digital downloading questions & help needed

[hombre fx]

Hi all, I'm having a few difficulties with the uploading of my digital download files any suggestions would be of great help....here's the problem:

Each product has a dd file of around 70mb and there are 250 at the moment & more on the way!

I maily use my laptop for creating the shopping cart (hd 40gb) so I keep all of the large dd files on my main computer (unlimited hd space)
So when I want to update my site (from laptop)...actinic doesn't see the dd files on the laptop and deletes the ones I have uploaded....DOH!!

Is there a way to tell actinic that the files on the server should stay on there & not be purged? or is there a cunning work around?

............I tried to upload small *.txt files renamed the same as the *.mov and then upload the real files via other ftp software....but there is a unique name actinic give the dd file when it uploads.

I'm Stumped on this any help would be MUCHO GRACIOUS.

[jmedinger]

The easiest answer I can think of is to buy a high capacity external hard drive and keep your .mov files on that (assuming that they won't fit on your laptop)

Actinic WILL work with files that are outside it's 'Program Files | Act E Comm... etc' directory.

This is the only way that you'll securely ensure that it uploads the correct files and checks to see if any have changed on the external hard drive and only upload ones that have.

HTH

Jos

[jont]

Adding an extra drive would be the best soluiton as Jos suggests - the DD files have a security key and a random number added so renaming *.txt files will not work and anything that is changed will be refreshed by Actinic on the upload - if your laptop is networked to the desktop would mapping a drive to the *.MOV files work for you and pointing Actinic to that?

[hombre fx]

Thanks for the fast response I think the firewire drive might be a good solution as I need to keep a back up of the mov clips. A friend of my also suggested Mapping the containing folder as a network drive from my desktop to my laptop & then seting the drive up to be virtual on the laptop so actinic still thinks the files are there.

Do you think this will work?

Thanks

[jmedinger]

If your laptop is always going to be connected to the network then mapping a drive from your laptop to the containing PC's drive would be a sensible option.

If you are not always going to be connected to the network then an external drive is the answer as that is portable with you whereas the other PC isn't.

Regards

Jos

[hombre fx]

Looks like the firewire drive root then......but once my dd files are uploaded can I make a copy/duplicate of them on the server, so if I stupidly forget to turn on the firewire drive when I upload and it purges my dd files, I don't have to upload again (just move the files into the dd folder).....or better still can I protect the files so you can't delete them off the server ?

Again thats for the fast response.

www.framefx.com

[jmedinger]

It all depends how much available webspace you have!
250 x 70Mb = 17Gb - if you dupe that on the server you're going to need a minimum of 35 Gb of webspace - that's quite a lot if you intend on duping all the movie files to come too.

I'd just set yourelf mental note - "I can't upload the catalog without the firewire drive attached"!

Cheers

Jos