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[Blueshound24]

If this isn't the correct forum for this question, please advise me of the proper place.

Ok I took the plunge and changed out the two HDD's out of my Windows 7 17" HP laptop for:

1. A SanDisk Extreme PRO 240GB SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5-Inch 7mm Height Solid State Drive (SSD), just for O.S. Windows 7.

2. And a HHD for data/music files, Samsung Seagate HN-M201RAD Momentus SpinPoint ST2000LM003 2TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Notebook Hard Drive 9.5MM

I had a computer tech install the SSD and HDD and O.S. (Wdws 7), due to the fact I am not confident in doing it myself. The O.S. has been installed on the SSD, and my plan is to put all data and music files on the 2TB HDD.

Anyway, I have installed iTunes and JRiver and need to install my music files from an external HD that I have about 244 GB's of music files and my backed up current library from JRiver.

I am somewhat of a computer audio newb, could someone direct me, step by step, on transferring my music files and backed up library onto my new computer. I would assume the first step would be to transfer the music files and the backed up library to my 2TB data disc.

What I am not sure of is how to populate JRiver and iTunes with the music files.
Also, how to set up JRiver and iTunes to utilize the 2TB HDD data D drive and not go to the C drive where the O.S. is.

I have music ripped from CD's, downloaded from HDTracks, and downloaded from iTunes.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[JimH]

The wiki has a topic called "Moving Files".

[Blueshound24]

After reading through the Wiki I am really confused of even where to start. I am truly computer challenged :-(

[JimH]

Read again.  It's all there.  What's confusing?

[Blueshound24]

Ok, what I've read so far,

So I take it I should do this to move all music files to a new location so they are all in the same spot on the drive? Should this be done before I back up music files to the external backup drive? The old laptop is still available with all files still intact, so I could do this.

Or is all this something that could or should be done after all music files are transferred to new computer?

Media Center's Auto-Import system runs by default in the background, and will automatically pick up changes in any of your defined Auto-Import Directories.

So I should disable the background scanning feature first? Tools > Options > Libraries & Folders > Auto-Import, un-tick "Run auto-import in background". DONE.   What about "Run import on empty libraries".  Should that be un-ticked?

Then, Go to Edit, "Select All" to highlight all music files, then right click anywhere to bring up Library Tools, then click on Rename, Move & Copy Files

1. Select a few files to test before you do many.
2. Check the Directories box. DONE

3. Set the "Base Path". This is the folder under which your music will be stored. Example: C:\Music What should this be? Should it be set/named to go to my external back up HDD prior to backing it up there before it is transferred to new computer?

4. Set "Rule". Example: [Artist]\[Album] will make a directory named for the Artist and a directory under that for each Album.

So under "Rule" I should type in [Artist]\[Album] exactly like that?


Before running the Rename, Move, and Copy Files tool, you should always consider several cautions:
•Make a Library Backup: As mentioned above, creating a Library Backup before running the tool is strongly recommended. It can alter your files on disk and your Library in Media Center. DONE

•Disable Auto-Import Background Scanning: You may also want to temporarily disable Auto-Import Background Scanning. Otherwise, if you apply changes to any Watched Directories, the Auto-Import system may pick up changes while the tool is still running and moving files, which can leave your Library in an inconsistent state. DONE

•Do a few files first: Before you select every file in your Library and apply a new file naming template, select just a handful of files to test it with. Make sure to investigate where the files end up and make sure you got everything right before you apply changes to large sets of files.
•Use the Preview Panel: The tool provides a preview of changes. Review this before applying your changes to make sure you didn't make any mistakes, or select the wrong files. Some show <no change>, and some show a similar path but without HDtracks, iTunes, music, etc?


Then which of these modes do I want to do?

1. Rename (moves files if directory changes)Renames and moves files, including from one disk to another.
2. Copy Creates new independent copies of the selected files. This mode does not alter the Library or the source files on disk.
3. Copy and update database to point to new location Creates new independent copies of the selected files, and replaces the Library entries for the existing source files with the new files. This is identical to Rename mode, except that it leaves the original copies behind untouched.
4. Update database to point to new location (no file rename, move, or copy) Only changes the [Filename] path for the selected files in the Media Center Library. This mode does not move or copy any files on disk.

I would guess, "Copy and update database to point to new location" ?

What should "File name" be?

Do anything with "Find & Replace"?


