New Computer - Move Old Recording Disks

[Steve20A]

I read all the FAQs about moving Sage recordings to a new computer, and I searched the forums, and found I have a situation that's not covered. I have an old Sage system (Windows 7, Sage 7, SageDCT) which has about 80 recordings, about 800GB, on two disks. I have a new Sage system (Windows 10, Sage 9, OpenDCT). I want to move my recordings from the old system to the new system.

But I don't want to move the recording *files* to new drives. I want to move the physical recording *drives* from the old computer to the new computer. All the instructions in the FAQs assume I will have new recording directories. They say I should first create new recording directories on the new system, then move the recordings, then move the old wiz.bin and start the new system. But I don't have any spare disks to use to do that.

What will happen if I move the actual recording disks to the new system, add them as recording directories, then shutdown and move the old wiz.bin?

Q1: when Sage sees files in a recording directory that are not in the wiz.bin database, what happens? If I move the disks that already have data in them, will the new wiz.bin be updated?

Q2: I want to keep all the historical info from the old wiz.bin. If I let whatever process that occurs in Q1 take place, then shutdown and move the old wiz.bin over to the new system, will I break anything or will the old wiz.bin then be updated (really no changes, since it has all the data from the recording disks anyway)?

Many thanks. I have lots of backup, so I can experiment, but I'd rather not risk losing anything in the first place. (I've been running Sage since 2008 and I thought I had a reasonably good handle on it. Then I hit something like this and realize I know absolutely nothing about it... sigh.)

Steve

[tmiranda]

I've done this before. After installing and configuring Sage add the path(s) to the old recordings as a recording directory. Sage should scan the directories and automatically update the wiz.bin with all of the recording details. If it does not (I'm not sure if OpenDCT/SageDCT impacts the process) then stop Sage and copy the old wiz.bin to the new install.

[Steve20A]

@tmiranda
Thank you. I'll give it a try.
Steve

[Steve20A]

It worked. Thank you, tmiranda.

In case anyone else is looking to do the same, I created a new Sage system, shut it down, physically moved my old recording disks to the new system, moved the old wiz.bin to the new system, booted the new system, added the disks as recording directories and let Sage do its thing.

All old recordings were kept, as well as Favorites. It took a little while for Sage to create a new recording schedule, but it did it. (And, because it took a while and I had time to wonder why programs were missing or were going to record in SD, I discovered a channel that was off after the scan that should have been on. So I fixed that before I missed any recording opportunities.)

I'm happy - the new computer should run for 5 more years. The wife is happy - Sage is running well and OpenDCT actually found more channels.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to all these forums. The world is a better place because of Sage. (OK, a little hyperbole there, but what the heck.)

Steve