How to keep two different volumes on a network sinced

[DavidHB]

It's not a strange question; there are a number of good reasons to keep music on separate volumes.

I keep my 'master' music folder (the one into which I rip CDs and on which I do all the metadata work) on my main Windows PC, with MinimServer running when needed on the PC to access the music directly. But I keep the folder I normally use for listening on my NAS, with MinimServer running all the time. I use the (free) Microsoft Synctoy to mirror changes in the master folder over to the folder on the NAS. SyncToy can of course be used with any folder on the network that the Windows PC can see, so could be used with your setup if you have a Windows PC on your network.

The 'mirroring' approach has the advantages (1) that it provides a backup of the music files and (2) that you can be working on the 'master' folder while using the folder on the NAS to listen to the music. But some users may prefer, for reasons of disk space, music organisation or family preference, to keep different music on the different drives. In fact, quite separately from the arrangement I have described, my daughter has a copy of MinimServer on her laptop, so that she can play the music stored there to my renderer. Sometimes, therefore, my control point can switch between any one of four servers (my NAS also has a DNLA server) which are simultaneously on line.

These different approaches are possible because separate instances of MinimServer can co-exist on the same network, though not (I think) at present on the same device. Typically, control points make it easy to switch between servers (though you do need to know which server is hosting the music you are looking for ...).

The bottom line is that either of the approaches you are considering could work well, depending on your precise requirements. But I would advise that you need a separate, local instance of MinimServer to serve each music volume. Simon advises that trying use use MinimServer on one machine to serve music on a network folder elsewhere in the system is likely to degrade performance significantly.

I hope this helps.

David