I really feel like a fish out of water with all this ?

[Blueshound24]

Please excuse all the beginner questions, but I would really appreciate a little assistance.
Thanks.

[JimH]

You're undertaking something that can be fairly complex, as you probably know.  The way to learn how to do it is to try a few files and see what happens, then a few more, and so on.  

When you get stuck, ask a specific question.

[blgentry]

What you want to do isn't super duper hard.  But it's a very detailed process.  If you have the ability to do so, engaging a friend that is sophisticated with computers might be a good first step.

You're asking about a lot of small details and that's ok.  But let's back up a few steps and talk about a high level overview of the process.  I'm assuming that your library has a lot of meta data that you want to keep, so we'll need to migrate your library.  If that's not a good assumption, and your library does NOT have a lot of metadata you've added or changed, then this process could be very, very easy.  It's migrating the library that's the "hard part" here.

So let's start there.  Do you need to keep your current library data?  Or is the info in the files (album, artist, etc) good enough? 

Second, does your current library point to files on your external drive?  Or is the external a copy of some other drive?

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

Thanks for your reply. I am at work now and probably will not be able to get back on the forum much.

I have a 1TB Seagate external hard drive that I occasionally hook up to my old laptop to back up my music files, and my plan was to hook that up to transfer the music files to the new laptop.

I don't think I did much with the metadata. Not sure how that works. Basically I ripped my Cd's, and downloaded from HD Tracks and iTunes. I have created quite a few Playlists and rated songs with JRiver 1 to 5 star rating on each music file. Is that part of the metadata?

So the external hard drive is just copies of the music files from the old laptop, which is still functioning. So the original library is still on the old laptop and that is where it the music files are pointing to that drive on the old laptop.

Not sure if that answers your question or not.

[blgentry]

I have created quite a few Playlists and rated songs with JRiver 1 to 5 star rating on each music file. Is that part of the metadata?

Yes, the playlists and (to some extent) the star ratings are part of the Library.  The playlists and things won't be in the files; they are part of the library.  So it sounds like we need to transfer the library.  That was plan A anyway; this is just confirmation. 

More questions:

1.  Your old laptop has a copy of all of your media files and the library.  What directory or directories are your media files in?  Something like C:\Music ?  We'll need to know that path near the end of the process.
2.  The media files on the old laptop are in some kind of directory structure, maybe by artist and album.  Is the file structure on your external drive *identical* to this?  Is it an exact replica other than the drive letter and maybe a different top level directory?

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

Sorry, can't remember the exact path and will post it here when I get off work after 7 tonight.
Thanks!

[Blueshound24]

On the old laptop, my music is in:
Computer > OS (C) > Users > Steve > My Music

On the old laptop, the backed up JRiver Library is in:
Computer > OS (C) > Users > Steve > Downloads > MC Library Backup (Main Library - 2015-09-25).zip

On JRiver on the old laptop, the filenames are like:
C:\Users\Steve\Music\HDtracks\Eric Bibb\An Evening With Eric Bibb\01-Good Stuff.flac
C:\Users\Steve\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\Otis Taylor\Truth Is Not Fiction\10 Nasty Letter.m4a
C:\Users\Steve\Music\John Lee Hooker\Forever Gold\John Lee Hooker - Crawlin Kingsnake.flac


The backed up files on the Seagate Expansion Drive (E:) seem very convoluted.
Seagate Expansion Drive (E:) > Seagate Dashboard > Steve - PC > Steve > Backup > 611bf11e-36b9-4eb...etc > 20150910_243935_Steve1 > C > Users > Steve > Music
It looks like another path takes off from here for what looks like another later backup...                                 > 20150925_095540_Steve1Inc1 > C Users > Steve > Music

The first path has 245 GB in the music folder, and the second has 11.5 GB in the music folder, for a total of 256 GB.
In the JRiver program on the task bar at the bottom, it says there are 244 GB of music files. Looks like a bit of a discrepancy.

Maybe I need to just do a fresh clean backup?


Does this answer your questions? It's late here, and I go into work again tomorrow from 0630 to 1900, so I probably will not be able to get on the forum too much until tomorrow night, but I'll try to check in if I can.

Thank you and good night!

[blgentry]

That gives me a good idea of what's going on.

