How to best transfer large Maschine library and samples to external drives

I need advice on setting up several external solid state hard drives to use for Maschine 3 and Maschine 2 projects between several computers, both in the PC/IBM classification. I desire to achieve a seamless way to use these two hard drives with these two computers.

My 2010-2025 computer has files with nearly 2000 Maschine 2 projects and approximately 300,000 3rd party samples and I want to move them to a single external solid state drive. The folders are still in the original place of installation in the C drive, located in the Documents/NativeInstruments/Maschine2/ folder. I want to move them to an external solitary drive that works in both computers that are going to be my newer studio setup. Here is an important caveat, I want to be able to have a way to load my Maschine 2 projects as seamlessly as possible, minimizing issues such as having to resolve missing samples. This can be a real pain if a song has a lot of samples in it.

For security reasons I have removed my old computer from being online this week, meaning I cannot use my Ilok and the majority of plugins that I use each project that many require online syncing. This means loading up any Maschine 2 projects will be too much issue to take chances with. So I want to move the Maschine 2 projects and 3rd party samples to an external drive (referred to as Drive E). Additionally, I want to move the NI instruments and 3rd party instruments to another external drive (referred to as Drive F). This way I can use the external drives in either computer to load my Maschine 2 and my newer Maschine 3 projects.

Here is the direct route of my needs:

Items used in this scenario- Computer A is my 2010-2025 computer with 2000 Maschine 2 projects, instruments, 3rd party samples and instruments. Computer B is my new PC Windows 11 Pro Studio Tower. Computer C is my new PC Windows 11 Home Laptop. External Drive E is a Sandisk Extreme V.2 reserved for all Maschine 2 and Maschine 3 projects files and 3rd party samples. External Drive F is a Crucial X9 Pro, reserved for the Native Access point to command for all NI instruments, and will also have the 3rd party instruments installed on it. These are the 5 total items used in this process.

Computer A is taken offline, preserved in all files until all transfers are completed and tested. Computer A internal C drive has original Maschine 2 projects and 3rd party samples installed on it, along with all of the effects and utility plugins. The NI instruments and other 3rd party instruments were moved to the internal D drive several years ago using the point to command in Native Access.

Computer A needs to copy recommended folders that can carry entire project copies, including 3rd party samples, onto an external drive that loads onto Computer B and C at any given time when Maschine 2 is opened. Maschine 3 will be the primary usage in Computer B and C going forward. I am marketing several hundred songs from my Maschine 2 catalog on Computer A. At any given time, another artist/producer/engineer might legitimately need to dive into the project itself or need me to quickly make some adjustment and send them a file back with the changes. This is also why the importance of seamless recall of older Maschine 2 projects can still ring important for at least a decade for me and others in the music industry.

I have a massive 200 song catalog that stems from 2010-2025. Because writing was just a secondary thing until recently, I never did any final mixes of most songs. I just finished and mastered about 60 songs this year alone, so I have a good start on the mixing, but I still have more songs to go, but Computer A is offline and can't be used for this process because of the sync issues with plugins which requires being online.

How can I best format the drives before moving the files for best compatibility with Windows 11 PC version?
What is the best way to limit missing sample issues when doing such a complete changeover?
How can I make sure that my projects have everything I need when moving them to an external drive to use with another computer that has Maschine installed on it?

Please advise on my needs what is the best methods for these steps. I want to also keep all Maschine 3 projects on the external drive also in the same way. I want to limit all of my internal C drive usages for as little instrument and sample storage from this point forward. Even my photo and video storage is all on external storage drives. This way I can preserve the drive strength and longevity and have more processing availabilities for programs like Maschine, DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop, etc. I believe this is also a better method against all of the security threats out there than can compromise a computer.

I will also add an external memory stick in the future for additional memory. What would NI experts advise on the best drive setups for compatibility with their software? Are there types of drives with known issues? I am asking about types of drives, not brands of drives. In the past, I have been using WD Black drives with 7200 rpm for all of my internal and external drives. All of those types of drives are getting retired and they can't really keep up with newer hardware and software, so I won't be relying on using disk drives any more.

Your time is valuable and greatly appreciated for the advice you can give for my situation.

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D-One

Thats a whole lotta text my friend… 😁

1 - How can I best format the drives before moving the files for best compatibility with Windows 11 PC version?
2 - What is the best way to limit missing sample issues when doing such a complete changeover?
3 - How can I make sure that my projects have everything I need when moving them to an external drive to use with another computer that has Maschine installed on it?

1 - If you only use Windows, then there's just NTFS… i dont see any reason to use any older format.

2 - Don't just limit; eliminate the problem completely by saving each project with "Save Project with Samples" - With 2000 projects, it's going to be slow and painfull but then again, having issues with that many projects would be even worse.

3 - As far as samples go with the above #2, for instruments, libs and plugins it's just to have them installed in both systems.

It doesen't matter if your old computer doesn't have ilok anymore or whatever, opening the projects even with errors should allow a "save-as with samples" to be used on the computer that does have ilok and whatnot working, of course you need to test it first.

Plugins and Kontakt libraries are not a problem, NA2 can deal with that, projects aren't hardcoded with an absolute path (C:/somethign/something/etc…) for that stuff like samples are, this is why samples are your main concern, relocating the samples in case there's issues would be an absolute nightmare. Saving with samples does waste some disk space (due to duplicates) but it's the best a future proof way to preserve your work.

I would look at this change as a project of sorts, accept that it will take quite some time, and use the opportunity to review how you organize things + account for backups.

