Greetings,
I bought the Audiophile version and I’d like to put the RT/RD folders on an external SSD.
I Know the file size is around 1TB.

Visiontek makes a tiny SSD pendrive with 512gb, I would like to copy and use only the RT/Rd Tracks I really use. Although it great the BIAB has so many styles, as a Jazz & Latin styles enthusiast, I have little interest in using other styles in BIAB...

So, how do I make sure I’m just copying the tracks I need? I will need to cut the RT/RD in half to fit 512gb worth.......suggestions? Thanks!

FWIW here are a few things to keep in mind.

1-an external SSD is only as fast as your USB port. In other words it will be no faster than an external HD. If you want the fast speed a SSD will give you it should be installed internally.

2-Doesn't the Audiophile version come on an external HD? You should be able to use that. But I would back it up first just in case of a problem.

3-I have found that many styles are not limited to their genre. I have used jazz styles in country and visa-versa as well as other "cross contamination :-}

YMMV

Your external SSD drive performance is really going to depend upon what kind of USB interface you have.

If you only have USB2, then your 200-550 MB/sec (depending on model) drive is limited to a USB2 throughput of 35MB/sec. In which case, I would just use the external drive that PGMusic sent you. Hard drives will have about a 50-120MB/sec throughput, so even with that, the USB2 is your limiting factor.

If you have USB3, it should theoretically be able to keep up with the drive. First generation USB3 has about a 400MB/sec throughput; the latest generation USB3 drives can achieve speeds of 1000 or even 2000 MB/sec.

NOTE: I'm using Megabytes per second here, but be careful reading the specs as you'll often see Megabits per second (which is different by a factor of 8 with some overhead).

Ed, I'm doing something similar with BIAB on an older desktop computer at my camp. I have only a subset of RealTracks (but all the RealDrums) on a dedicated hard drive on that PC. Jazz and Latin here, too.

Since I have the audiophile version (which yes does come on a USB 3 external drive), my hard drive is 1 TB and that DOES NOT have enough room for all the RealTracks; the full requirement is now well over 1T (closer to 1.5, and that doesn't include any new ones I might like from the upcoming 2018).

I simply used a file copy utility and highlighted the RealTracks I knew I needed, and copied them over from the supplied PG Music drive.

Yes, I know this overlooks some possibilities. As Mario pointed out, there are many hidden possibilities within genres that at first glance you would discard. But space being what it is, I have to take that risk. [My production PC at home has them all...]

What is the throughput speed of that Visiontek pen drive?

In general, the best solution for a drive is of course an internal SSD, if you can afford one large enough and have a desktop computer to mount it in. The second best is a conventional hard drive. I believe this would outperform an external USB 3 SSD, and far outperform any external drive of either type on USB 2.

Having said that, BIAB relies more on CPU speed than hard drive transfer speed when it comes to loading and generating RealTracks. The program runs remarkably well on an external drive; it just runs faster (but not better) if you can improve on that.