To make this as easy as possible, you really want to have a direct, file by file, directory by directory backup of your music files onto your external drive.  So, for example:

C:\Users\Steve\Music\HDtracks\Eric Bibb\An Evening With Eric Bibb\01-Good Stuff.flac
gets backed up onto the external as:

E:\Music\HDtracks\Eric Bibb\An Evening With Eric Bibb\01-Good Stuff.flac

Then, we'll copy all of the files from the E: drive (the external) to your larger internal drive, D: .  Again, keeping the same structure of files and directories.

See, near the end of this process, we're going to need to change JRiver's database entries for ALL of your files.  So having the same structure as the original music files and directories is really important.  Otherwise, it'll be pretty hard to transfer everything properly and have JRiver be able to see it again.

Brian.

[blgentry]

A high level overview of this process looks something like this:

1.  Copy the structure of the music files from the OLD computer to the External drive.
2.  Copy the database backup from the old computer to the external drive.
3.  Copy the Music backup that's now on the External drive, to the Data drive on the NEW computer.  This is probably the D: drive.
4.  Copy the MC database backup from the External drive to somewhere on the NEW computer.
5.  Open MC on the NEW computer.  Set a few options.
6.  Restore the database backup on the NEW computer.  Verify that everything is there and that it is trying to find the files in the OLD locations.
7.  Use the Rename, Move, and Copy tool to change the database paths from the OLD paths on the C: drive to the new paths on the D: drive.
8.  Verify that everything works.  Set some options in MC.

I hope that makes sense.

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

As usual, it's been busy the last couple of days at work, and just tonight pulled up your comments.

As for it making sense, maybe it will become clearer once I start going through the process. I'm afraid I might need very detailed instructions on each step of the way. I hope you can bear with me for being somewhat challenged when it comes to transferring music and data...

At your convenience, please let me know the first steps to take.

P.S. I have had the JRiver program for a little over one year, and just upgraded to JRiver 21 the a few days ago.

Thank you for your time,
Steve

[ferday]

what did you use to backup your files?  Those random characters are checksums, which are used by a software backup to make an image.  They need to be restored with the same software that made the image

IMO life will simplify if you just do a plain copy / paste of your my music folder onto the external

[blgentry]

At your convenience, please let me know the first steps to take.

Steps 1 through 3 would be an excellent place to start.  As ferday says, just simple drag and drop copies may be the way to go.  I no longer own a Windows computer, so I can't give very good step by step advice on how to use Windows tools to do these copies.

I hope someone else can give you extra advice about that if necessary.  Try it with a few test files that you don't care about to see if you can do it.  Just don't do anything to MOVE or DELETE your music files from the original laptop.  As long as you keep the original laptop intact, you can always start over if you need to.

Good luck!

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

what did you use to backup your files?  Those random characters are checksums, which are used by a software backup to make an image.  They need to be restored with the same software that made the image

IMO life will simplify if you just do a plain copy / paste of your my music folder onto the external

External drive, Seagate Expansion Drive (E:), and it uses it's own program "Seagate Dashboard".

Yes, copy/paste or drag/drop sounds like a simpler way, and it would more closely match what JRiver says I have in GB's as well. On the old laptop under C drive, when I right click on my music, then click on Properties it shows 246 GB, and JRiver shows 244 GB.

[Blueshound24]

Steps 1 through 3 would be an excellent place to start.  As ferday says, just simple drag and drop copies may be the way to go.  I no longer own a Windows computer, so I can't give very good step by step advice on how to use Windows tools to do these copies.

I hope someone else can give you extra advice about that if necessary.  Try it with a few test files that you don't care about to see if you can do it.  Just don't do anything to MOVE or DELETE your music files from the original laptop.  As long as you keep the original laptop intact, you can always start over if you need to.

Good luck!

Brian.

Ok, I will drag/drop OR copy/paste my music folder AND the backed up JRiver library (MC Library Backup (Main Library - 2015-09-25).zip) onto my external drive.

Then will drag/drop or copy/paste that music file directly onto the Music file onto new laptop, which would be under Computer/ Data D: / Music
Then will drag/drop or copy/paste the JRiver library zip file directly to the Download file on the new laptop, (only because that's where JRiver puts backups of it on my old laptop), which would be under Computer/ Data D: / Downloads.

Hope that sounds right.
Thanks!

