HELP! Can't read HST files

[Skybird]

HELP! Is there any way to change the path of where kma's are located, after copying them from one drive to another, so Playlists can still be used?

I have a new Vista laptop & have transferred all my kma files onto it and rebuilt the database and transferred my .hst files too. Everything works great, except 1 very important thing. It didn't occur to me that transferring all the files would, of course, change the path location. I can no longer access my personal Playlists that have taken me a year to compile! I do mostly dinner dances where I do all the singing, so being able to access my personal songs in my key is a necessity in doing a Show.

[ddouglass]

I would love to tell you that you can fix this, but unfortunately I don't believe it can be fixed except to redo them. The saved playlists save the location of the song along with the other information.
You should be able to bring them in and copy down the list of songs, so you can recreate them.

[Skybird]

OMG!!! That is not what I wanted to hear. I have over 300 songs of just my own already sorted on a variety of lists, not counting the different places I play on a regular basis and all the karaoke shows I've saved over the past year. That means I have no choice but to continue to carry my external drive to do my Shows after transferring everything to my new laptop! I can't imagine how long it might take to go through every song on every list, play each to see which version it is & then create new lists.

I'm hoping someone out there can come up with another answer for me! I'm really surprised this has not been addressed before since Hoster isn't just for Karaoke. What is the point of saving Playlists if they can't be used when you change computers!?!

[muzicman144]

I had the same problem, after all research and effort, there was two choices. Either redo the files or if possible, you can change the new drive letter to the same as the old letter where you previously had your playlist.

muzicman144

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by Skybird

OMG!!! That is not what I wanted to hear. I have over 300 songs of just my own already sorted on a variety of lists, not counting the different places I play on a regular basis and all the karaoke shows I've saved over the past year. That means I have no choice but to continue to carry my external drive to do my Shows after transferring everything to my new laptop! I can't imagine how long it might take to go through every song on every list, play each to see which version it is & then create new lists.

At least you still have the external drive to do that. There are two good reasons most of us use external or an add-on internal for desktop computers. One means is if a computer crashes, you don't lose all those imports. Two is it gives us a way to change between computers when problems arise.

Originally Posted by Skybird

I'm hoping someone out there can come up with another answer for me! I'm really surprised this has not been addressed before since Hoster isn't just for Karaoke. What is the point of saving Playlists if they can't be used when you change computers!?!

Hoster was designed just for karaoke, but a few of us have found that it can be used to perform one man shows which is great. The point for karaoke of saving playlists for karaoke is to be able to create lists for our singers of their preferences and to create data on our performances (number of singers, how many songs done per show, etc).

[Skybird74]

Again, if Playlists can no longer be used once you change computers, then MTU should have listed this as a Warning. I have spent the last year creating and saving Playlists. I bought a new laptop with a larger hard drive so that I no longer have to carry an external HD, and come to fine out my Playlists aren't any good any more! I'm sorry, but this is NOT ACCEPTABLE! Recreating these lists would take weeks, even if I had absolutely nothing else to do, meaning a year's worth of work is "down the drain"!!!!!

Don't know how to quote here - re: changing the drive letter won't work because all kma's are now on the laptop under C:\. How can I possibly change that to read the same letter as the external drive? In asking for advice here, it was also suggested that all kma's be put in 1 folder, which I also did. That was a mistake too, because they were previously stored in different folders as I acquired new disks, AND I've already fixed and re-imported all errors, so that even if I go back to using my ext.HD, the songs there will not show the corrections I have made to the new database.

If there is no alternative, then I think Admin. should add this WARNING to their Manuals so others don't waste their time creating Playlists like I have, with instructions on how to save a Playlist so that it can still be read if/when you have to change computers!

SO, if I use my ext.HD to access songs on the Playlist, how will Hoster react when I need to ADD songs to a Playlist, which of course will have to come from the C: drive? Will Hoster have a problem with accessing 2 different databases on 2 different drives during the same Show?????

[muzicman144]

I know this is a little far out and maybe a little extra cost. If you have room in the laptop for a second internal drive, have it installed and enter the old drive number, transfer the files. Only alternative i found besides redoing the files when i had the same problem.
Weak answer but the only one i know
muzicman144

[Skybird74]

Thanks for the suggestion, that would save carrying an extra drive.

But, what about Hoster accessing songs from 2 different drives? Have you tried this?

[muzicman144]

Hoster will follow the path to the song on three drives i know. I have used a external, two internal drives at the same show before i corrected the same problem you have and Hoster worked all three drives.
Hpe this helps.
muzicman144

[Skybird74]

Yes, this helps a lot. Have you tried adding songs to the same Playlist that come from different drives? or, do you just have more than 1 copy of Hoster open at the same time? And, how did you "correct" the problem? Did you eventually re-do all your playlists?

It's really sad to have to carry more than one copy of ALL KMA's just to be able to access Playlists!

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by Skybird74

Thanks for the suggestion, that would save carrying an extra drive.

But, what about Hoster accessing songs from 2 different drives? Have you tried this?

Only if both drives/folders are listed in the Build Database. This wouldn't work if both have the same songs/bookids though. As to musicman's suggestion I don't know of any laptop that has space for a second hard drive.
However, his suggestion made me think of a solution that should work. You would need a program called Partition Magic. This program would allow you to split your physical hard drive into 2 or more partitions or correctly called logical drives. This would leave your C: drive smaller and give you a second logical drive that you can set the drive letter to any letter from E - Z (D being your CD drive). Set it to whatever letter the external normally comes up with (don't have external plugged in while doing this).
Then copy your KMA files to the new drive, rebuild the database in Hoster pointing to the new drive and you are good to go.

