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[Sam]

I've been having a minor problem with MC11 wiping out my entire library.


A while back, I moved my entire music collection onto an external 200GB hard drive.  I also placed the library files there as well.

I then got into the habit of turning on the external hard drive only when I planned to play music.

That was a mistake - because occasionally, I'd launch MC11 without the external hard drive turned on.  MC11, not being able to "see" the library, would ask if I wanted to use some other old library that it had found.  I click Cancel, and get the import files dialog box.  I click cancel and get an empty library.

At that point, my library was lost.  Turning on the external drive, relaunching MC11, and even rebooting wouldn't restore the library.  The database files seemed to still be there on the external drive intact, but I couldn't figure out how to get MC11 to see them again.  If there was a way, please let me know.

I've done this several times, and each time I've reimported my entire library, and reconstructed my view schemes and smartlists.  I've finally gotten into the habit of backing up my library regularly.  And I just moved the library files to my boot drive to avoid this problem entirely.

[JimH]

Sam,
This isn't a bug.  As you describe it, when you run MC, there are no library files available.

You could leave the drive on.

Or

When you start, and you get the library files not available error, you could turn on the drive, wait for it to spin up, and browse to the location of the correct library files. 

Try searching in Explorer for *.jmd.

[modelmaker]

I have not seen any difference in the lifespan of a hard drive by turning it off. My local computer tech even said that the spinning up and down of a hard drive can actually create more long term wear and tear than just leaving it on all the time.

I have only had one HD failure in the past three years and that one was only 2 months old. I presently have 5 drives in my computer some 3 of which are 3+ years old and all of which are on all the time.

As my computer is my main source of music, it runs all the time, except for a restart once or twice a week just to clean up windoze.

As far as the library backup goes, I use Karen's Replicator to back up my data to the backup drive including the JRiver folder, then should I need to, I copy the JRiver data folder (from the backup HD) to the original JRiver/data folder, (this gets the bachup zip files and all the jmd files). Then just do a library restore in MC.

Anyway, that's just how I do it and it works for me.

[Sam]

When you start, and you get the library files not available error, you could turn on the drive, wait for it to spin up, and browse to the location of the correct library files.

Browse with what?  Open Media File?  Import Media?  Library Manager?

This problem is different from when music files are inaccessible.  In that case, the library shows "X" icons for files that are not available, but the library is not permanently alterred.

When the library files are unavailable, all the contents of the library are removed.  No files, no view schemes, no playlists - even after I turn on the drive.  Switching libraries and back with Library Manager just gives me an empty library again.  I see that mediafiles.jmd has been shrunk to 10K.

Sorry, but I can't figure out a graceful way of recovering from this without restoring from a backup.

[JimH]

Another thought.  You could keep your database files on a drive that is running all the time.

[Deivit]

Another thought.  You could keep your database files on a drive that is running all the time.

He seems to have done that already.

I've finally gotten into the habit of backing up my library regularly.  And I just moved the library files to my boot drive to avoid this problem entirely.