Weird thing happening

[Wallymeister]

I'm going to try and describe a problem I'm experiencing now the best I can.

I use an USB external HD for all kma's, I have over 7,000 songs. I was doing a show last week and when using search feature to look up songs I came across a couple that were found by search but when I tried to add to playlist I got and error that said could not be found. So, then (get this) I opened Windows Explorer (WE) to view all files on the drive and WE only found 99 files. Is there some significance to the 99? Meaning only 2 digits, not 3 or 4.

So, in short, obviously not all files that were not showing in WE were not found and usable by Hoster but some were not. None of my .hst files showed up in WE either but would open in Hoster.

I'm so confused. Yes, I know you're going to ask if I have everything backed-up and no I don't. When I get this problem resolved that will never happen again.

If anyone can offer any insight to what might be going on and where to start to resolve it I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Wallymeister

[George]

When you BUILD SONGS DATABASE in TOOLS, does the BUILD SONGS DATABASE window that pops up show the correct path in the SELECT FOLDER box to the folder where the KMA files are stored?

If not, then reset the path.

George

[Wallymeister]

Hey George,
Thanks for the reply. I'll check if there was maybe 2 different locations that Build Songs Database command were pointing to but I don't think so. That would mean that all songs that Hoster finds and will play that is not showing up in WE on my USB drive is on my C drive and I've never changed the location to import my kma's. But, something possibly happened when I did a Build Songs Database a few months ago. You see, since I don't use Hoster to print my database I never did a build songs database until a few months ago. I don't even remember why I did it. May be just coincidental, maybe not.

I will do a search of My Computer to see if my other files are anywhere on my system.
I just remembered that I have a directory that holds all my kma's on my USB drive. Maybe somehow some files got put in root directory, but if that happened I couldn't explain how that would have happened either. Oh well, I have some other things to look at, at least.

Thanks again,
Wallymeister

[Wallymeister]

OK, last night I checked a few things out.

First I used Windows Explorer to look at kma's on USB drive. Still lists only 99 files. Should be over 7000.

I then started Hoster and used search feature to add songs to playlist.
I purposely picked songs that I knew were not not found in Windows Explorer.
This was hit and miss. Some OK, some not.
One of the songs that wasn't found was 42907 Bookid and track. So I wanted to see if other tracks on that disc was a problem so entered 42901 in Bookid dropdown (not search window) and added it to playlist. That worked fine. I then looked in drop down list to see if 42907 was listed and it was. I selected it and clicked add and it worked. So, then I went back to search window to see if it was just the search window not working right. I searched for 42907 and clicked add and this time it worked fine whereas before it didn't.

I then went back to Windows Explorer to see how many files are displayed there now and it was the same. 99 files.

I noticed that all the files listed in Explorer were alphabetical. A-C (All Hits to Chartbuster) Explorer will just not read on this drive past 99 files. The files are there but obviously not working correctly. Sometimes not at all, other times OK. At this point my main concern is how can I backup all the files that are there if Explorer can't see them. Hoster see's some of them, even when Explorer don't. But Hoster also can't read them all the time.

My drive is a 250GB Maxtor IDE in a USB case. I thought that maybe my problem is with the case itself so I will probably drop the IDE HD in computer and see if that's it.

I also have another USB case that I could try and see if that does anything different.

Just thinking out loud mostly,
Wally

[George]

Wally,

Out of curiosity, go to the folder where you're KMA files are stored, right click on it, click PROPERTIES, and see how many files it says you have in the folder.

George

[Wallymeister]

George,
I did as you suggested and properties doesn't say how many files there are. Just Used Space.

Capacity is 233 GB
Used is 69.3 GB
164 GB Free

So, there is definately showing more than 99 songs. Which I know are there but just not being displayed by Explorer and Hoster not able to access all, at least intermittently.

On the tools tab of properties window, I tried checking for errors and it said, "Windows was unable to complete the disc check." This may be a network limitation on my computer here at work though. I'll try that when I get home.

Thanks for your thoughts,
Wally

[George]

Wally,

What you saw was the hard drive capacity. My fault for not explaining better. My brain took a short trip and didn't invite me along

Can you open the drive and get the properties of the folder where the KMA files are supposed to be?

You should be able to go to MY COMPUTER, then double left click on the drive designation, and then see the folder where the KMA files are stored, right click on it and then click properties. It should tell you how many files are in that folder.

What you saw does indicate they are on the drive, but are they all where they should be, or are they somehow separated?

George

[mhollyts]

Try and go to a dos prompt and cd into the into the directory where the files are located. When in the directory do a "dir *.* /p" to see the files. This should page the out put of the command so you can view the information. If you have more the 99 files then the directory structure is corupt on the drive. You could copy all files off the old way.... cp *.* d: instead of drag and drop.

Just thoughts

[Wallymeister]

OK, I know the files are on the drive because Hoster finds and uses alot more than 99 songs. The fact that Windows Explorer only lists 99 of them (alphabetically I might add) indicates to me that this is more of a Communication problem between the drive and WE. Maybe FAT (File Allocation Table) Maybe a short circuit in the USB adapter case that only allows doulbe digit reading. I will take the HD out of the case and install directly in computer to see if it works differently if all else fails.

I'l try the Dos Prompt thing to see if that is able to read all the files and if it is I will use DOS to copy all files to a new drive. I really hope it's the USB to IDE interface case that is the problem and not the drive itself.
Thanks all for your suggestions and interest in this unique problem of mine.
Wally

[nreel]

Wally,

About 1 1/2 years ago, Dr. Phil (Indy KJ) had a terrible problem with an enclosure that housed a MAXTOR IDE Drive.

His HD enclosure went bad and, in his case, corrupted several KMAs.

I would suspect the HD enclosure and go ahead and take the HD out of the enclosure and connect the HD directly to the Computer in Slave Mode on IDE1 or Primary on IDE2.

Once you solve the Trk Count problem, I would make a Backup of the SONGS.MDB, DELETE the Original SONGS.MDB, and run the BUILD SONGS DATABASE.

I believe that any "Duplicate" BookIDs that may be found, during the Rebuild, would be, actually, corrupted KMAs as I had 3 "Duplicate" KMAs upon performing a Rebuild and when I looked at the KMAs, in question, with a TEXT EDITOR, the Headers where completely MISSING.

I re-imported the 3 and all was well.

This is not the first time Hoster claimed that I had "Duplicate" BookIDs after a REBUILD. On previous REBUILDS, where "Duplicate" BookIDs were found, I viewed the KMAs in a TEXT EDITOR to see the BookID HEADER info. I saw the BookIDs and they were NOT Duplicates.

The last instance of viewing "Duplicate" BookIDs revealed that the HEADERS were COMPLETELY MISSING.

So, I believe that any "Duplicate BookIDs Found" are, really, corrupted KMAs.

The Silver Lining is that Hoster has provided a way to determine, conclusively, what, if any, KMAs were corrupted because you will end up with a LIST detailing what KMAs Hoster cannot process.

Norm

[rpmzzz]

I use a laptop and an external HD. However, I only use hoster program for currently only 464 songs an another program for the other 52000 because of importing problems. Anyway, I keep my 464 kma files on my C drive of the laptop. I import the songs and they all show up. However, if I delete my songs file and songs backup file in the database folder and then reload Hoster it should look where they are stored and rebuild. If I go and look in the folder for the kma's they are all there. I believe that everything is pointing in the right direction. This has now happened twice after a rebuild.