[sLoP]

Hi folks,

I am looking for a way to use XBMC in an environment with several HDDs and without a NAS. The HDDs are not RAID-combined in any way, just plain NTFS formatted single drives. I don't want to use a NAS because:

1. no place to fit an "always-on" device
   
2. as XBMC is the only client I actually don't need storage that is always available for other clients. If XBMC isn't running the storage shouldn't be running as well.
   
3. having ALL media accessible ALL the time will make the XBMC database very crowded and confusing - I don't like to search by using filters, I'd like to "browse" but I won't if there is too much to browse...
   
4. whatever NAS I would buy, at some point the number of HDDs will exceed its capacity (and racking up NAS devices isn't an option)
   
5. NAS devices for 10+ HDDs aren't that cheap
   

Currently I am using a device similar to the SHARKOON QuickPorts (see http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/overview/15) that holds one HDD at a time.

What is the best way to configure and use XBMC with mass storage that can and will be swapped frequently? The main problem seems to be the XBMC database which has to be "swapped" with the media. I know that you can change the location of this database in XBMC so maybe moving it onto the media itself is the way to go? But I don't believe XBMC will be happy if someone just takes away its database while running (opened files, caching, etc..). Using profiles in XBMC might do the trick but then you have to log off and on again for each swap which isn't perfect as well (iOS remote app not working when logged off, see http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1372858).

Has anyone here have a solution for this particular (rather unusual) setup?

Thanks in advance,
sLoP :-)

[Ned Scott]

If you don't want your library to show entries for drives that are not inserted then you'll probably have to use profiles (wiki), one for each drive.

You can use path subs (wiki) so that various things are still "synced" between profiles, like keymaps. Maybe even the guisettings.xml file, come to think of it.

EDIT: You should be able to log into a profile by default, like the master profile with a blank library, and then from there directly go into other profiles, to avoid the issue with the iOS remote app. You basically would be directly switching profiles, instead of using the login window.

[sLoP]

Okay, fine. I was not aware that I can switch profiles without logging off first. This will help a lot. Thanks. :-D About the path subs: thanks for the hint, maybe this will come in handy eventually.

[Ned Scott]

Yeah, I use pathsubs for some of my data because I'll use multiple profiles on my laptop, one for "mobile" and away from my home network, and one for my home network. The pathsubs makes it so that most of my stuff is still the same across both profiles, so I don't have to set it twice. You'll see a warning about using it for some stuff like guisettings.xml, but that really shouldn't be an issue when it's being used on the exact same machine.

Thinking even more about it, your default profile could even load a skin that has custom buttons to switch to the other profiles. Basically, the default profile would be a "mock" log-in screen. Then the other profiles could have a custom home button to switch back to the default profile. Though it's still pretty easy to access profile switching from the profiles sub menu under "System".