I'd also look into converting all Maschine V2 projects into Maschine V3 — At some point Maschine V2 stopped opening V1 projects, so this can also happen in V2>V3.

listen2u

Thanks for your suggestions @D-One The save as with samples option was something I failed to recognize as a need since I rarely used samples until about 5 years after my NI investment.

Also, having a large system drive able to load projects, instruments, and dozens of plugins without giving occasional issues was another thing that wasn't shown or taught before doing such dives into studio recording, on top of all of the other setups and system adjustments.

The need to use only one exterior drive with only the Maschine projects, 3rd party samples, and exports is what I want. I do not want to have any of these folders on the C drive anymore. I understand that I still have to install the Maschine 2 and 3 DAWs onto the C drive, but I don't want to populate the C drive with unneccesary things like a 1 tb 3rd party sample folder, etc. Besides, I have the new computer with only 1 tb C drive.

So I have no issue making new save as with samples to the new exterior drive for the 3rd party samples, projects, and exports. If that could get easily imported to the next computer when loading an older project, that is perfect. I would look at it as a one time save as to the exterior drive and then load it onto the new computer.

Being that you also brought up the Maschine 3 importing of the Maschine 2 projects, you accidentally sparked another set of my deep mind ponder. Ok, so I can import the project, but will it accept the older VST 2 plugins from those projects? As it is, every single time I have opened one of these projects with VST 2 plugins, I just screen shoot my setup, then import the new VST 3 version and then save a new version of the project. But I have already had some issues with remaking some of the original sounds, like with the first Initial Audio 808 Studio, as one example. So I have to literally make a new sound or use the old one and print it.

Also, I am guessing that Maschine 3 projects aren't backwards compatible, right? I had this issue with Adobe when I first started using their subscription service. My old software can't open any of those newer projects.

And for my wordiness, yes, I am acutely aware of my hefty blurts and how it can be much. But my brain needs info that cannot be found in one post or even in any internet videos.

Hint, Hint: I wish NI would make a best practices from start to finish video series. Starting with best computer setup practices with actual troubleshooting scenarios. Help people starting out understand the usage of how and when to use the audio control panel for latency and other setups. I had no way of knowing this 20 years ago when I started out. Help people understand good file management and gain staging, with multiple examples of how and why.

I love NI since I bought into the ecosystem, mostly good and a few bad moments (updates, just a few). But the starting out thing is where lost producers stay more lost if they don't have good direction. Why has not a single company has ever really dived into this is beyond me. This very part is where we could help early producers get way better, and quicker with this kind of help. Even the help early on to understand output settings and where they apply and where they don't is that tiny bit of info that is missing in so many places.

It just seems natural that any DAW designer would want to teach these things to really jump start people. Why should people have tons of in depth production videos when the things like latency troubleshooting skills and understanding how to gainstage and export correctly for the right medium isn't included in that part of teaching? This is why I am asking about the alternative way to use exterior drives with NI's ecosystem, it is because those just aren't in any of the hundreds of NI official and some non official videos that I have watched over the years. I do still love all of the videos that I have watched, and learned a lot from them.

D-One

So I have no issue making new save as with samples to the new exterior drive for the 3rd party samples, projects, and exports. If that could get easily imported to the next computer when loading an older project, that is perfect. I would look at it as a one time save as to the exterior drive and then load it onto the new computer.

Yes. Since the software is looking for the samples in a sub-folder in the same location as the project, you're all set without having to worry about the default Samples/Recordings/Export Folder, etc… Unless you have other software like a DAW that also uses those paths.

Being that you also brought up the Maschine 3 importing of the Maschine 2 projects. Ok, so I can import the project, but will it accept the older VST 2 plugins from those projects? As it is, every single time I have opened one of these projects with VST 2 plugins, I just screen shoot my setup, then import the new VST 3 version and then save a new version of the project. But I have already had some issues with remaking some of the original sounds, like with the first Initial Audio 808 Studio, as one example. So I have to literally make a new sound or use the old one and print it.

Assuming you only use Maschine standalone app: Maschine and NI Plugs are supposed to support VST2>VST3 migration, but for 3rd party plugs it depends on the company. Read this.

A screenshot is not very practical, due to other reasons when I did it i just opened each project, saved a preset from the VST2 with the same name as a project, then changed to VST3, loaded the preset, then save it as a new project (keeping the old one temporarily just in case).

If I find any plug now that doesn't have VST3 yet, then I just print out/bounce the audio and ditch that plug-in/company, it's just unacceptable at this point.

Also, I am guessing that Maschine 3 projects aren't backwards compatible, right? I had this issue with Adobe when I first started using their subscription service. My old software can't open any of those newer projects.

Correct, Maschine is not retro-compatible. Even within the same major version, sometimes there are breaking changes. You might want to keep the older version projects safe somewhere.

Hint, Hint: I wish NI would make a best practices from start to finish video series. Starting with best computer setup practices with actual troubleshooting scenarios. Help people starting out understand the usage of how and when to use the audio control panel for latency and other setups. I had no way of knowing this 20 years ago when I started out. Help people understand good file management and gain staging, with multiple examples of how and why.

Music is already overwhelming to learn as is for the modern producer, if you worry about all that before you even make some sketches chances are… most people that aren't techy savvy would just quit. Most of this is just general computer knowledge.

IMO we should just be presented with an option to pick where everything is saved when launching the SW for the first time + an "always save with samples" option.

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