Computer backup

[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

[Roy Dennis]

Originally Posted by WaltR

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

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.

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

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.

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

[Roy Dennis]

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.

[WaltR]

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

Thank you very, very much!

Walt

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

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.

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

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by WaltR

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

I forgot to mention. On the main computer with all my kma and kmh files on the C: drive, the folders don't show up in the data base window. This happened to me once before and never was able to figure out why this happened. The songs all play but it doesn't show any folders listed. How can that be?

Walt

[Roy Dennis]

All that info is stored in the HosterInfo.ini file that I told you to copy to a safe place in case you wanted to restore your original computer list.

If you remember I told you to delete the contents of the HosterInfo.ini file because it was directing the database to the C/drive and you wanted to move them to the external.

(But I also said "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.)
If that HosterInfo.ini file gets corrupted you lose that list.

If you still have that copy of how it was before you deleted it's contents then you can paste that back in the Hoster folder then restart Hoster and it should replace that list in the list of folders. If it doesn't then it may have got corrupted.

Or alternately forget about it seeing as it's working OK and just Add the folders manually using the Add folders button.
It will work alright as it is until you want to rebuild the database.
It was noted that it sometimes disappeared in 5.04-05 versions and think it is fixed in the next upgrade.