Computer backup

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

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

Yes same version, 5.05.

[Roy Dennis]

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.

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

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.

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

Walt

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

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.

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

[WaltR]

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

[Roy Dennis]

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 ?

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

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 ?

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

[Roy Dennis]

Originally Posted by WaltR

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

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.

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

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.

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

[Roy Dennis]

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.

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

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.

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