Is it possible to have a different folder for models?

[Croestalker]

My main hard drive is low on resources, I have a spare hard drive with all my models. I'm lazy, and I don't wanna install the webui on another drive, is it possible to select where our model directory is?

Thanks!

[freecoderwaifu]

set COMMANDLINE_ARGS= --ckpt-dir "Your drive:\yourfolder" , more info here:

https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui/wiki/Command-Line-Arguments-and-Settings

[Croestalker]

I must have glossed over that when I was looking at the command line arguments, haha. Thanks for that!

[halr9000]

Symlinks are what you need! This is the one I use: https://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html

Quick install:

winget install HermannSchinagl.LinkShellExtension

Then in Explorer you use right click actions on one or many files to copy source (drive with plenty of space), and right-click paste as symlink (auto/models/stable-diffusion or whatever). Been doing this for months. This is also great if you want to use multiple web UIs.

You can create symlinks 100% in powershell, but I find it's kinda awkward, even for me.

[Croestalker]

I'll have to look into that!

[Croestalker]

seems to take just as long, if not longer than when I have webui pointed to another directory... But it seems to have been a bit quicker... I'll have to update in a few moments

[Croestalker]

Definitely slower with the --dir ckpt, but the symlinks is also slow. Wonder if i install webui on the drive with the models already, wonder if that is just as slow... another experiment! However, this is the trade, i suppose, for having this workaround, haha.

[Croestalker]

I actually find that this takes much longer to load than on my ssd... :/

I've been waiting 5 minutes during this bootup for a model to load on launch.

[freecoderwaifu]

You can just move your existing folder from one drive to another. If git gives you a permissions error, you can just take ownership.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3841-add-take-ownership-context-menu-windows-10-a.html

[halr9000]

SSDs are significantly faster than HDDs. By a lot. So it's going to be slower when you move the models to another drive, that's expected.

[Kilvoctu]

I'm lazy, and I don't wanna install the webui on another drive, is it possible to select where our model directory is?

I think there's no "install" of the Web UI. You install the dependencies (python, git), but Web UI downloads what it needs into its own folder.
Recently, I got an nvme m.2 ssd and I simply just cut-and-paste my Web UI folder to the new drive. Definitely worth it after seeing 0-3 second model loading/swapping.

[Croestalker]

that's basically what I meant, "install". haha.

Yeah, it's extremly noticable with my old drives. I need to upgrade, but I'm poor, haha.

[Kilvoctu]

I know how it is sometimes. I upgraded my PC for the first time recently in 10 years 😅

[Croestalker]

Wow, I just bought this computer two years ago, (except the GPU) and I already feel I need to change it, haha.