Newbie question concerning Hoster Backup

[mtchurch]

Thanks guys for your response.

To answer one question, yes the External Hard Drive will be USB.

My wife is doing a one person show with the laptop. She really doesn't need to have all of her downloaded songs on her laptop, just the ones she wants to sing. BUT, she wants the option to have these songs available in case someone else wants to sing.

So I was thinking that we should probably just move or copy all the songs from the laptop and put them on a external hard drive and keep a copy of only the songs that she wants to sing on her laptop. That would keep her from having to hook up the extrenal hard drive at every show but still give her the option of having a large database of songs in case she needed them stored away in her suitcase.

I probably should have purchased a external hard drive when I was initally uploading the laptop with all the Karaoke CD's and put all of the KMA files on the external hard drive but you live and learn.

Norm, your suggestion makes sense and no I really don't want to buy another hard drive. Norm, with that being said, should I just go by your instructions and move all of the KMA files over to the external hard drive? And in doing this, Hoster (that is running from the laptop) can find the KMA files on the external hard drive.

Thanks a million guys. I never know how much I am behind in computer tech until I post one of these questions!!!

mtchurch

[lmcmains]

Once you put them on your external drive you will have to do a build songs database. You will have to point Hoster to the drive letter of your external drive where your kma's are stored. Then when you import more kma files you will have to change that to the external drive also

[nreel]

OK...move all the Songs except your wife's songs to the External HD.

Open the BUILD SONGS DATABASE window.
Leave the CURRENT Path that is listed alone.
Add a second Path that will point to the External HD.

REBUILD THE DATABASE

When that is done, your wife will have access to all HER songs without hooking-up the External HD and, when the External HD is hooked-up, not only will your Wife, still, have access to her Songs, but everyone else will have access to all other songs.

Keep in mind that, when the External HD is NOT hooked-up, your Wife won't have access to any other Song that she may decide to Sing.

Norm

P.S. There are other ways with which to handle this situation, but are more complicated.

For instance, you could move all the KMAs to the External HD, Open the BUILD SONGS DATBASE Window, delete the Folder pointing to the LAPTOP HD, add the FOLDER pointing to the EXTERNAL HD, rebuild the DB, and move SONGS.MDB to a TEMP-EXTERNAL HD Folder.

Then, copy back to the LAPTOP HD your Wife's Songs, unplug the External HD, Open the BUILD SONGS DATBASE Window, delete the Folder pointing to the EXTERNAL HD, add the FOLDER pointing to the LAPTOP HD, rebuild the DB, and COPY the SONGS.MDB to a TEMP-LAPTOP HD Folder, and rebuild the database.

Now, you have two separate SONGS.MDBs that you would copy, only ONE, to the MTU/Database Folder depending on your usage.

This would allow you to have your Wife's Songs DUPLICATED on BOTH, the LAPTOP HD and, the EXTERNAL HD without causing a conflict of duplicated KMAs, which would be the case if you put TWO Folder KMA locations in the BUILD SONGS DATABASE/Song Source Folders Window and had the same KMAs in both Folders.

Seems easier just to put all the KMAs on the External Drive and hook it up each time you wanted to use Hoster.

Norm

P.S.S.
This is exactly the reason why I do not use a LAPTOP. Laptops are supposed to be for convenience. What convenience? You have to bring an External Drive, an External Mouse, unless you like the Mouse Pad, which I don't, and, an External Keyboard, unless you like to use the Laptops Numbers across the Top, which I don't because I like the Keypad on a Full Size Keyboard.

With all this hooking-up, may as well have a Desktop, which I do and is easier to work on and costs less. Also, you can have SEVERAL Hard Drives in a Desktop, which may serve as BACKUP Drives for your KMAs.