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dio_free · 2013-02-23, 19:39

Hi guys,

I am very new to OpenElec/XBMC and I am trying to import my movies from an external hard drive to the internal XBMC hard drive.

I must be doing something wrong.

I go to Videos and I can see my external hard drive there, I can even play movies straight from the hard drive. However, I don't want to have my external hooked up permanently, I purposely put a 1TB drive in my HTPC to host these files!

I figure i need to do to Add Videos at the bottom of the list in Videos, when i do that, my external doesn't show up anymore. I don't get it...

Sad

please help

artrafael · 2013-02-23, 21:21

Assuming you have your new *internal* drive defined as an XBMC source, open the File Manager and select your external drive in panel A and your internal drive in panel B. Copy the files from panel A to panel B.

Or SSH into your OpenELEC system from another PC and issue commands to mount the drives, if necessary, and copy the files from the external drive to the internal.

Or use a flash drive to boot your HTPC with any live Linux distro that offers a full desktop environment (e.g., Ubuntu or variation) and use the OS's full-function file manager to mount the drives, if necessary, and then drag-and-drop the files from the external to the internal drive.

Or move the two drives to another PC where you have a full-function OS installed and use its full-function file manager to copy the files from one drive to the other. For the 1TB drive, you can either install it internally on the other PC or use an external enclosure if you have one.

dio_free · 2013-02-23, 21:42

Thanks Art. For method #1, do i copy them to a specific folder in panel B ?

artrafael · 2013-02-23, 21:50

I'm assuming you want your new 1TB drive to replace your external drive, so use the same folder/file organization.

dio_free · 2013-02-23, 22:25

Something isn't working Art. Sorry.
I have my files organized on Side A
On Side B, I have 4 options
1) External Drive
2) Usb Drive
3) Profile Directory
4) Add Source

When i try to copy things into Profile Directory, I get an error.
was i supposed to create a partition on the internal drive when i installed Open Elec?

artrafael · 2013-02-24, 06:25

Is your 1TB drive an *internal* (e.g., SATA) drive? And did you already add this as a source? If not, choose "Add Source" and navigate to this drive and add it as a source.

I'm assuming your new drive is already partitioned and formatted. If not, you need to do that first. The problem with OpenELEC is that it is a stripped down Linux distro and they do their best to make the underlying OS inaccessible to you so you get an "appliance-like" XBMC system. Typically, you would SSH into your OpenELEC system from another PC to manage it via a command line interface.

dio_free · (This post was last modified: 2013-02-24, 20:34 by dio_free.)

I see.
Yes it is an internal SATA drive (WD Blue).

Adding the source is where I seem to run into problems. When I go to "Add Videos" I get the "Add Video Source" screen. I can Browse or Type a path (maybe the path is the way to go but i dont know what the path would be). If i Browse, I see the following options (all of which I have investigated)

HDHomerun Devices
Home folder
Network Filesystem (NFS)
ReplayTV Devices
Root filesystem
SAP Streams
Storage
System
UPNP Devices
Video Playlists
Windows network (SMB)
Zeroconf Browser
..Add network location...

I do not believe the drive is partitioned. I popped it in the HTPC right out of the box, and installed OE on it. When it asked me about partitioning I skipped it.

nickr · 2013-02-24, 20:35

Add a source - it's right in your face.

Videos|Files|Add Videos

artrafael · 2013-02-24, 20:47

I think you'd be better off using options 3 or 4 of my first reply where you would have access to a full operating system's suite of disk and file management tools to prepare your disk and copy the files. You need to use the OS to partition/format your disk and, for OpenELEC, that means you have to SSH into that system and use the command line interface to perform those tasks.

dio_free · 2013-02-24, 21:43

(2013-02-24, 20:47)artrafael Wrote: I think you'd be better off using options 3 or 4 of my first reply where you would have access to a full operating system's suite of disk and file management tools to prepare your disk and copy the files. You need to use the OS to partition/format your disk and, for OpenELEC, that means you have to SSH into that system and use the command line interface to perform those tasks.

Ok so if i pop in a ubuntu live disk, i should be able to just drag and drop. Let me give that a shot.

artrafael · 2013-02-24, 21:49

You may also need to use Ubuntu to partition/format your 1TB drive before copying the files over to it.

dio_free · 2013-02-24, 22:55

Ok. Can you help me with the details.
Tried running ubuntu live and it hit an error and couldn't open.

I took the HDD out and now have it hooked to my main computer to reformat it in Windows.
Do you have any suggestions on how best to do this for later reinstalling OE and adding my media?

Also, i have my HDD hooked to my computer and it's not even picking it up right now.. Is that normal?

dio_free · 2013-02-24, 23:34

Ok so I ran Ubuntu Desktop on my main computer and can see the hard drive. it seems to list it as two separate drives, one was content and one was system, or something along those lines.

Does that indicate it was partitioned?

I tried copying over the files from my external content hard drive, to the content->Video folder of the OE drive, but I get an "access denied" error. I do not have enough permissions it seems.

Thoughts?

artrafael · (This post was last modified: 2013-02-25, 01:44 by artrafael.)

Now you're getting into the realm of using the Ubuntu OS in general and not of XBMC in particular. See here for starters: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Instal...wHardDrive

NOTICE: I'm assuming your 1TB drive currently has no data or programs installed on it. In other words, you are not using this drive to boot into OpenELEC. As a further precaution against accidentally formatting the wrong disk, you should disconnect your external hard drive (the one currently with all your media files) from your system before you begin the task of partitioning/formatting your 1TB internal drive. Once your 1TB internal drive has been prepared, you can then re-attach your external drive to your system to copy the files from it to your 1TB internal drive.

For further questions regarding how to use Ubuntu to perform specific system tasks, please consult the Ubuntu forums or search on Google.

nickr · (This post was last modified: 2013-02-25, 02:02 by nickr.)

It must have been partitioned or it couldn't have had OE installed on it. How big are these partitions?

(2013-02-25, 01:44)artrafael Wrote: Now you're getting into the realm of using the Ubuntu OS in general and not of XBMC in particular. See here for starters: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Instal...wHardDrive

NOTICE: I'm assuming your 1TB drive currently has no data or programs installed on it.

Bad assumption given he said earlier

Quote:I do not believe the drive is partitioned. I popped it in the HTPC right out of the box, and installed OE on it. When it asked me about partitioning I skipped it.