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[susieQ]

Can file folders containing 2 Terabytes of music arranged alphabetically (last name first) be transferred directly into Media Center 21 Library from an external hard drive or the present computer ‘F’ drive and maintain the same structure? 
The original files were loaded first with dbPoweramp onto Windows 7 Premium  but are now loaded onto a computer with Windows 2012 Server Essentials (R2).
The File Folders can contain from 1 to 40 separate CDs, eg Bach J.S has 30. 
I have tried loading from the external  drive and even the computers ‘F’ drive into Media Center  via different ways:
 1. Import a single file at a time
2. Configure auto import
3. Run Auto Import
4. Select All – drag and drop into the library
Each way ended up with CDs listed separately from their original folders, or listed alphabetically according to first name.  Prior to transfer I had gone through the file folders and corrected mistakes and placed multiple CDs under one name only.  At this point I have to start retagging in the Media Center to correct many, many entries.

[blgentry]

MC doesn't really care about the folder structure on disk.  MC doesn't use that for organization purposes at all.  What MC *does* care about, are the metadata tags inside the files themselves.  So, Album, Artist, song Name, Track #, etc are all read from *inside* the files.  If your metadata isn't exactly as you want it, you'll probably need to change it so it's correct.

BTW, Windows Server platforms are not supported by MC.  They might work.  They might not.  Either way, JRiver won't support (give you help) for installations on Windows Server.  Sorry about that.

It might be possible to do some semi-automated tagging based on the file structure.  It kind of depends on how your folder structures are laid out and/or how much your metadata tags need to be changed.

Brian.

[susieQ]

Thanks Brian for you quick reply, that makes absolute sense!  Why would JR ever understand what I have called my files!  What we had started doing some while back is changing the meta data when we down loaded with dbPoweramp, that did help.

As for Windows Server comment, so far we have had no problem using it with our 2012 program.  Now we did strip the program down to just what is needed to run the music, so far no freeze ups, but will keep it mind.  We had purchased Audiophile Optimizer that did some tweaking with the Windows Server program.  We started out with JR 4 years ago when we purchased our first music server, we had to ask for the fellow to load it rather than media monkey and we love it.  My husband did a lot of tweaking with the parametric equalizer to optimize the sound.  We built our own music server this last year, quite an undertaking, and educational, but ended up with a product that so far has been very good.  Because we have poor internet in terms of streaming music we have bought LOTS of CDs knowing that maybe one day CDs will become obsolete!
Cheers, Susan

[blgentry]

Good luck on your endeavors.  It's nice to hear that you guys are enjoying MC and the whole experience of building a server and things.  As long as Windows Server works for you, it's no problem.  I was just letting you know the "official stance" on it.

I got to thinking that the Fill Properties from Filename tool might be useful for you.  It can take file, or directory components and assign them to various fields in the files.  There's a rather detailed and long example of that in this thread:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=78206.msg531771#msg531771

The tool itself is somewhat self explanatory.  You might play with it using a few files as a test.

Good luck to you.

Brian.