Hello!

Some (most) Kontakt libraries comes as a folder with all the files in that folder. I just put them in my "Kontakt Libraries folder", and point Kontakt to that folder and they work straight of the bat.

However, some libraries comes as ISO files, and must be installed with a .exe file.

I still install these to my libraries folder, and they work as they should ofcourse.

But (sorry for taking so long before coming to the question!) if I was to format my HD, but keep my Kontakt libraries on a external HD, would the libraries that are "installed" work straight of the bat when I reinstall windows/DAW/kontakt (as the "folder libraries do), or do I need to install them again from ISO/exe? Or can I just keep the new folder with all files in for future use?


Thank you for your help!

 

Usually yes, because all the files are in the library folder. But some, especially old ones, put some files in other folders. Typically pictures and so.
The only way to know is to test it from another Windows partition. If you can't which is usual keep the ISOs of the ones that come with an installer. Or the installer itself at the very least.

 

Thank you!

 

In my experience so far, libraries which come in an ISO continue to function correctly after changing their location, just like the ones that come in a folder. So you should be fine if you don't keep the ISO for future use.

 

Thank you for confusing me with your "better" answer!

I'm kind of running out of HD-space, so need to free up some TB's!

 

I recently moved my Kontakt library directories from a hard-drive which was formatted as HFS Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to an NTFS partition on a Windows machine and everything worked without reinstalling from ISOs. Just point Kontakt to the .nicnt and for everything else, use Quickload.

 

Apologies if my answer confused you. As I said, there are no differences in functionality of both kinds of libraries.

Spoiler

Slightly OT, but the only difference that I found was that the libraries installed from ISOs directly add the necessary information to the Registry on Windows upon installation. As I use Kontakt Portable, nothing gets added to the registry when I add the library to Kontakt in case of non-ISO libraries.

Same here!

 

Last edited: Nov 30, 2020

They don't have to be installed via a .exe, you know. So not "must", is all.

 

That's how it is 95% of the times.
But sometimes, the installation file add some GUI images to the Kontakt folders in "common files" or whatever. Not in the library folder.
Bad practice, but I've seen some cases. So you'd need them. I'd keep the exe just in case, if you don't need it later perfect.

 

Yes, totally agree!