[Skybird74]

Some good ideas, but I don't think you'd want to Re-build the database! That would give me 2 copies of all the same songs, both before and after any corrections. Only the "existing Playlists" need to access the songs as they appear on the old/ext. HD. Also, having all 10,000+ songs on the laptop twice would definitely use up a lot of space needed to be able to add new disks to.

However, you've given me an idea! I just purchased a "portable hd" that holds 250GB and is not only 1/4 the size of my external, but does not require electricity and simply plugs into the USB port. Guess I could just copy the old folders of KMAs onto it for Hoster to access in my Shows!

[muzicman144]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

Only if both drives/folders are listed in the Build Database. This wouldn't work if both have the same songs/bookids though. As to musicman's suggestion I don't know of any laptop that has space for a second hard drive.
However, his suggestion made me think of a solution that should work. You would need a program called Partition Magic. This program would allow you to split your physical hard drive into 2 or more partitions or correctly called logical drives. This would leave your C: drive smaller and give you a second logical drive that you can set the drive letter to any letter from E - Z (D being your CD drive). Set it to whatever letter the external normally comes up with (don't have external plugged in while doing this).
Then copy your KMA files to the new drive, rebuild the database in Hoster pointing to the new drive and you are good to go.

I beleive your suggestion will work provided the computer hard drive has enough space. As for two drives in a laptop, HP puts out a dual hard drive for the laptop with a total capacity of 500GB. Technology moves faster than most of us can keep up with.
Re-building the database does not produce a seperate copy of your files. I have read on this forum that it is not good to re-build, and also it doesn't hurt. I have used Hoster for years, couldn't tell you how many times i have re-built the database,never had a problem.
As for the problem, at the time my only option was to redo the files.

muzicman144

[Skybird74]

That's good to know that HP puts out a dual 500GB HD, since my new Vista is HP. That's something to think about for the future. Need to start working more again to pay for all these extra goodies - HA!

What about what was said about "rebuilding the database"? I still don't think you'd want 2 copies of all songs! How would you know which ones you made changes to, like spelling mistakes, etc. or re-imported? If you re-imported a song that was bad & there are 2 copies, how would Hoster know which one to replace?

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by Skybird74

Some good ideas, but I don't think you'd want to Re-build the database! That would give me 2 copies of all the same songs, both before and after any corrections. Only the "existing Playlists" need to access the songs as they appear on the old/ext. HD. Also, having all 10,000+ songs on the laptop twice would definitely use up a lot of space needed to be able to add new disks to.

However, you've given me an idea! I just purchased a "portable hd" that holds 250GB and is not only 1/4 the size of my external, but does not require electricity and simply plugs into the USB port. Guess I could just copy the old folders of KMAs onto it for Hoster to access in my Shows!

When I say copy, that is to copy them to new location and then remove/delete them from the old location on C: or if you copy from the External drive then you can keep that as a backup and still delete them from the C: drive. By renaming the 2nd internal (logical) drive (for discussion lets call it E the same as the external drive, then rebuild the database from E: drive only, not from both C: and E:, then your playlists will work without any modifications which is what you wanted.

[Skybird74]

I'm out of time now, as I needed to be able to access my Songs from MY Playlists - TOMORROW for a Show! So, for now I have no choice but to just take my ext.HD with & use it like before - it does work that way!

I think I understand what you're saying about creating a Partition & naming the same as the ext.HD I've been using & rebuild from there. However, as I've said, I've already spent a week editing & re-importing & all KMAs are now in just 1 Songs folder. On my external they are in several different folders & that's how each song is identified in the Playlists. So, I would have to start over from scratch & undo everything I already did. But, thanks anyway!

[gd123]

You could Try This: (I don't have time to test this today)

Make a copy of any HST file you want to alter.

Use a file editer and edit the HST file using FIND/REPLACE

FIND ex: C:\SONGS <---means the OLD DRIVE/FOLDER you used

REPLACE ex: I:SONGS <---means the NEW DRIVE/FOLDER

Should work.

[Skybird74]

WOW, if that would work it would be wonderful & save me tons of time! What file editor would you suggest?

I just thought of something, when you look at the .HST files in Hoster, there is no other information or file path. That only comes up when you click on a song in the playlist & Hoster gives you a message that it can't find the song. So, how would that work?

Remember, adding songs to a Playlist is no problem. Hoster automatically goes to the C:\ where all the songs are. It's only the Playlists that were created befiore the songs were transferred from ext."K" to internal "C".

I'm hoping ADMIN looks that this and has some ideas also!!!!!

[mindonstrike]

Originally Posted by Skybird74

WOW, if that would work it would be wonderful & save me tons of time! What file editor would you suggest?

I just thought of something, when you look at the .HST files in Hoster, there is no other information or file path. That only comes up when you click on a song in the playlist & Hoster gives you a message that it can't find the song. So, how would that work?

Remember, adding songs to a Playlist is no problem. Hoster automatically goes to the C:\ where all the songs are. It's only the Playlists that were created befiore the songs were transferred from ext."K" to internal "C".

I'm hoping ADMIN looks that this and has some ideas also!!!!!

Curious as to what kind of editor as well.

I've tried renaming the file with different extensions, the closest I got to succes was renaming as a text file and opening in notepad but even that was just a jumble of words.

Sam

[gd123]

I tried cutting and pasting, both, before the end of column (to MAX 109 Characters) and after column (beyond 109 Characters).

HST file is still corrupt.

I tried making a new HST with the same test songs to see what a valid HST file that points to the NEW File Location looks like. But, there are to many unknown characters to deal with.

Looks like a custom Conversion Utility needs to be programmed.

You might suggest it in the HOSTER NEW FEATURE REQUESTS FORUM.