Feature Request: Komplete HDD Update Support in Native Access

I already suggested this when in contact with Support
However I was wondering if there are others on the forum who might agree with me on this

It's really nice to get the Boxed version of a Komplete Bundle these days since it comes with A HDD (Select comes on a USB thumb drive)
and the Drive contains Most of the content to install or reinstall your Komplete Bundle
However the drive is actually bigger in capacity
I think this is because of The Image that is created for the production of these drives (This makes it easier to mass produce those)
Now there are ways to get the full capacity of the drive and use the space for whatever you want to use it for
However I would suggest that in Native Access we could have the option to update the content of the drive
this to prevent having to download all updates again if we need to reinstall the Komplete bundle completely or partial
it would also be nice to have some extra content that one might have bought to be added to the drive this way so one doesn't have to re download when one wants to reinstall any of the content they might have bought

As for the people that did only get the download version .... It might be nice to have the option to create a "Komplete" drive from a HDD or SSD that they might still have (If they wanted to have A drive for this use case)
this might also allow for people that actually formatted the "Komplete" drive to Recreate it and use it again for what it was intended

I hope People will agree with me on this and that the People at Native Instruments will integrate this into Native Access

 

Since my Initial post I have looked at a lot of other posts that are related to Content that is not on the HDD
and problems with downloading
Most related to people who have download limits and rely on partial downloading
or having a problem when needing to reinstall Some software (Like for example the content)
While for some versions of Komplete (Ultimate & CE) most is on the HDD
However some massive content is not on the HDD (Like Cremona Quartet .. that seems to be an 80 GB Download)
Now some of the Moderators already pointed out that this is because of the Master Being Finished before Cremona Quartet was finished
These Moderators also point to an Email form to contact support to get direct download links for this content if needed

This changed My Initial View of the Idea for the Update ability of the HDD with Extra content within Native Access
or the Creation of HDD for this

While my Idea was to make Native Access Capable of allowing this I think it would also be a smart Idea
to make Native Access make a File containing A list of the content that the user owns (And only that without serials or personal info)
and allow A "Portable Download Tool" that will be put on the HDD to have a way of updating content on the HDD
this would allow the user to update the HDD from virtually any connection in the world using only The HDD
and would also allow for the download of additional content

This would also give the support team more time to help people with other problems
since they than don't need to provide Direct links for the downloads of the products

I recently updated from Komplete 13 to the Ultimate Edition
However I was not able to get this with the HDD and noticed that some content is indeed very Massive in size
So for me the ability to update to a K13U drive would be very appreciated
But also there is the point of me owning Maschine and a lot of Expansions
It would be nice if we eventually could get these all on one single drive to install

I think that the HDD "Portable Download Tool" That I suggest would be a great edition to those that might need to use a internet-Cafe
or Friends there Internet connections to update the drive
I Would also suggest to allow the user to select out of A list of contend what he wants to download
(This should be determent by the file created by Native Assess of what content the user owns)
Also note that the Updates / Expansions / Additional Content should be separated from the Main Data folder on the drive
and should be logged so that Native Access knows what content can be installed from the drive

I hope that more people will agree with me on this as it also solves the issue of having to request download links from the support

 

I dont get the hdd anymore. With newer high speed internet i have zero hassles just downloading from cloud. I use dedicated sample drive and periodically clone it.

 

There are still locations around the world that have data limits that are not FUP (Not to forget that "Fair use policy" is not A unlimited connection)
and there are still lots of connections that are less than 0.5 Gigabit (A lots still not exceed 0.1 Gigabit)
There is also the benefit of having all content on disk in case of needing to reinstall For example if your system Crashes or gets corrupted by ransomware or in most cases the arrival of a new system
It's just more useful to have it in case one needs to reinstall
And only having to download something just once is a lot better than having to re-download everything again

I also like to point out that the post about the Cremona Quartet Missing from the CE drive this person had a 60 GB per month Data limit

I do get that this might not be your thing but if you need to reinstall everything it is better to have it on disk in my opinion
it's just that much easier and faster Specially if one would be able to create there own Drive for it and uses an SSD instead
and it will still take a while before internet connections exceed the 5 &10 GB connections that USB 3.2 (G1 & G2) can provide

 

Well, not everyone is you.
@Dj Ravix

I think for NI to be able to update the HDD is a good idea for a number of reasons. However Im not sure how the updating process works - it isn't going to help if updating means totally replacing a particular product, that is, including its libraries. Some of those libraries are HUGE. It would be worse than downloading one of the Cremona Q.

