[nreel]

Well, I'm confused.

You stated two things:
1. Backup to an External Hard Drive
2. Remove Songs out of the Laptop DATABASE to Free-up your Laptop Hard Drive

So, are you wanting to COPY your KMA files to the External Drive for permanent BACKUP?

Or, are you wanting to MOVE some of the KMA files off your Laptop Hard Drive to the External Drive so that you free-up space on your Laptop HD?

The Laptop Database is not the same as the KMA files. Moving Songs out of the Laptop database will not free-up HD space. To free-up HD space you will need to MOVE KMA files off the HD.

Now, if you MOVE SOME of your KMAs to the external HD, you will need to have your External HD hooked up to your Laptop, add a PATH in the Build Songs Database Menu to point to the External HD, and Rebuild the Database when you run Hoster. How else is Hoster going to know where the rest of the KMAs are?

Basically, Laptop Hard Drives are not big enough to store an appreciable amout of KMAs. Most people, who use Laptops, do not store their KMAs on the Laptop HD. They use an External HD exclusively.

So, to accomplish your two tasks, you will need TWO External Hard Drives.

One External HD that you will use when running Hoster, in which, you will MOVE all your KMAs to and One External Drive to BACKUP your KMAs.

The External Drive that you use for BACKUP should never be used for anything other than BACKUP.

MOVE means to copy all KMA files to the NEW External HD and then DELETE the files from the Laptop HD. Some FILE UTILITY programs can do this all at once, which is called MOVE.

If you choose to do this, I would attach one External HD, make a FOLDER called SONGS, COPY all KMAs to it (D:\SONGS where D is your External Drive designation), remove that External HD, attach the NEXT External HD, make a FOLDER called SONGS, and Copy all KMAs to it (D:\SONGS where D is your External Drive designation).

Now, while the LAST External HD is still connected:
1. Open Hoster
2. Click on TOOLS
3. Click on BUILD SONGS DATABASE
4. Click on the FOLDER that is listed in the SONGS SOURCE FOLDERS
5. Click DELETE to remove it
6. Click SELECT FOLDER
7. Click the Drop Down Arrow in the LOOK IN: section
8. Click DRIVE D or whatever Drive LETTER that Windows has assigned for
....your External HD.
9. Click the Folder SONGS
10. Click SELECT...Note that the Songs Source Folder now has d:\Songs in it.
11. Click BUILD SONGS DATABASE.

When the Database is done rebuilding, Hoster will be able to find ALL THE SONGS, which are now located on you External HD.

Test Hoster by PLAYING some songs. When you are confident that the files have transferred OK, and, that Hoster works correctly...you won't be able to test all the songs...then, and only then, would I DELETE the KMAs on the LAPTOP HD.

If it was me, I would disconnect the External HD that the BUILD SONGS DATABASE was run on, connect the OTHER External HD, and TEST Hoster by Playing some Songs. You will not have to REBUILD the database for the Alternate External HD because all the KMAs should be in the EXACT location as the other External HD.

Then, I would DELETE all the KMAs on the LAPTOP HD.

Done.

Hope this helps,
Norm