[Blueshound24]

Crap, got a question already. Maybe I'm overthinking this and trying to make it more complicated. I have a tendency to do that:-(

On the old laptop, under computer/c/users/steve/music, within the list of all artists names are "iTunes" and "HDtracks". Would I want to "go to" each one of those and "select all" of the artists names then right click, "CUT", and paste them back to my music folder so that HDtracks and iTunes artists names are listed with all the other artists names, so that ALL artists are all under the same "tree", so to speak? Or doesn't that matter?

Thanks!

[blgentry]

Leave the itunes and hdtracks folders *exactly* as they are when doing the copy.  We are trying to make an exact duplicate here because JRiver knows those paths.  It knows that some of your music is in an itunes subdirectory and that some is in an HDTracks subdirectory.  This actually makes your job easier, so that's a good thing. 

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

OK, will do.

[Blueshound24]

I copied/pasted "My Music" from external drive to the new laptop to "My Music" on the (D:) drive. However, the tree looks like this now: Computer/Data (D:)/My Music/My Music/"Artists"/songs.

I'm thinking maybe, on the old laptop, I should have gone to: Computer/C:/Users/Steve/My Music/ then "select all" of the artists from the branch after My Music, right click on all artists, copy all artists, then pasted that onto the new computer on: Computer/(D:)/My Music. That is, onto "My Music".

Then maybe it should look like: Computer/(D:)/My Music/Artists/songs

The way it is now looks like it is not a direct structure to the artists due to the extra "My Music" in there?

Hope I am explaining this right. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[blgentry]

You're describing a directory within a directory problem.  That's a fairly common mistake to make when you're doing these kinds of operations.  Here's how to fix it, fairly quickly and easily.

1.  Go to Windows Explorer (the file manager/explorer) and find D: .
2.  Find D:\My Music . Right click and rename it to MM .  So you should now have D:\MM as a top level directory, and D:\MM\My Music under that.
3.  This next step is tricky depending on how you have Windows Explorer set up.  Again, I don't have a windows machine anymore, so take this as a guideline.  You'll need to experiment to make sure you get this right.

What you are trying to do is move My Music from D:\MM\My Music to D:\My Music\ .  You should be able to find My Music, and just drag it to D:\ .  That should move it.  When you're done what you want to end up with is:

D:\MM\
D:\My Music\

D:\MM\ will be empty and can be deleted later.
D:\My Music\  will have all of your music files in it as expected.

Again, you might want to do some experiments with Windows Explorer and some test folders and files to make sure you know how to do these operations before you work on your music files.

Good luck.

Brian.

[ferday]

No need to be that complex.  Cut the "real" My Music folder and paste it into D:
Windows will ask to merge the two folders due to the same name. Only one has data so say yes, and now one folder.  This is a time free operation as files won't actually be moved, windows will just merge the two

[Blueshound24]

No need to be that complex.  Cut the "real" My Music folder and paste it into D:
Windows will ask to merge the two folders due to the same name. Only one has data so say yes, and now one folder.  This is a time free operation as files won't actually be moved, windows will just merge the two

Nice... That worked slick! Thanks.

[Blueshound24]

A high level overview of this process looks something like this:

1.  Copy the structure of the music files from the OLD computer to the External drive.
2.  Copy the database backup from the old computer to the external drive.
3.  Copy the Music backup that's now on the External drive, to the Data drive on the NEW computer.  This is probably the D: drive.
4.  Copy the MC database backup from the External drive to somewhere on the NEW computer.
5.  Open MC on the NEW computer.  Set a few options.
6.  Restore the database backup on the NEW computer.  Verify that everything is there and that it is trying to find the files in the OLD locations.
7.  Use the Rename, Move, and Copy tool to change the database paths from the OLD paths on the C: drive to the new paths on the D: drive.
8.  Verify that everything works.  Set some options in MC.

I hope that makes sense.

Brian.

It appears I am through with steps 1 - 4. Now for 5 - 8!

5.  Open MC on the NEW computer.  Set a few options. Which options?
6.  Restore the database backup on the NEW computer.  Verify that everything is there and that it is trying to find the files in the OLD locations.  How to restore and verify?
7.  Use the Rename, Move, and Copy tool to change the database paths from the OLD paths on the C: drive to the new paths on the D: drive.  ?
8.  Verify that everything works.  Set some options in MC. Which options?

When I open MC, will it automatically search for the music files and library?

