Library on a useless HD

Hopefully someone can help me with understanding this.

I have all my content files (library) installed on a LACIE Hard drive. The Native Access app obviously not and I also have a Native instruments folder in my documents with mostly empty folders (I would like to know what this folder is, if it's these system files than why are some instruments not there).

I want to upgrade my HDD to an SSD for faster loading, also the HDD is disconnecting sometimes unless I press hard with the cable, the connection is broken.

Now, should I first delete all the files on the HDD before I install everything again on a new drive once I get one? I don't want NA to think I still have other installed locations.

Support said that it's okay since I haven't used my HDD for installation or system files (which I don't even know how I would confirm that, is that document folder I mentioned?)

If so, then what's stopping some thieves from installing and spreading the files indefinitely? I just need a general understanding of how this works.

BTW, everything is up-to-date, and I have this black Native Access app they recently updated.

Thanks for reading:)

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Accepted answers

Mert_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/41749/library-on-a-useless-hd

Hello Marski,

You will not need to uninstall it from the previous HDD, but you can, if you want to do it.

As long as your Native Access account will not have the related serial number the system will not let you use the product which stops thieves to use it, so you will need to login to your Native Access account to be able to use these products.

According to transferring your products to your SSD,

By changing the installation preferences you change the paths of your future installations,

I always highly advise following Native Instruments recommendations regarding file handling, this can help prevent several issues from occurring in the future.

How to Change the Install Locations in Native Access

Applications are best left default, the download location is negligible and the content location may be external if the format is supported.

We recommend using NTFS on Windows and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) on Mac OSX 10.12 and lower, APFS for 10.13 and higher.

Notes on Hard Drive Formats on Mac Computers

To change the paths of installations you have already made please see:

Moving a Native Instruments Product to Another Location on Your Computer

Moving a Native Instruments Product to Another Location on Your Computer [VIDEO]

And these should help you about this subject.

I hope this helps☺️

All comments

DunedinDragon

I did something similar a couple of years ago but I did it the old fashioned way using the Native Access relocate feature. Basically I just simply copied the library from one drive to the other and then pointed my Native Access to the new library on the SSD and tested it out to make sure everything was working. My case was a bit different from yours in that I was using several different SSDs so I was also trying to balance the libraries across several SSDs.

MARSKI

Yeah, that's an option I guess. I just have to pray that my HDD won't disconnect while I am copying everything. That's why a safer approach would be to just reinstall content on the SDD but it would be complicated since I don't need files like VST's which are on my Mac anyway like RAUM or Bite that don't have libraries. Maybe there is a way to pull up all the library content.