Just curious has anyone tried storing their collection on NAS or any kind of wireless storage device? Having this on my laptop is sometimes annoying to have a usb device when I do not have a it on a flat service. I am aware of the slow download speed when buying new cards that would be fixed by using direct connection to the device when downloading the cards. I am just curious about performance of playback.

Yes, any Shared Storage that can be seen by your Computer can be used as the storage for iStripper..
The Problem arises when the Storage location is Not present, or has been moved..

Example: Many external USB storage drives are assigned a drive letter based on What USB port you plug it in to..
So when you First used it it was assigned Letter F:\
a few days Later you already have something else in the USB port you used, so you plug it in the Next Port, now it's Assigned the Letter G:\

iStripper Will NOT know that the new location if G:\ it will still try to find it at F:\

So iStripper will then revert to using the default location, and you will have a Collection Full of Non-Downloaded Cards. ( All Gray )

In other words, The Drive Location must remain Static. ( Always the Same name and Location )

With Version 1.2.126 you can have multiple Storage locations.
So if One location is not found it will look to the next one .....

Playback will only be affected if you Use the Allow Streaming of the Clips..
When this is NOT checked, the entire Clip is First Stored in Local memory, and then Played from memory..
it might add a short delay to 1st reading it to memory, but then it will play, just as if it was on a local Drive.

There was a XXX clip on the Beach with 4 models in it..
one of those clips might take 15 to 30 seconds to load into Memory before it starts to play.
This could cause you to think iStripper is not responding..
you just have to give it enough time to read the whole clip into memory.

ok thanks for the quick reply i plan to have a copy on the external storage but also use the NAS possibly thanks for answering my question. Ok that makes sense and yeah i have that card lol. I was mainly wanting to use this to avoid the accidently disconnect of my external hardrive because occasionally that happens to me when im moving things around.

Yeah I also have my collectionon a NAS box, and I have no problem. As has been said though I would add the NAS box as a network location rather than mapping a drive letter to it, this stops any conflicts with paths etc...
You'll have to copy and paste the address of the folders into iStripper though as you wont be able to browse to it when you set it up.

I love my NAS, it means I can have my full collection play on my tablet ! :)

NAS is tempting. some USB cables are more of a faff than the device they connect to

it's a shame sandisk don't make a 500GB ultra fit USB 3.0 thumb drive. I'm sure that will come though as flash memory density is getting better all the time.

I'm using a 64GB one currently to run Linux OS off and it is ridiculously fast. they are tiny and protrude from the notebook 7mm which is just enough to pull it out for removal but means it can be left in really.

The external aluminium ICYBOX case contains my collection on the 500GB 7200rpm Seagate SATA-II internal drive I bought for my old notebook. I use a notebook cooler on a wooden notebook tray with folding legs. It may seem a bit overkill but it works for me. The tray itself has a hinged section but it is to one side and causes it to tip left on soft furnishings. Also, the cooler keeps the notebook at a better temperature range while angling it up a bit. I use a Logitech TrackMan Wheel as a pointing device. The other USB cable is for the cooler fan power. I have a spare port the other side of the notebook I use for phone charging etc.

One thing I find silly is the length of the USB 3 cable for the external drive. It's an inch too short to use with a desktop tower without wedging it upright but slightly too long for the notebook. I've bought a longer black one so I can copy files straight to it from the desktop and keep it flat.

thanks for the replies :D ath the moment the nas i have is taking a looong time to copy over but that is mainly because the only one i could afford at the time was a WD my cloud which has only wirless copy ability. my main collection is on the usb 3.0 2TB drive. it has a usb port on the nas but either due to age or lack of use for a extended period of time it will no longer recognize the USB 3.0 drive on the USB port so i have to copy via local wifi. cool setup with linux btw

Ok I have a few questions then. I have my collection on a WD 3TB USB3 ext drive connected to my home desktop. I share this drive to my laptop so I can run iStripper on it. I have noticed that I cannot access my full collection from my laptop. For some reason after I "moved" my model folder location to the shared folder on the desktop, the laptop will only recognize the cards that I had on the it before the move. Also when I go to the Virtualgirl website from my laptop, it will not recognize some of the card that I have already purchased. So how can I sync my laptop up to play all of the cards in my collection just like my desktop? Do I need to move everything to a NAS or home cloud and set both my laptop and desktop to use that?

JohnnySpent - how did you get iStripper on you tablet??? is there an iStripper app for Android devices?! I would LOVE to have iStripper on my Samsung Galaxy Tab8. :-D

Hunter7826 - I'm afraid you wont be able to get iStripper running on an android device as the software isnt supported. The tablet I'm using using is a Linx1010b which runs a stripped down windows 10 OS. I just have to then point the software to my data folders on the NAS box and I can access my full collection on both my Desktop PC and tablet.

