Computer backup
 

I finally upgraded my EMachine laptop. It has served me well since 2003. I want to use this as my backup computer. The hard drive is not large enought anymore with all the songs I presently have. Here is my question: I have an external hard drive that I use to backup my KMA files. I also have these files on my new laptop. I want to use my backup computer to access the files on the external hard drive. How can I do this so that the songs will still match my songbook? If I have to use the backup laptop with the external drive I want it to match my main laptop's internal drive. I know I can delete the files on my old computer and rebuild using the external drive but I'm not sure it will match the new computer as mentioned above. I hope I am making this clear.

Walt

Re: Computer backup
 

Why not just update the hard drive in the old machine?

Re: Computer backup
 

Have you got the same version of Hoster on each machine and which version is on each machine ?

Re: Computer backup
 

I did upgrade the hard drive in the old computer with a 320gb but the bios would only recoginze it as a 128gb. I have tried and tried to get an updated phoenix bios for it but they say there is none for this computer.

Walt

Re: Computer backup
 

Yes same version, 5.05.

Re: Computer backup
 

In that case just open the build songs database dialog on your old laptop, clear the existing list of folders that would all show as on the C/ drive by using the exclude folders button. As you do this you will probably get confirmation that it is removing songs from your database which is what you want.
Then with your external drive plugged in use the ADD folder button and brows to the folders on your external to add them to the list, as each folder is added you should see it building the database with each folder you add. When complete your songbook should show the same book id for each machine even though one is using the c/ drive and the other is using your external.

Re: Computer backup
 

Thank you Roy. I'll give it a try.

Walt

Re: Computer backup
 

I spent the entire weekend trying to make this work. My book i.d.'s aren't matching. I think I know why but can't figure out the problem. When I add back the folders from my external drive, for some reason Hoster is not picking up all of my kma files. I have tried to rescan the kma file folder and it just won't pick up some files. Here is a step by step explanation on how I did this.

I used copy and paste to copy the folder MTU to my external drive from my main computer, which contains the kma files. I did the same to copy the folder that contains my kmh files. I then went to my old computer and in the tools menu of Hoster (5.05) I opened the "songs data base". I then clicked the "build data base" button and then went through the process "exclude folders". I then used windows explorer to delete the MTU folder on my old computer C drive. I then copied the MTU folder minus the kma files from my external drive to my old computer's C drive. This was the MTU folder that I had previously copied from my main comuter.
I then opened Hoster on my old computer and used the "add folders" as you described to add the folders using the external drive. When completed, the book i.d.'s were off and some of the kma files were missing. Also, I noticed that most of my "playlist" that when opened listed all or most of the songs on the list "unavailable". If you have any ideas I would appreciate your input.

Walt

Re: Computer backup
 

Here is a further update. Since the previous post, I did the following. On my old computer, using windows explorer, I deleted the MTU folder on the C drive. I also deleted as many files as I could to free up hard drive space. I then copied the MTU folder from my external drive to the C drive, including the KMA files. I also copied the kmh folders from my external drive to the C drive of my old computer and everything matches my new computer. The kma files that I couldn't get my old computer to recognize through Hoster now are back since I put everything back on the C drive. Now I am really confused.

Walt

Re: Computer backup
 

First off what you have done is not what you asked to do in your first post and what I explained. In that post you were going to play the music using your back up drive plugged into your old computer not transfer them to the old computer which is what you seem to be doing.
Also nowhere in my post did I tell you to delete your mtu folder.
Anyway are you saying it is all working right now ?

Re: Computer backup
 

I did and still do want to play the music from the extermal drive. That is what I previously discussed. I think you missed the first post this morning. I added the folders for the external drive and it wouldn't match my new computer. I only added everything back to the c drive after I couldn't get it to match my main computer as explained in my second to last post. You are right, you didn't say to delete the old mtu folder but I thought I needwd the mtu folder on the old computer to match my new comuter. Otherwise, how it it match my song editing and playlist's, etc. I'm sorry if I made this made this confusing. Yes I have the old computer working again as it should but I didn't accomplish getting it to work properly off the external drive. Remember, I did this in the first place because my internal drive on the old computer is not large enough. By deleting other folders that aren't related to Hoster, I freed up enough to get by but it is now border line capacity. Please read my last couple of posts.

Thanks,

Walt

Re: Computer backup
 

Your playlist files wouldn't match because the record that you copied from your other computer would be looking on your C drive for the files that were on the external drive. Theres no way around this, all I was saying was that your book ID should still match in your printed books. If you want everything to match then both computers have to use the same drive id.
I'm not sure why it did not pick up all your kma files but it could be to do with copying your mtu folder then importing the kma that it probably thought were already imported so rejected them.
I'll have to think on that some more.