[ferday]

6. file>library>restore library (choose the one you just made)  (...do this step before step 5)

5.  tools>options>library&folders - turn off auto import (uncheck the two boxes)

7. select SOME files, maybe 3 or 4 albums with different path names

8. push F6.  this brings up the RMC tool.  now...select "Update database to point to new location"

UNCHECK directories
UNCHECK filename

CHECK find & replace.  Find C: and replace with D:

click ok.

now go to tools>options>library&folders, and turn on the auto import
go into tools>import>configure auto import
erase everything that may be there, and select D:/my music

when you exit auto import, it should run automatically.  if the test files worked, they will now appear in your library correctly and you can play them.  if it works, repeat the above with either a larger test chunk or the whole library if you're happy

hopefully blgentry will step in as well in case i missed a step ha hah

[Blueshound24]

Thanks so much. I'll give it a try!

[blgentry]

The goal of steps 5 through 8 is to get your original library DATABASE loaded onto your new computer.  Then, to update this database so that the old file entries for C:\Users\Steve\My Music\<music files here> will be UPDATED to point to their new location at:  D:\My Music\<music files here>

We want to do this without having MC auto-import anything.  So step 5 is to turn off auto import:  Tools > Options > Library & Folders > run auto import in background > (Uncheck).  The other thing to set in step 5 is the option to remove missing files.  See, you're going to restore your library and that library is going to point to a bunch of files that don't exist on the C drive!  We need to keep MC from trying to throw those out of the Library.  That way we can fix them by changing their path names.  So:

Tools > Options > Library & Folders > configure auto import > Tasks > Fix broken links > NO

After step 6, which is restoring your library,  you should really go check both of those settings again!  They might get reset because restoring a library restores all of your settings also.  You should also remove all of your old auto-import Directories at this time.  Tools > Options > Library & Folders > configure auto import > Folders > (remove all of them)

Now, we're still at step 6.  The last part of step 6 is to verify that your library restored ok.  Go look at some of your songs.  Make sure you see what you think you should see.  Verify that these songs are pointing to files on the C drive.  Files that aren't there, but WERE there on the old machine.

If you get through this ok, we'll go on to the next steps.

BTW Ferday's explanation is pretty darned good overall.  I just like to do things a bit more slowly.

Brian.

[ferday]

blgentry...i could for sure be wrong, but i think restoring the backup library will reinstate the options from before (like auto import) so restore first, then uncheck the import options.  

edit:  i see you noticed that already.  my bad.  also the fix broken links thing...good catch!

[Blueshound24]

If I remember correctly, when MC is opened for the first time, in the bottom left corner of the screen it gives you a count down for it starting auto import and in the same bottom, left corner it shows a place to click to stop auto import? So right away I'll need to click that before I do ferday's first steps?:



6. file>library>restore library (choose the one you just made)  (...do this step before step 5)

5.  tools>options>library&folders - turn off auto import (uncheck the two boxes)

[ferday]

yes, don't let MC import ANYTHING to start with

[Blueshound24]

Ok, I had, MC Library Backup (Main Library - 2015-09-25).zip, in Computer/(D:)/Downloads on old laptop and external backup drive, and that's where it is on the new laptop.

So to restore the library I browsed to, (D:) Downloads, clicked on MC Library Backup (Main Library - 2015-09-25).zip, and it said "Restore successful".

However, going to File / Library / Restore library to check it, it shows: D:\Documents\JRiver\Media Center 21\Library Backups\

I am under the impression it should say D:\Downloads\MC Library Backup (Main Library - 2015-09-25).zip ?

[Blueshound24]

In addition, when I go to:
Computer/(D:)/Documents/JRiver/, there is Media Center 19, AND, Media Center 21?

And the MC 21 branch has:
Computer/(D:)/Documents/JRiver/Media Center 21/Library Backups/MC Library Backup (Main Library - Before Restore)

Whereas, the MC19 branch has:
Computer/(D:)/Documents/JRiver/Media Center 19/Library Backups/MC Library Backup (Main Library - Before Restore) AND, MC Library Backup (Main Library - 2015-09-29)


I'm unsure why JRiver 19 is even there, and shouldn't MC 21 have the Main Library - 2015-09-29 ?

[blgentry]

A.  File > Library > Restore Library :  Don't worry about what this shows.  It's just the dialog for what file you want to choose to restore and it comes up by default in a certain directory.  It has nothing to do with what you just restored.

