Updated
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Soundcloud Page ....... Nektar Mappings
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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