I do understand that CQ wasn't included on the HDD because it wasn't ready when the HDD went to production. On account of that I'd rather have a large download than for it not to have been included in K13U CE at all.

 

Also, someone said, Cremona Quartet and few other missing plugins would not fit on given HDD.

 

on K13UCE the content size is 770 GB They probably use at least a 1 TB for this so you could still fit 160 GB onto it
However the images that NI use partitions the drive at exactly the correct size for the content
If you use software to resize the drive you are able to get the rest of the capacity
My K13 Drive was a little over 200 GB but the drive was actually a 500 GB Drive
Also note that on the box it's listed as a 320 GB Drive however nowadays 500 GB drives are cheaper (Since they stopped producing 320 GB )
There is also a chance that the Drive used for K13UCE is 1.5 or 2 TB Drive But this depends on whatever is available for NI
since they might be needing this for when K14 comes along (So they already buy in Bulk to have those when need them)

That's why I think adding the "Update content" separately from the Main Data folder would be a the smart move
You can always clone the drive to a spare one you might have (And a 2 TB 2.5" Drive is € 60.- to € 70.- nowadays ... and for € 100.- you could have a 4 TB 2.5" Drive ... it's not that expansive in my opinion)
Most of the time the libraries do not really get a lot of updates (Look at the libraries from Kontakt or Battery for example) however I there might be the exception here and there ... But I think that the Base content should stay as is dependent on the Komplete "Edition" you own
and the Extra Content Should be User definable
So if you want to add Maschine or any Expansions to the drive this should be possible
Everything that could be installed using Native Access should have that option since you would still need Native Access to install and activate

 

But Cremona Quartet would not fit there. Do not forget that if it is 80 GB (but it is around 90 GB), it takes at least 160 GB on disc - Win + iOS....
And there are few more plugins/libraries....

 

it's Actually 89.4 GB for all 4 the ISO Files and they contain Both Windows & Mac installers on the ISO
You would still have 70 GB of space for the other plugins
If there are no other massive sized Libraries it should all fit on there
If there are some big Libraries that are not on the disk it might indeed not fit
and in the last case NI might already be using Higher capacity HDD's so that they can also use those for K14UCE

 

@Dj Ravix
"Most of the time the libraries do not really get a lot of updates (Look at the libraries from Kontakt or Battery for example) however I there might be the exception here and there ... But I think that the Base content should stay as is dependent on the Komplete "Edition" you own and the Extra Content Should be User definable"
Thanks for that, thats handy to know.

"it's Actually 89.4 GB for all 4 the ISO Files"
Have you downloaded those iso's? I tried to find out the sizes BEFOREHAND and all support told me was that I'll see once I click on the Download button.

Which brings me to this:

Here's the difference between NA and on the Products area. NOT talking about the uncompressed sizes (thats another matter). Some of those discrepancies are quite large, especially for those of us on a data cap. Look at the Strat Cello, at least 4GB difference. Moral of the story - leave plenty of headroom in case you get stung big time for going over the limit.

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/cinematic/cremona-quartet/

 

There are two ways of counting MB abd GB. It may be 1024 multiply or 1000. 1024 is correct, HDD and SDD manufactures prefere using 1 000. Discs seem to be bigger than they are in reality.....

So, 1 TB disc does not fit 1 TB of data, but only 940 MB.

And, 1 000 vs. 1 024 may also be responsible for difference in library sizes stated on NI pages and NA.

Stradivari Violin ISO is 22 898 380 kB, Amati Viola 22 767 418. Not sure which version. Probably 1.0.0 or 1.0.1.

 

Hi Kubrak, yes I'm aware of the 1000 vs 1024.
"And, 1 000 vs. 1 024 may also be responsible for difference in library sizes stated on NI pages and NA."
If NI are calculating their download sizes differently depending on if its in NA or on their product pages, it doesn't add up if you're comparing 1000 vs 1024.

The difference between 1000 vs 1024 is 2.4% .........a negligable amount
The difference between 23.12 vs 27.3 (Stradivari Cello) is slightly over 18% ........not an insignificant amount

For some this isn't an issue for others it is.

