External Drive Letter Change and Playlist issues

Dmarti29 · #1 December 8th, 2008, 11:04 AM

Can anyone tell me how they deal with Windows changing drive letters of an external hard drive? I know the reasons it happens and I know the suggested solution is to always use the same usb port, but even using the same port, the drive letter can change. Such as when I plug in both my external hard drive and my external plextor cd drive. Even plugging in a flash drive can cause the drive letter to change for my hard drive.

When this happens, all my playlists will not play. They all reference, internally in the file, the drive letter when the list was created. Once the drive letter changes, the playlist is no longer valid.

Being somewhat comuter literate, I have created two playist, one for drive "g" and the other for drive "h", in my case. That way should the drive letter change I still have playlists that work, but its a real pain to maintain.

Same is true with playlists I have that contain mp3 audio music, that I use for DJ shows without karaoke. I have to go into windows edit in DOS, open the files (binary open) and replace the drive letters then save as the other dirve directory name.

Any suggestions?

billyo · #2 December 8th, 2008, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dmarti29

Can anyone tell me how they deal with Windows changing drive letters of an external hard drive? I know the reasons it happens and I know the suggested solution is to always use the same usb port, but even using the same port, the drive letter can change. Such as when I plug in both my external hard drive and my external plextor cd drive. Even plugging in a flash drive can cause the drive letter to change for my hard drive.

When this happens, all my playlists will not play. They all reference, internally in the file, the drive letter when the list was created. Once the drive letter changes, the playlist is no longer valid.

Being somewhat comuter literate, I have created two playist, one for drive "g" and the other for drive "h", in my case. That way should the drive letter change I still have playlists that work, but its a real pain to maintain.

Same is true with playlists I have that contain mp3 audio music, that I use for DJ shows without karaoke. I have to go into windows edit in DOS, open the files (binary open) and replace the drive letters then save as the other dirve directory name.

Any suggestions?

i think thats what happens if you keep plugging and unplugging those ext. dr. you just have to in my opinion have to update your song database, everytime that happens, my suggestion is to have or look for a laptop case where you can have all your hardware plugged in, that way once youre done with your show all you have to do is unplugged the main power source from the wall socket...

Dmarti29 · #3 December 8th, 2008, 11:32 AM

Thanks for the reply. Its really not possible to keep a usb drive plugged in all the time. I am running the show on a laptop. I have been careful not to plug in any other devices so that my drive letter remains the same, but my show last week, the drive letter changed all by itself.

Still looking for help..

billyo · #4 December 8th, 2008, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dmarti29

Thanks for the reply. Its really not possible to keep a usb drive plugged in all the time. I am running the show on a laptop. I have been careful not to plug in any other devices so that my drive letter remains the same, but my show last week, the drive letter changed all by itself.

Still looking for help..

i am running a show using my laptop too, and i have 2 ext.hhd , a mouse and a ext.cd/dvd drives plugged in all the usb port, (all cables are routed on a certain way,)with one extra usb port remaining, and also my s-video cable is plugged in too, all of them are plugged in all the tme , and all the power cabels are plugged into a power conditioner, so it's not really impossible to have all the usb cables plugged in at all times..it takes me 15 minutes to set up..no plugging and unplugging except of course the power from the wall and all of them are in a case..

ddouglass · #5 December 8th, 2008, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dmarti29

Thanks for the reply. Its really not possible to keep a usb drive plugged in all the time. I am running the show on a laptop. I have been careful not to plug in any other devices so that my drive letter remains the same, but my show last week, the drive letter changed all by itself.

Still looking for help..

Read my post/answer to this in your other thread.

swany · #6 December 10th, 2008, 09:54 PM

Plug it into the same port, above all do that first.

Your pc auto names to the next drive letter each time.

If you plug in anything else it will name that as the next drive letter.

Sound too easy, yep!

Mitd9922 · #7 February 17th, 2009, 03:59 PM

I plug and unplug at every show 4 times a week and the drive letter never changes. All music is available every time.

But now, I just upgraded to the newest version of Hoster and now my drive is not recognized. After doing a system restore back to version 3317 I still cannot access my drive. Any help?

Roy Dennis · #8 February 17th, 2009, 04:38 PM

This is the way to change drive letter on Vista.
Go to Control panel/Administrative tools/Computer managment/Storage /Disk managment. scroll to the drive, right click & from drop down menu select "Change drive letter & path" from the next window press change assign new letter and press ok.

ddouglass · #9 February 17th, 2009, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mitd9922

I plug and unplug at every show 4 times a week and the drive letter never changes. All music is available every time.

But now, I just upgraded to the newest version of Hoster and now my drive is not recognized. After doing a system restore back to version 3317 I still cannot access my drive. Any help?