If you want to do that look for a cheap Windows tablet... it works well, as long as the data speeds of your home network and NAS box are up to it,

Kindsoul88 - I had the same issue, it took days for me to fully copy over what I needed onto the NAS, but once there it ran no problem, and any further cards download straight to the NAS now so its no longer an issue. I hope you get it all workng soon ! :)

the one things I would say is be careful of using standard drives in a NAS, because of the way the NAS box operates it can be quite high usage on a standard drive, and I've found they're prone to failier. Try and get dedicated NAS drives as theyre designed for the extra stresses.

@Hunter7826,

I think I know the source of your problem. When you pointed your laptop to the external drive, did you do anything about your VG data folder?

I'm using a Mac so things may be different for me, but I suspect they are the same. I use a WD My Passport Ultra 3TB external with both my Mac Pro desktop and my MacBook Pro laptop. To make it work I had to manually move my data folder to the external drive and I had to change my VG preference file to point to the new location of that data folder. For Windows you must edit the Register to identify the new data folder location. I had to make the same changes to the preference file on both computers. In your case you must change the Register on both computers.

Not quite Dorsai6,

You can have separate data drives on different machines, but have both point to the same networked models directory, but you would have to keep both machines up to date with the data. Maybe a ***** sync or a rebuild might help.

I think that Wyldanimal used this for a while.

The only problem with a network models directory is that if you disconnect the laptop from the network, iStripper will not be able to find the models directory, so it won't work

Thanks JohnnySpent i plan on still using the 3TB external for when im downloading at least to ease stress on my network since i dont have the best speed lol and then copy over after download thanks to the new feature of having more than one folder i can do that :D plus when im downloading im usually either ***** or doing something else so its usually on a flat surface its just when im actually "using" the the software that the NAS usage would be very helpful

True, With the New Version that Now allows for multiple Models Locations.
Make the NAS / Network / or external Drive the 1st location.
then Add a 2nd Location Local to your own Hard Drive.
Keep just one Models there if you are concerned about space.

Then If you do disconnect from the 1st drive, it will default to reading from the 2nd location.

Also, It's Important to have a Separate Data Folder for Each Device.
you Could Have multiple Data Folders on the same NAS / Network / External Drive. One Folder for each device.
But since the Data Folder uses Little space with current sized HDD, it's Best to Keep the Data Folder in your Own Local Profile.

Share the Same Main Models Folder, but Keep the Data Folder Local.

Why? Because then you can have Simultaneous use of the Models on two devices at the same time, without worrying about the Data Folder becoming Corrupted.

I just experimented with 4 folder locations.
the last one Being a USB stick with 16GB of Storage.
I was able to Get 15 3K size Model folders on it..
So Now, even when I'm not networked, I still have some of my favorites on the USB stick.

There is a Windows 7 bug. the Add New Folder Popup, defaults to the Open Folder interface.
so on Windows 7, you Can't Add a new Folder via the GUI.
you Have to Edit the registry

In System create a New Multi String or Reg_Multi_SZ key
Name it
ModelsMultiPath

then put in the Paths to your models Folders each path on a separate line

q:\SharedModels\
c:\users\WyldAnimal\appdata\vghd\models\
s:\extramodels\
i:\thumb-strippers\

Q:\ is my Network Shared models but on the Drive it some folder like this Q:\superuser\wyldanimal\storage\backedup\vghd\models I just give it a share name of
SharedModels

But in case I loose the Q:\ redirection I can use the dotted IP address to the share.
instead of Q:\SharedModels
I can use \\10.0.0.101\SharedModels

Another trick you can do is use the Subst command in a bat file to create a Drive letter for the share.

@echo Off
Subst /d
Subst Q: "\\10.0.0.101"

then Q drive Now is Substituted for the share
and Q:\SharedModels is where the models are

There are all kind of ways to share the Folder..

but always keep the Data folder separate to the Device you are using..

heh keeping that in a text file for when my copy is complete since my main computer for this is using win7 64 :D thanks

@Cartref,

Re: You can have separate data drives on different machines, but have both point to the same networked models directory

Yes, but for my set-up I have found through experimentation that having just one data folder on the same external HD as my models folder works best. Under other circumstances having multiple data folders might be a good choice, but not for me.

I should note that I only connect my external HD to one computer at a time. I don't share it between two computers at the same time. I do have two user accounts on my desktop computer, but I have never tried to run iStripper from more than one account at the same time. I suspect that something would break if I did.

Again, I must not that I'm a Mac user not a Windows person.

Yeah, Sometimes I have it running on 4 different computers all at the same time.
Like when I'm stress testing it
All share the same models share, but each with it's own Data folder, but All using the Same iStripper User Account.
You can't Share Models on Different iStripper Accounts.

Hi there. I'm trying to set up my entire collection on a network drive (thanks to you guys I know that it can be done) but I'm not quite clear on the model directory vs the data directory.

I've tried a few things, including moving my data folder to the default folder within the "C:Users(username)Localvghddata". I'm testing with an external drive before I commit to a network folder, so following Wyldanimal's suggestion, I set up the external "model" folder as the first folder and and "C:Users(username)Localvghdmodels" as the second, though it's empty (or should be).