Re: Computer backup
 

Ok. In trying to do this over and over again I also tried under "build data base", to click on the excluded folder button on the top right of the window and deleted all of the excluded folders. I thought that this would remove any previous paths. I then added the new folders on my external drive but it still wouldn't pick some of the kma files.

You say it would match my song book but how is that possible if the book id's have changed? Anyway, I appreciate your help and if you think of anything please let me know.

Thank you,

Walt

Re: Computer backup
 

Are you saying that the Book ID did change ?

If so that could be due to finding duplicate book id's probably because it hadn't properly cleared previouse records so it allocates a new Book id and if it finds previous Disc id's it won't load them anyway.

It may have been better to delete the songs.mdb before using the add folders button or rebuild the songs.mdb with the folders list showing empty. This way it would have built an empty song.mdb then use the Add folders button to add the files from the external only.

The one problem here now that I can think of is if it alocated new BookId's then these could be imbeded in the files on the external drive now, if that is the case then you would need to recopy them from your original new computer.

Re: Computer backup
 

Yes the book i.d.'s changed although I didn't check all of them. I believe this is because it couldn't load some of the kma files. This must of made it reassign the book i.d.'s. I know the kma files are missing because if I search for them by disk i.d. in edit songs section they don't appear. The whole disk is missing. I guess I will leave well enough alone for now until I have more time and the fortitude to tackle it again. Maybe I should set both computers to read the files from the external drive. I would then need to purchase another drive for backup purposes. By the way, I am still not clear on the new feature of merging duplicate book i.d.'s. How can there be a duplicate? I thought Hoster wouldn't allow duplicate book i.d.'s. I must be missing something. Don' mean to get off track.

thanks,

Walt

Re: Computer backup
 

The duplicates usually happen in cases like this where you start copying files from one computer to another or you import some songs on one computer then import other on another computer and then try copying folders.
What you are trying to do is simarlar to the set up I have.
This computer that's in my signature the one I use for my shows I have all my karaoke kma and kmh files on my C/ drive but I have all my video and audio files on an external, this same external also has a copy of the kma & kmh files for a backup of this computer.
I also have an old XP computer but all the files for that are on the same external, none on the C/drive. All my book Id's match on both computers.
I think providing when you add new files you always use the same computer then copy the files you should not get duplicates.

What would be a better way though would be to have one external with all the files on and use that same external on both computers. Then just have a second external as an exact copy of the first. Then any playlist and other pointers would match once they were set up with that drive.

Re: Computer backup
 

I always add new songs on my main computer then back them up on the external drive. I think I am going to do my setup the way you have yours setup. That is what I originally was going to do and I should have stayed with that direction.

If I understand correctly, if I use the "merge duplicates", Hoster will take the duplicates and create another book i.d. Then I will still have the duplications except they will be treated like non duplicates and then I can decide what I want to do with them. I can delete them or keep them. Am I on the right track?

Thanks,

Walt

Re: Computer backup
 

To be honest I personally have not had much experience with the merge duplicates so am reluctant to give advise you on that.
This is what I would do:
First off just as a back up open your C:/MTU/Hoster folder on the old computer and copy the HosterInfo.ini file and the songs.mdb file to a safe place (A folder on your desktop will do)

Then I would start again and copy all your original kma & kmh files to the external hard drive again overwriting the previous files so that the correct Book Id's are copied matching your new computer.
Then open your old computers C:/MTU/Hoster folder and find the HosterInfo.ini file open it and delete all the list except the ones under [ExcludedFolders] And save it.
Then start Hoster open the rebuild dialog check that nothing is listed in the list of folders especially nothing from the C:/ drive (if it does show anything from the C:/ drive use the exclude button to remove it) in the bottom left panel then rebuild the database, this will build you an empty database. (Songs.mdb)
Now open the rebuild database dialog and use the ADD folders button and add only the folders from the external drive as you do so it should see a dialog pop up for each folder it adds stating how many files it's added to the database, When you finish adding folders that should be it no need to use the build database.
If you ever rebuild the database after that make sure there are no files in the list of folders showing the C:/ drive before pressing the rebuild button.

Then if all is working correct and you want to recover space on the old computers C:/ drive then you can delete all the existing kma & kmh files on that computers drive.
If things aren't right leave them there then paste the two files you saved at the beginning the HosterInfo.ini and the songs mdb back and you should be back to how it is at the moment.

Re: Computer backup
 

Good info Roy. I'll give that a try when I get some more time.

Thank you very, very much!

Walt

Re: Computer backup
 

Roy, just as a follow up, I tried your suggestions in your latest post in this thread and everything worked well. Thank you for your precious time. I learned much from dealing with this issue. After I get through the next couple of shows I have booked I am going to do as you mentioned, which is run both computers from an external hard drive and use another external drive as a backup. I think in the long run this is the best way to go. Thanks again,

Walt