Instead, to verify that your restore worked, go into your Albums view or your Artists view, or some other view that you normally use in MC.  Are your songs showing?  They won't play yet because they are still pointing to the C: drive.  But you should see all of your songs.  If you do, check some to make sure they are pointing to the C: drive.  If so, you're doing really well!

B.  Computer/(D:)/Documents/JRiver/Media Center 21/Library Backups/MC Library Backup (Main Library - Before Restore):  That's probably an auto created backup.  MC normally makes a backup *just* before you do a restore, as a safety measure.  Ignore it, because your MC21 library that you started with was empty.

C.  Computer/(D:)/Documents/JRiver/Media Center 19/Library Backups/MC Library Backup (Main Library - Before Restore) AND, MC Library Backup (Main Library - 2015-09-29):  These are probably copies from your old drive.  Didn't you say that your C drive was copied to your D drive during the upgrade?  If so, again, you should be able to just ignore this stuff.

The important thing to check, as I said above, is that you see songs in your library in your normal media views.

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

A.  File > Library > Restore Library :  Don't worry about what this shows.  It's just the dialog for what file you want to choose to restore and it comes up by default in a certain directory.  It has nothing to do with what you just restored. OK

Instead, to verify that your restore worked, go into your Albums view or your Artists view, or some other view that you normally use in MC.  Are your songs showing?  They won't play yet because they are still pointing to the C: drive.  But you should see all of your songs.  If you do, check some to make sure they are pointing to the C: drive.  If so, you're doing really well!  Yup, songs are there, still pointing to C: drive, BUT, no album art/album covers yet?

B.  Computer/(D:)/Documents/JRiver/Media Center 21/Library Backups/MC Library Backup (Main Library - Before Restore):  That's probably an auto created backup.  MC normally makes a backup *just* before you do a restore, as a safety measure.  Ignore it, because your MC21 library that you started with was empty.  OK

C.  Computer/(D:)/Documents/JRiver/Media Center 19/Library Backups/MC Library Backup (Main Library - Before Restore) AND, MC Library Backup (Main Library - 2015-09-29):  These are probably copies from your old drive.  Didn't you say that your C drive was copied to your D drive during the upgrade?  If so, again, you should be able to just ignore this stuff.  No, the tech did a clean Windows 7 install from the internet or whatever media he used. The advantage is I have very little "Bloat-ware"

The important thing to check, as I said above, is that you see songs in your library in your normal media views.

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

Instead, to verify that your restore worked, go into your Albums view or your Artists view, or some other view that you normally use in MC.  Are your songs showing?  They won't play yet because they are still pointing to the C: drive.  But you should see all of your songs.  If you do, check some to make sure they are pointing to the C: drive.  If so, you're doing really well!  Yup, songs are there, still pointing to C: drive, BUT, no album art/album covers yet, do I need to do anything to make sure album art shows up?


C.  Computer/(D:)/Documents/JRiver/Media Center 19/Library Backups/MC Library Backup (Main Library - Before Restore) AND, MC Library Backup (Main Library - 2015-09-29):  These are probably copies from your old drive.  Didn't you say that your C drive was copied to your D drive during the upgrade?  If so, again, you should be able to just ignore this stuff.  No, the tech did a clean Windows 7 install from the internet or whatever media he used. The advantage is I have very little "Bloat-ware"

[Blueshound24]

By the way MC shows identical 8170 Files (244 GB) on both the old laptop AND the new one!

So we are ready for step 7.

In MC\Audio\Files, should I select 3 different songs by pressing and holding down Control, left click on a song ripped from CD, a song downloaded from HDtracks, and a song downloaded from iTunes? That should be 3 different path names?

Then just follow the rest of the instructions?


7. select SOME files, maybe 3 or 4 albums with different path names

8. push F6. this brings up the RMC tool. now...select "Update database to point to new location"

UNCHECK directories
UNCHECK filename

CHECK find & replace. Find C: and replace with D:

click ok.

now go to tools>options>library&folders, and turn on the auto import

go into tools>import>configure auto import

erase everything that may be there, and select D:/my music

when you exit auto import, it should run automatically. if the test files worked, they will now appear in your library correctly and you can play them. if it works, repeat the above with either a larger test chunk or the whole library if you're happy

[blgentry]

Yup, songs are there, still pointing to C: drive, BUT, no album art/album covers yet, do I need to do anything to make sure album art shows up?