But the software keeps rebuilding the data folder in the external drive.

So how would I set up two (or more) external MODEL folders but have only one DATA folder? The software keeps making more than one and that concerns me.

1st things first...
If you are not Familiar with use the registry editor, then STOP HERE. This is not for you to Attempt...

Quit iStripper - Don't do any of this while iStripper is Still open in the System Tray. Right Click the Icon and QUIT.

2nd. Making a Change in the registry, Only tells iStripper Where it Should LOOK, It Does NOT tell iStripper to MOVE the Files to that NEW location.
You, Have to make Sure the Files and Folders are Already there.
Then you Edit the Registry to Let iStripper know where to LOOK..

So 1st step.
Copy the Files to the New Location(s) or If the Location is on THE SAME HDD, you can use MOVE which is much Faster.
If the Location is on a Different HDD, use COPY, so in the event it doesn't work, you Still have the Original Files / Folders.

iStripper has Three Locations it Needs to Know...
A) Where is the Software, the GUI, the binary files, the EXE files... This is the

MainPath

B) Where is the Data Folder. This is the Data specific to your iStripper Account and the Device it's used on. The

DataPath

C) Where are all the Models stored. For a Single Folder is is the

ModelsPath

. For Multiple locations it is

ModelsMultiPath

These Paths are saved in the Registry, using the Full Path to the top Folder.
the Defaults are normally:

C:\users\YOURNAME\appdata\local\vghd\bin\
C:\users\YOURNAME\appdata\local\vghd\Data\
C:\users\YOURNAME\appdata\local\vghd\Models\

I will use the defaults for both the Software, and my Data folders.
( I use some test accounts so each Data folder has a slight different name )
my WyldAnimal account I use

Datawa

as the Folder. It is Local to the device in my User Profile.

C:\Users\WyldAnimal\AppData\Local\vghd\datawa\

The Software is the Same place for All Accounts..

C:\Users\WyldAnimal\AppData\Local\vghd\bin\

For Me, I want my Models Stored on my Network at

H:\Models

I also have a few other locations for some Models including some on a usb stick

So I created the Multi String Key called

ModelsMultiPath

H:\Models\
C:\Users\WyldAnimal\AppData\Local\vghd\Models\
Q:\SharedModels\
I:\usbStrippers\

Humm... Server error trying to Attache Pictures today...

Thank you so very much for the detailed instructions. I'll attempt it in the morning when I have a bit of time. I'm very familiar with the registry and am very comfortable with editing it, so there's no ***** there ;)

The struggle for me was knowing what the normal behavior for iStripper when using two folders. I'll find out in the morning!

Vald

Good morning.

So, before I tested on a network folder, which is a *****, I tried using my regular external USB location in combination with the default local folder.

I'm trying to have the "data" folder in the default but the "models" folder on the external Z: drive (later to be on the network).

In the registry, I've set the following:

MainPath: C:UsersValdAppDataLocalvghdin
DataPath: C:UsersValdAppDataLocalvghddata
ModelsPath: Z:vghdmodels
ModelsMultiPath:
Z:vghdmodels
C:UsersValdAppDataLocalvghdmodels (this is an empty folder - I don't actually want any model files here)

Unlike my previous attempts when using only the iStripper program to set the paths, it's not trying to create model folders in the wrong spot (the iStripper folder location needed to be pointed at the MODEL folder, not the main folder)

However, the entire collection shows that every model needs to be updated.

Have you encountered this situation before? Rebuilding the collection has no effect.

Have you encountered this situation before? Rebuilding the collection has no effect.

I have Moved my Collection around a few times and Have not experienced that.. ( I never saw every Card with the Update sticker applied )

It could be a result of something that didn't go right Previously.

What Happens when you Select ONE card and update it?
Does it redownload the entire Card, or is it Very Fast and the Sticker just goes away?

This time I tested it with a network shared folder instead of an external USB drive. Oddly, it seems to be working. Thank you!

I've noticed that a demo automatically downloaded into my local folder. It makes me wonder if future purchases will download there as well, or to the network.

I think I know the solution, though... in the regristy there are two entries for the model folder - the regular and the multi. I think the downloads go to the regular. I'll test that.

I spoke too soon. It downloads the demos to the local folder. I'll have to keep an eye on this. I'd want all downloads to go do the network folder.

Stay tuned...

I have Both the ModelsPath and the ModelsMultiPath ( 1st entry ) the Same.
they Both Point to the Shared Network Address
and this is Where all New Downloads, and Demo's go..

My ModelsPath points to the network. My ModelsMultipath points to the network and a local folder. For the multi path, it doesn't matter what order I put them in, it always downloads demos to the local folder.

Maybe I should just take that path out? I had the impression that I needed it "just in case", but maybe I don't.

If there is an Error reading / Writing to the first path, it will use the 2nd path... and so on down the line..
So 1st make sure there isn't an Issue writing to that network path.