Hi Greg, I believe that you do not need to actually copy the data to your workstation (although you could ...) - instead, symbolically link it from the external drive to your workstation so that it appears local. Then upload from that path. The data library upload "by path" option will follow a single symbolic link to data. This is explained in much more detail in our wiki, please see the section "Upload directory of files": http://wiki.galaxyproject.org/Admin/DataLibraries/UploadingLibraryFiles Sorry for the late reply - this email got sorted incorrectly - it really is best to either send replies back to the mailing list or to start over with a new thread (brand new message "to" list only, not just a reply with a new subject line). This ensures we get your question tagged and tracked - and you benefit from all the helpful developers on this list that know more than I about many technical things Galaxy. If anyway else has suggestions for Greg, please feel free to add to the post, Jen Galaxy team On 2/4/13 12:53 PM, Thyssen, Gregory - ARS wrote:

Hi Jen,

I have a local instance of Galaxy running on my workstation.

I have external hard drives full of fastq sequencing files.

I want to make them available to myself as data libraries. I am the Admin and sole user at this point.

The “upload” data libraries seems to pass the data through the (slow) network, even though my workstation and external hard drives are linked by USB.

What is the fastest way to import my files into my galaxy instance? Can I copy them into some folder on the workstation’s hard drive?

Since everything is physically connected, I don’t think I should be limited by my network speed.

Thanks,

Greg Thyssen

-- Jennifer Hillman-Jackson Galaxy Support and Training http://galaxyproject.org