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[rganiard]

It's a long story how I got here.  I'm lucky to have recovered >1T of files.  I'm using a different external hard drive from before but the same library files. But, all my albums now have duplicate listings by track with different drive designators.

Here is what my file listings look like, times 30,000:

F:\RestoredLibrary\With the Beatles\01 - It Won't Be Long
E:\RestoredLibrary\With the Beatles\01 - It Won't Be Long

MC22 is looking for E:\RestoredLibrary but F: comes first in literally all of the several thousand albums in my Library. The E:\ tracks play fine, but not as a playlist;only when manually played.

How can I get rid of the F: listings, and how to prevent this happening again?

I'm a long time user but a tech rookie - no power user here.

Many thanks.

Rod

[JimH]

You can search for the drive you don't want and delete the files that are found.

Try a few before you do very many.

[rganiard]

Thanks.  That drive is no long operative or attached.  I did delete all other libraries, rebooted, etc.  The previous drive was labeled F:.

[JimH]

Sometimes a drive can be moved by Windows.  If you plug in a new USB stick, your USB drive might be pushed up to a new letter.

One solution is to assign the drive to a high letter.  Z: is a good candidate.

[rganiard]

Interesting.  I did a new import, twice, from the E:\ drive.  Other than manually, how can I get rid of the F:\listings?

Unless one keeps an external HDD connected all the time, it's seems like this would be a common issue.  I've used MC for quite a few years and done just that with hard drives - this is my first big issue.

[ferday]

make a smartlist

file location contains F:\

now only the F: entries will show up and you can mass delete from the library

[rganiard]

Thank you for this tip.  Since there are no physical files, just listings, I'm going to assume that I can't accidently wipe my drive as long as I keep my drive name accurate.

[rganiard]

This worked!  I did have to add 'does not contain E:\' otherwise it brought up all files. Many thanks.

[blgentry]

For future reference:

You can do a lot of these kinds of operations from the Audio > Files view.  That view lets you see all drives that MC thinks have files on them.  You can then select entire drives, or sub folders, or drill down to find a specific folder or set of files you want to delete.  In this case, all you would have to do is click the F: drive, select all files in the details pane and press delete.  Then accept the default which is "remove from library but leave files on disk" and you'd be all set.

Either way, I'm glad your problem is resolved.

Brian.

[rganiard]

Deleting files from the Audio>Files view is a great tip - obvious once you know it.

Regarding the previous suggestion od assigning a 'high' letter to an external hard drive, on my new computer Windows 10 will assign the letter adjacent, either below or above, any other device currently in use and replace the assigned letter.  This is nuts and creates a nightmare as far as using a single large (4TB) library and sharing it with two computers plus keeping it in sync with a backup copy.

[JimH]

It's been that way for many versions of Windows.  You can use the Windows Assign command to permanently assign a high letter.

[rganiard]

Thank you.  I thought I had assigned the new letter the first time - I had done exactly what windows recommends.  I did it again and rebooted this time as some instructions specify.  It seems one has to do this with each computer one intends to use the drive with since when I attached it to my other PC the drive letter was promptly changed from R:\ to E:\ and J River didn't load the library.  Executed the assignment on the other PC and things seems fine for now.