Is this Vista? You haven't said whether it is Vista or XP. If it is Vista have you done all of the required changes to the computer from this page?
http://www.mtu.com/upgrades/hoster/v...de-hoster4.htm
If it is XP make sure you have dones these items:
http://www.mtu.com/upgrades/hoster/xp-changes.htm

Mitd9922 · #10 February 18th, 2009, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddouglass

Is this Vista? You haven't said whether it is Vista or XP. If it is Vista have you done all of the required changes to the computer from this page?
http://www.mtu.com/upgrades/hoster/v...de-hoster4.htm
If it is XP make sure you have dones these items:
http://www.mtu.com/upgrades/hoster/xp-changes.htm

This is an XP machine with all the original things that (3.314)? previous versions had turned off or on. It ran perfectly before the upgrade but I think it may have backed up files to my Hard drive and filled it up.

Does the KMA file listed on the drive contain the music and lyrics? Or is this two different files combined by Hoster? This is an essspecially important part of my question because the file recovery I'm running as I type (on different CPU ) will take too long to get all the duplicated files off my old drive thus making me miss a gig tonight. If I can just load one copy onto my new drive I'll make the show!!Help!!

Roy Dennis · #11 February 18th, 2009, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mitd9922

Does the KMA file listed on the drive contain the music and lyrics? Or is this two different files combined by Hoster? !!

A .kma file is a single file containing both music & Lyrics.

Did you try resetting the drive letter as in my previous post, it is near enough the same procedure for XP.

Mitd9922 · #12 February 18th, 2009, 06:42 PM

So if I have at least one copy on my new drive of each file I'm good to go to work tonight?

One more critcal ?. Can I stop transfering files from one drive to the new one while running and still have the new files on the new drive?
Im Using Recovermyfiles.com software

Roy Dennis · #13 February 18th, 2009, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mitd9922

So if I have at least one copy on my new drive of each file I'm good to go to work tonight?

Yes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mitd9922

One more critcal ?. Can I stop transfering files from one drive to the new one while running and still have the new files on the new drive?
Im Using Recovermyfiles.com software

As I am not familiar with your recovery software, I don't know.

Why do you need a recovery program ?
If you can see the files why can't you just copy from one drive to the other ?

That way you can stop copying.

Mitd9922 · #14 February 18th, 2009, 07:16 PM

Thanks for the response. My hard drive was messed up after the upgrade to newest version of Hoster and would'nt open anything. I got messages that said " You need to format this drive..." I did'nt want to do that and the only way I could get the files out to a new HD was to do a recovery.

I think the drive was full and was about to take a s##t on me anyway.

I am doing a restore back to the old version of Hoster I was using because it just shut down while palying a test song. I'll let ya know how that works out.

billyo · #15 February 18th, 2009, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mitd9922

Thanks for the response. My hard drive was messed up after the upgrade to newest version of Hoster and would'nt open anything. I got messages that said " You need to format this drive..." I did'nt want to do that and the only way I could get the files out to a new HD was to do a recovery.

I think the drive was full and was about to take a s##t on me anyway.

Quote:

I am doing a restore back to the old version of Hoster I was using because it just shut down while palying a test song. I'll let ya know how that works out.

if you are going to do a system restore i think you have to have at least 15 gb left on the hhd. or it wont do it..if thats what i think youre going to do..

Mitd9922 · #16 February 18th, 2009, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billyo

if you are going to do a system restore i think you have to have at least 15 gb left on the hhd. or it wont do it..if thats what i think youre going to do..

Thanks,
I can see the files on the new drive. I changed the drive letter on the new drive to match the letter I was using. It's a new drive, but I still can't get it to find songs that are on the new drive and the clock is ticking on my gig tonight. Help!

Mitd9922 · #17 February 18th, 2009, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

A .kma file is a single file containing both music & Lyrics.

Did you try resetting the drive letter as in my previous post, it is near enough the same procedure for XP.

Yes, the drive letter is now the same as I was using with the old drive.
XP system

Roy Dennis · #18 February 18th, 2009, 08:40 PM

if you open search tab is Title and Atist highlighted ?. if so enter * in the search box and see if any songs come up.
If not the only thing I can think of is to do a rebuild songs data base checking first that you point it to your new drive.

Mitd9922 · #19 February 18th, 2009, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

if you open search tab is Title and Atist highlighted ?. if so enter * in the search box and see if any songs come up.
If not the only thing I can think of is to do a rebuild songs data base checking first that you point it to your new drive.

I typed * with title and artist highlighted in (3321) not (4006) and a handfull of songs turned up. None of them will play but they do show up. I used to just put in artist or song and anything that had any letters I would type in came fine.

I get a e:/"sc**** not found

Roy Dennis · #20 February 18th, 2009, 08:58 PM

when you enter a * it should list everything.
I am afraid I am out of ideas now, all I can say is run the rebuild data base as in my previous post.
Afraid I wont be able to reply any more as it's 1. oclock in the morning here in Uk and i'm of toi bed.

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