Good job!  Album art is probably either embedded inside the files, or as image files sitting in the same directories as the music. This will probably work itself out once we get completely done with step 7.  If not, there's probably an album art directory on your old laptop that you'll need to move over.  But I doubt you'll need to.

No, the tech did a clean Windows 7 install from the internet or whatever media he used. The advantage is I have very little "Bloat-ware"

I have no idea how you have MC19 on your new computer if you didn't install it and it wasn't copied.  I hope we can ignore that for now...

More responses in a minute.

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

7. select SOME files, maybe 3 or 4 albums with different path names

8. push F6. this brings up the RMC tool. now...select "Update database to point to new location"

UNCHECK directories
UNCHECK filename

CHECK find & replace. Find C: and replace with D:

click ok.

now go to tools>options>library&folders, and turn on the auto import.    What about "run import on empty libraries"


go into tools>import>configure auto import

erase everything that may be there, and select D:/my music.    I don't see where to Select D:/my music? Do I remove ALL entries under "Folders"? Under "Tasks", do I put a tick in the box "Fix broken links: Yes (protect files on missing drives)



when you exit auto import, it should run automatically. if the test files worked, they will now appear in your library correctly and you can play them. if it works, repeat the above with either a larger test chunk or the whole library if you're happy

[/quote]

[blgentry]

By the way MC shows identical 8170 Files (244 GB) on both the old laptop AND the new one!

So we are ready for step 7.

In MC\Audio\Files, should I select 3 different songs by pressing and holding down Control, left click on a song ripped from CD, a song downloaded from HDtracks, and a song downloaded from iTunes? That should be 3 different path names?

Great news.  Let's outline step 7 so you can go to it.

The suggestion to do files with several path names is smart.  You could try doing several at once as you've suggested by holding down Control and clicking on several files.  I'd do entire albums at once personally.  Otherwise things might get kinda confused as to which files are where.  You might try to start this process, as a test, with ONE album.  Once you get that to work, try some other path names, to make sure that your technique works.  Then do larger batches.  At some point you'll end up just doing "everything" at once.  Whenever you're comfortable that the process works, you can run it against everything.

Step 7 broken out as individual steps:

1.  Select some files.  Could be a few files, a whole album, or thousands of files at once.
2.  <Right Click> Library Tools > Rename, Move, and Copy files
3.  In the dialog that comes up fill out:
A.  Top pulldown menu:  Update Database
B.  Directories:  Unchecked
C.  Filename:  Unchecked
D.  Find and Replace:  Checked
E.  Find What:  C:\Users\Steve\Music\
F.  Replace with:  D:\My Music\
4.  Look at the preview pane to the right.  It will show you the original file names and the new file names it is about to change to in the database.  Make sure they are right!  I tried to be exact based on the filenames you told us earlier, but I might be wrong.  Check.  If the new file paths don't look correct, adjust your Find and Replace rules until the preview looks right.
5.  Once it's correct, press OK.
6.  Go verify that this worked by playing a few of the files you just updated.  They should play.  If not, your rule wasn't right.  But hopefully this will just work.  If this didn't work, you should be able to press Control-Z or Edit > Undo to reverse the changes you just made.  Hopefully this won't be necessary.
7.  Repeat with another group of files.  Keep going until everything is done.

This is the BIG step.  Take your time to make sure it's right.   I think you'll do just fine with this.  Good luck.

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

Great news.  Let's outline step 7 so you can go to it.

The suggestion to do files with several path names is smart.  You could try doing several at once as you've suggested by holding down Control and clicking on several files.  I'd do entire albums at once personally.  Otherwise things might get kinda confused as to which files are where.  You might try to start this process, as a test, with ONE album.  Once you get that to work, try some other path names, to make sure that your technique works.  Then do larger batches.  At some point you'll end up just doing "everything" at once.  Whenever you're comfortable that the process works, you can run it against everything.

