Switching Computers... HELP!!!

[DisneyMatt10]

Hey all,

I recently bought a PC to run my LOR show because I don't know if my laptop could handle it. Also, (mainly) because I wanted a dedicated "show" computer. However, I am having the hardest time getting everything transferred from my laptop over to my show computer. I finally got LOR installed correctly, after 2 failed attempts. I moved over all my music for this years show, and I moved over the sequences I have done. . . However, I cant figure out how to move over the "previewer" from the PE. I did manage to get the Visualizer file moved over though. 

Does anyone else do all of their sequencing on one computer, and transfer it all to a different computer to run the show with?? If so have you ever had/noticed any problems by doing things this way??

Also, any advice on how to move over my PE preview file without having to recreate all those props on the other computer would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

~Matt

[EmmienLightFan]

Do you need all the PE files on the show PC?

 

Are you also sequencing on this PC?

 

I have a PC just for running shows. All that goes on there is the LMSs, or in your case, Intensity files and music.

I sync everything with Google Drive. I can access any file on either my Surface Pro or PC and can work on the sequence, hit save and then the file on the other PC will be up to date before I have time to even get to another computer.

[k6ccc]

1 hour ago, DisneyMatt10 said:

Does anyone else do all of their sequencing on one computer, and transfer it all to a different computer to run the show with?? If so have you ever had/noticed any problems by doing things this way??

Yes, I use a dedicated computer for as the show computer.  Remember that I run LOR controlled landscape lighting year round, so I'm not dedicating a computer for two months of use.  In my case (not the norm for most people), I have every computer in the house log into domain.  All the LOR files are on the server - specifically on the D:\Share\LOR directory of the server.  On every computer that uses LOR, there is a mapped network drive of L: that points to the shared drive.  Makes it real easy when setting up LOR initially because the default drive that you have to setup when first install LOR (or run LORPost later on) is L:\  

Therefore, there is nothing to "transfer" because everything is already where it's needed.  To do this, does not require a domain.  On most Windows versions, you can setup a shared drive and map it on other computers to do something similar.

 

[EdNetman]

I save to OneDrive so everything stays in synch.

I also backup that folder to an external hard drive AS WELL AS DropBox.

I have too much work invested to leave anything to a single point of failure during show time.

Yes, I am a firm believer in redundant backups. [emoji39]

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[DisneyMatt10]

Hey all,

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like Ill be able to figure out a good way to synchronize both computers. I never thought of the Google Drive idea. Right now I've just been saving to my external hard drive and moving it from computer to computer. But the Google Drive idea seems a lot easier!

~Matt

[k6ccc]

Like EdNetman said - MULTIPLE backups!  Any of the cloud drives works, but it does still result in a few questions to ask.  Are you simply copying files to the cloud drive from one computer and then copying them to the other computer?  Or are you mapping a drive letter to the cloud based drive (some allow that and some don't), and then your LOR default drive being the mapped cloud drive?  Each has advantages and disadvantages.  Mapping a drive letter and having LOR look to the mapped drive letter is the easiest as there is nothing to sync because all computers are looking at the same mapped drive.  The biggest disadvantage to using mapped cloud drive letter and using that for your show, is that you are now dependent on your internet connection staying up while you are running your show.  I got burned on that (not for LOR) last Halloween wherein my son had a large music playlist on Google that he had setup for the evening.  By bad luck, my DSL decided that it would start getting flaky that afternoon.  Kept getting drop outs on the music, and by about 2000 Hrs it had gotten so bad that we had to kill the music.  If on the other hand you copy files to the cloud drive from one computer and then copy those files to the other computer, you must make sure you have the same files in both places.  Having the revision date and time as part of the filename helps in making sure you have the correct file.

One other disadvantage of using a mapped drive (and this affected a forum user a while back) is ransomware.  One of the forum users got hit by ransomware and it locked up the date on his cloud storage drive because it was just another mapped network drive on the infected computer.

For what it's worth, this is my setup.  As I mentioned earlier in this thread, my primary sequencing computer and the show computer are storing files on a mapped network drive on my server.  The server is using a RAID-1 array which protects against a single hard drive failure.  The server is backed up to an external hard drive every week and the external drive is taken to work.  This protects against the server being stolen or destroyed by a fire at home.  If I am ever able to get a faster internet connection, I expect to get an automatic off-site backup service - something like carbonite.com.  While I am sequencing, I save frequently - usually with a new filename.  The format I use is either song name date & time or song name date & revision letter (for example: Joy_to_the_World_2016-07-11_1005.sup or Joy_to_the_World_2016-07-11a.sup)   I also back up the LOR files to Google Drive (not as a mapped drive) after every programming session.  Before the Christmas show season starts, I also copy all the show files to local copy on the show computer.  This gives me another backup copy in case my server dies.  I can simply re-map the L:\ drive from the server to the local backup copy on the show computer itself (I had this happen in 2014).

 

[EmmienLightFan]

With Google Drive, files are downloaded to the PC and LOR looks at that. They can update whenever the file isn't being used, so I can save a file and normally it will download when the file stops and the new sequence will play the next time round. Really great for editing shows.

[EdNetman]

It works the same way for OneDrive. All files are synced to the hard drive automatically and I have it running on multiple machines.

When I Instal LOR I set the default directory as C:\users\Ed\OneDrive\Documents\Christmas\LOR.

If I update a sequence on my desktop, it automatically updates the show computer and it will play the new sequence automatically.

I still fear the OneDrive gremlins so another cloud service and a USB drive that I keep in the fireproof safe.

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[DisneyMatt10]

^ The only problem I have with that is when I set up LOR I only had my laptop, so I just have it set to save to that computer, not to the OneDrive and I'm not sure how I would go about fixing that. (I'm not very computer savvy.)

~ Matt

[k6ccc]

Look in the LOR install directory (normally in C:\Program Files\Light-O-Rama (slightly different in newer versions of Windows)) for a program called LORPost.  It will ask you to define the folder for LOR files like it did when you first installed LOR.

 

[saxon]

19 hours ago, EdNetman said:

 

It works the same way for OneDrive. All files are synced to the hard drive automatically and I have it running on multiple machines.

 

When I Instal LOR I set the default directory as C:\users\Ed\OneDrive\Documents\Christmas\LOR.

 

If I update a sequence on my desktop, it automatically updates the show computer and it will play the new sequence automatically.

 

I still fear the OneDrive gremlins so another cloud service and a USB drive that I keep in the fireproof safe.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Does this method require enternet connection when running the show?

i use onedrive as one of my backups. Up till now I transferred using usb drive from seq to show computer.