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[lalittle]

I'm upgrading to a new system.  I have all my audio backed up along with my library, but it occurs to me that the path to the audio files will be different on the new system since my drive arragement will be different -- i.e. I currently have my audio divided between a few different drives due to space considerations, but on the new system, all the audio will be on one drive.  Since the drive letter in the path will be changing, what steps do I take to ensure a trouble-free migration?

I know I need the library backup for all the CD information, but the library will be "wrong" about the mp3 locations.  So far, all I can think to do is install MC, then restore the backup library, then delete all the mp3's (all of which will show as "not there") and then re-import all the mp3's from their new location on the new drive.

Is this the best way to procede?  I don't want to run into problems that could be avoided.

Thanks for any advice on this,

Larry

[Deivit]

I think that your best bet is trying with a "find and replace" thing once you have installed MC. Library tools -> Find and replace...

Find: F:\My Music (your old directory structure)
Replace: G:\My Music (your new directory structure)

This way your library will point to the new path of your files. Try with a few files first and check if you get the expected results.

----
Listening to: 'The Beautiful American' from 'The Great Summit - The Master Takes' by 'Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington' on Media Center 9.1

[Sauzee]

I had this issue a week ago due to a re-format and setting up new partitions on my PC.

Firstly I backed up my old MC Data directory [not just the library], reinstalled MC on the reformatted drive, copied my old data directory back, overwriting all existing files and lastly, did as Deivit says re find and replace.

It worked perfectly

[lalittle]

Thanks -- that sounds like the best solution.  Would it be recommended to only do a limited number of files at a time?  I've got 20 something gigs of mp3's, and I don't want some wierd corruption to happen due to such a large number of changes in one operation.

Thanks again,

Larry

[lalittle]

I did some experimenting with this by moving some files to another directory via windows explorer, then openning MC (at which time the files have little red "x" icons.)  I do a "find and replace" of the path so that the file will have the correct path, and while it does seem to work, I get a message when I do this saying that MC "failed to update" the file in question.  As I said, it seems to work okay, but I don't understand the message -- if it "failed to update" the file, then why does the file now have the normal icon, and why does it play okay?

It seems like MC is saying that the file in the previous location -- which no longer exists in that location -- failed to update, which makes sense since it no longer exists.  However, this feels like a bit of a kluge given the error message, so I'm wondering if this is truly the best way to accomplish this task (i.e. getting MC to see the files in a new location.)

I just want to do this correctly and not end up with some weird issues down the road.  Is this REALLY the best method of doing this?  Would it be better to just do a new import and let MC find all the new files in the new location?  It would be a big import (i.e. thousands of files) but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be a "cleaner" way to to do it.  I'm honestly not "arguing" with the other suggestions -- I'm simply looking for the "best" method of doing this.  Does anybody know if there is an "official" stance from MC on this?

Thanks again for any opinions or assistance with this,

Larry

[Sauzee]

Hi LaLittle

Your absolutely right about the failed to update files message.  I presume it appears because when you "find and replace" MC can't find the original file.

However it does update the library which is now pointing to the correct location.

It really isn't neccessary to start from scratch and import the library and then rebuild all your custom views etc.

Why not try the find and replace route and if it doesn't work just delete your library and re import  all your files.

Thanks -- that sounds like the best solution.  Would it be recommended to only do a limited number of files at a time?  I've got 20 something gigs of mp3's, and I don't want some wierd corruption to happen due to such a large number of changes in one operation.

I did about 80 GB in one go no problem.