Step 7 broken out as individual steps:

1.  Select some files.  Could be a few files, a whole album, or thousands of files at once.
2.  <Right Click> Library Tools > Rename, Move, and Copy files
3.  In the dialog that comes up fill out:
A.  Top pulldown menu:  Update Database
B.  Directories:  Unchecked
C.  Filename:  Unchecked
D.  Find and Replace:  Checked
E.  Find What:  C:\Users\Steve\Music\
F.  Replace with:  D:\My Music\
4.  Look at the preview pane to the right.  It will show you the original file names and the new file names it is about to change to in the database.  Make sure they are right!  I tried to be exact based on the filenames you told us earlier, but I might be wrong.  Check.  If the new file paths don't look correct, adjust your Find and Replace rules until the preview looks right.
5.  Once it's correct, press OK.
6.  Go verify that this worked by playing a few of the files you just updated.  They should play.  If not, your rule wasn't right.  But hopefully this will just work.  If this didn't work, you should be able to press Control-Z or Edit > Undo to reverse the changes you just made.  Hopefully this won't be necessary.
7.  Repeat with another group of files.  Keep going until everything is done.

This is the BIG step.  Take your time to make sure it's right.   I think you'll do just fine with this.  Good luck.

Brian.

Great!
Would I do the following steps after 7? And what about the bolded questions?

now go to tools>options>library&folders, and turn on the auto import.    What about "run import on empty libraries"

go into tools>import>configure auto import

erase everything that may be there, and select D:/my music.    I don't see where to Select D:/my music? Do I remove ALL entries under "Folders"? Under "Tasks", do I put a tick in the box "Fix broken links: Yes (protect files on missing drives)

[blgentry]

Great!
Would I do the following steps after 7? And what about the bolded questions?

I'll break out step 8 here in a minute.

What about "run import on empty libraries"

Doesn't matter.  You can pretty much ignore that setting.  Just keep it off.

I don't see where to Select D:/my music? Do I remove ALL entries under "Folders"?

I think you're trying to remove all of the OLD auto import directories, and replace them with a single auto import entry for D:\My Music\ .  Start with removing the old entries first.  In the Configure Auto Import dialog, just click on each of the old auto-import folders and press the remove button.  When you're done you should have no folders in the auto import area.  Click OK.

Under "Tasks", do I put a tick in the box "Fix broken links: Yes (protect files on missing drives)

At the VERY end of the process, it makes sense to do this.  But not until you've fixed all of the old database entries in step 7 (the BIG step we outlined above).

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

 

"Something went wrong with playback.
The file could not be found. Check that the filename in the library matches the filename on disk"

[blgentry]

Step 8 is just reversing a few of the settings we changed in step 5 and some minor additions.

First, let's talk about auto import.  You probably know that this is a way for MC to find music you add to your hard drive without having to tell MC anything.  If it goes in the directory structure you specify, MC will find it automatically and import it.  Auto Import.

The question is, where are you going to put new music?  Presumably in D:\My Music\ .  If that's correct, then you should set that up as an auto import directory.

Step 8 broken out as much as I can think of right now, but I might be missing something:

1.  Set up auto import on the directory or directories you will be using to put new music in.   Check the box for Audio as types to import.  If you haven't already removed all of the old auto import directories, this is the time and place to do it.  You should only have your one auto import directory left here when you're done.
2.  Turn Fix Broken Links back to the default setting:  Tools > Options > Library & Folders > configure auto import > Fix Broken Links > Yes (protect files on missing drives)
3.  Turn auto import back on:  Tools > Options > Library & Folders > run auto import in background > (Checked)

You might want to test auto import sooner than later, just to make sure it works.  Up to you.

I think that's everything, but I could have missed something.

Once again, good luck. 

Brian.

[blgentry]

"Something went wrong with playback.
The file could not be found. Check that the filename in the library matches the filename on disk"

Darn.  Check the filename of the file you tried to play.  Check the full path.  What drive and directory is it trying to play from?  You're probably going to find a simple path name mistake.  If you can't figure it out on your own, paste in the full pathname here.  Also, check your D:\My Music\ directory and verify that the file you are trying to play is where it's supposed to be.

You'll get there.  Keep trying.

Brian.

[Blueshound24]

"Something went wrong with playback.
The file could not be found. Check that the filename in the library matches the filename on disk"

In Find and Replace, should I have entered OS (C:) instead of (C:)
And, Data (D:) instead of (D:)

[Blueshound24]

Should "replace slashes in expressions" be checked?

[Blueshound24]

Wait, when I transferred my music to this laptop, I copied it to Data (D:).

It is already located in:   Computer > Data D: > My Music

Should I enter:

D.  Find and Replace:  Checked
E.  Find What:  D:\My Music\
F.  Replace with:  D:\My Music\