Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Raimy]

So this is a story about a naughty hard drive, a naughty computer operator...Me, and a early build software (naughty by nature).

For the last few days my portable usb HD has, on occasion disconnected and within 2 seconds reconnected. The effect on my MC user experience was fairly minimal
and limited to cover art and video thumbs having the yellow star warning icon on them for the duration of the disconnect, all was fine thereafter.
With limited finances i had planned to replace the naughty drive in a few days but gambled on using it till then.

The Naughty Operator

Well i can only explain what happened next by saying their was a lack of attention to memory, whilst i proceeded to click OK to the box where it says
words to the effect of "are you sure you want to rename/move 4547 files, it may take along time. Of course a milli second after i had clicked i remembered
the naughty drive and considered closing MC but decided to proceed as i had no idea what negative effect closing MC down at that time would have,
i gambled again that everything would be fine.

A minute in, biting my nails watching the count of files re-tagged drop - 4000 - 3000, and then the HD disconnected, of course it did, why would it not!
A dialog told me their was a tagging error on a massive amount of files, and to check the file location, i clicked Ok and processing continued. The Hd disconnected
lots more times till finally i get the "would you like to delete 72 folders" Great i thought lets assess the damage but the processing hadn't finished.
I left it for around 30 minutes and still unclear as to the completed status i assessed the damage.

It had physically moved 1500 of the 4500
1972 files had no [Filename (Path)]
Duplicates all over the place.

We're those with no filename path the duplicates? i had no clue. All i could measure was that i had good files and bad files.
However if i knew how many good files i had pre-move i could compare that to how many i have now and hope and prey i would
have 1972 files extra. And safely delete them. So i backed up then restored to an auto backup created the day before, labelled "August",
found out how many i had, backed up again, then restored the previous backup.

The database will be opened in read only mode.... oh Crumbs. Mc loaded and it was empty. Went back to the August back up and that was empty also.
Have i lost the database?

I still have MC18 installed with back up's should i try to restore from one of those or am i in some part experiencing a Mc19 problem

Thanks for reading my long winded story and thanks Mc for a great piece of software. Here's hoping MC20 will be moron proof


Ver 19.0.29
Win7 32bit

 

[fitbrit]

You could try to reintroduce everything and delete duplicates once they're back in your library.

[Raimy]

Thanks fitbrit.

Well the reason i couldn't load any back ups was due to the Database being located in a bad part of my HD, I guess that's it because i created a new one on my C drive and back ups loaded perfectly.

So i'm in a new situation, and a much simpler one i think. 

Database has no duplicates
But lots of broken links.

Some files are in their new location, but the filename (path) field is pointing at the old one. I'm Not sure how to correct this with a priority focus on maintaining the tags which are still present on the broken linked files.

The old and new locations differ by only 1 folder as the point of the rename/move operation was to take advantage of the new "User" field to separate my gaming files from my general media.

Old:  F:\My Folders\Media\Fraps\  [Media Type]     [Source]         [Genre]    [Studio]
New: F:\My Folders\Media\Fraps\      [User]        [Media Type]    [Source]    [Genre]   [Studio]

I wonder what is the best way to update the broken paths? ?

[fitbrit]

That's a simple one!

Go to "rename, copy and move files" in library tools, after selecting all the files that are int the wrong place. At the top of this option is a drop down menu - select  the on that begins with "update".
Then check the option to find and replace.
Then it's a simple case of replacing /[user] with just /
This will update the files that are in the old location but think they're in the new one.
I included the / in case the user name appears anywhere else in e file name or path.

Sorry for the vague details - am on a train, using an iPad, so no MC open in front of me.

[Raimy]

 Now we're cookin! 

This will update the files that are in the old location but think they're in the new one.

Just so we're on the same page it's actually visa versa. Bad links = New location. Good Links = Old. It seems absolute as well which surprises me. 

Well thanks, i have my solution. The only problem i have now is the selection part of the solution. I'm finding it tough going to differentiate good from bad because the filename path value of both are not unique in any reliable way.

I thought adding a File Path pane targeting the new location would allow me to select all files with bad links except the pane doesn't see the new location folder because i guess the database is unaware of those files.

What i really need is a field which tells me if a valid link exists. The broken link Icon does this visually but it's not a sortable field. It's a Ctrl+Click nightmare atm.

Any ideas?

[fitbrit]

Tread carefully here...

Before you do anything, think about the consequences, and formulate the find and replace strings accordingly.

Is there any way you can select ALL the files and do the update with find and replace like I said... which leaves the correct files where they are (ie no find and replace happens on those because they're in the right place), but only moves the bad ones. In any case the rename, copy and move files dialog tells you which files will not be changed. Start with two files- one that is in the wrong location and one that is correct to see if you are doing it right.

[Raimy]

Absolutely, iv had this DB intact for 2 years, It would take along time to re-tag so you can bet your bottom dollar i'm treading carefully. I think i'm there now though. But just to tie up this loose end from your last post (thanks bye the way).

What was needed, was to insert the [User] value into the bad files database address.

Rename/Move > Update >       Find: Fraps\
                                     Replace: Fraps\[User]

It works a treat, on manually selected files which i needed to pain painstakingly weed out. I did think of the more intelligent formula which would leave the good files untouched but for those bad files it would insert the [User] value. Something like

      Find:     As Above
      Replace: If(bad files,Fraps\[User],)

This would of been great but how to define "Bad Files" in that formula was my problem.

[Filename (Path] contained invalid data for the bad files, i couldn't use it. Am i missing an alternative. it would be nice to know for next time?

Anyway thx for the assistance, it's greatly appreciated.

[fitbrit]

Manually move everything that is currently in Fraps and pertains to your MC library to Fraps [User] in Windows Explorer.
It should take less than a minute.

Then in standard view in MC, select ALL your files. Using rename, copy, move, use the update option to point MC to the new location. You can use find and replace, but make sure you set it up so that files already in Fraps/[User] don't end thinking they're in Fraps/[User]/User].

If that happens, it's easy enough to run the command again and find [User]/[User] and replace with [User], but it would be better if it didn't happen in the first place.
Again, start off with hand selecting a few files that have broken links and some that don't - just so you can be confident all works as you expect.

[Raimy]

I was under the impression (based on other DB applications) moving files outside MC was a bit risky and thwart with risk, but now you mention it, those applications had no "Update" feature. Nice to know thanks. I'll be able to copy everything in perfect condition, when i get a new HD.

This HD has been behaving itself ever since i created a new DB on C: but when i get a new one, i'm thinking about a SSD so hopefully i won't have these wear n tear issues in future.

[MrHaugen]

Bah! And I came in here hoping to see some soft core pictures of hard drives or something.... This ain't naughty Not even the operator. Please don't tease me like this again, Raimy.