 

No, the difference is not only 2.4%. It is 1024*1024*1024 vs. 1000*1000*1000. The difference is 7.37%.

But still not 18% of Stradivari Cello......

 

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm getting at. (Maybe a language barrier?) Regardless of the 1000 vs 1024 thing, and regardless of what convention NI uses for file sizes, my point is the size difference between Strat Cello in Native Access and Strat Cello in the Product info is approx 18%.

 

I understand your point. My point is that part of the difference may be due to 1000 vs. 1024. The rest may be due to different versions, mistake, .... Who, knows....
And yes, it should be stated correctly.

 

Ether way ... you can bet your ass that it will be on the HDD for K14UCE (even if they might have to use a bigger HDD)
From what I know they finished the master for K13UCE (And all lower versions) end of April last year So they might have already finished that one

I have actually found some interesting stuff about how the HDD works
Everybody probably already figured out that there is a hidden folder named data that contains all the ISO files named as "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.iso"
There is also the hidden file "medium.nmd" in the Root of the drive that contains Those same names with Version number and a link to the iso file corresponding to the names
So technically you should be able to add an ISO to the Data Folder and edit the "medium.nmd" to add this file to the list
The only problem here is you need to have the correct file name
if anybody who has the K13U or K13UCE HDD can look into this (Since I only have the K13 HDD)
If I am correctly if you open the file "a0ebfb22-988b-40d8-b050-27b40c5ab653.iso" you should get the Kontakt Factory Library
(I think this is across all versions)
If you are able to provide me the correct file name for "Alicias Keys" (6,97 GB) than I want to try if this actually works
I actually have a clone of my Komplete 13 drive to try this on

 

Dj Ravix
If I'm understanding you correctly - I have the K13U CE HDD but I'm a bit wary of the legalities of digging into the HDD . Not saying it's not OK but I'd prefer to know for sure. I'm also not sure if KFL is available to all bundles or Alicias Keys, or if that even matters.

Kubrak - I wasn't looking at "The rest may be due to different versions, mistake, .... Who, knows...." just the pure mathematical difference between the size discrepancies. You have a point about versions, but not sure if there is different version of the CQ and Arkhis as I understand they're pretty new? Anyway, I'm not worried about minor discrepancies which I work out would be 2.4(ish) % if it was just about 1000 vs 1024, and my point is the difference between the 2 Strad Cellos, which I want to DL next, and has a sizable difference of more than a whopping 4GBs AND which one to believe.

I'm not coming with guns blazing, but I think it's reasonable to ask NI to please have more accurate, or should I say consistent, file sizes.

 

it are just file names
The thing I am trying to figure out is if I change the filename of "Alicias_Keys.iso" into the name it has on the K13UCE HDD if native access will detect it ... if it does than we know that custom content can indeed already be added to the drive and we just need the filenames of the ISO files to be correct
if it doesn't than I am going to look in if the "medium.nmd" could be edited slightly to make it work
KFL is actually included to all Komplete 13 versions and up or owners of the full Kontakt 6 plugin
But somebody who has start or select will not have access to the ISO itself or the licence to activate it (and if they only have the ISO it will than run in Demo mode if I am correctly)
Alicias Keys is actually included with ultimate I upgraded from K13 to Ultimate but only have the HDD of K13
So this would be a nice way to try if it would work ...
And once again its just a string of letters and numbers that are probably used internally at NI to create these drives
might be just to make them look all the same or be formatted the same way
I actually have a full list here of all those names from my K13 Drives and figured out by mounting them what was on them
it's actually not a hard thing to do but it can be very time consuming
That is why I just picked one ISO that I have Locally That is not in K13 but is in K13U to see if this would work

 

1000 vs. 1024 makes 7.4 %, not 2.4% if speaking of GB. And cca 10% if speaking of TB. It would be 2.4% if speaking of kB, 4.9% for MB.

It seems to me NI uses 1000 at web (bigger is marketingwise better...) and 1024 in NA (not to confuse user when reportin unsuffitient disk space...). And in case Strad Cellos come in game also other aspects....

 

it is actually the size in bytes if you are using windows look at the property's of a file or even your HDD an you will see both
Just to show you how crazy this eventually gets I have a drive that windows reports as 10.9 TB but it also shows it's 12.000.136.523.776 bytes
you can already guess what the actual marketed size of the HDD is here