Question External Drive Question (WD Elements)

[Wolkie 72]

A while back I bought this external hd, and my IT tech told me to "save all your music on your G drive".

I think everyone already knows about the WMP Codec Problem. It's when you go to play a playlist or a cut off a cd and it won't play because of a "Codec Error".

How do : a) make sure I have music on drive G on this thing and
b) can you buy Codexes and upload them so that WMP will work.

My specs:
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
AMD FX-8300 36 °C
Vishera 32nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 805MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. GA-78LMT-USB3 R2 (Socket M2) 42 °C
Graphics
E321VL (1600x900@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (MSI) 47 °C
Storage
111GB TOSHIBA MKNSSDEC120GB ATA Device (SATA (SSD)) 43 °C
1863GB MB2000EBUCF ATA Device (SATA ) 43 °C
1862GB Western Digital WD Elements 2621 USB Device (USB (SATA) (SSD)) 43 °C
Optical Drives
ATAPI iHAS324 F ATA Device
Audio

 

[fzabkar]

You can use DMDE to navigate to your "BillMusic (G)" folder. DMDE doesn't care about permissions or hidden attributes, and it will also display deleted files.

https://dmde.com/

 

[USAFRet]

You can use DMDE to navigate to your "BillMusic (G)" folder. DMDE doesn't care about permissions or hidden attributes, and it will also display deleted files.

https://dmde.com/

I think it is fair to say that the "IT dude" is pretty clueless and incompetent, and these music files never made it to the G drive.
Or, they are somehow encapsulated in that single .mp4. Which ALSO points to cluelessness.

 

[fzabkar]

@USAFRet, I see you are as frustrated with this thread as I am.

Maybe there is something in the Recycle Bin?

 

[Wolkie 72]

@USAFRet, I see you are as frustrated with this thread as I am.

Maybe there is something in the Recycle Bin?

Checked there already. Nothing. Thanks to you and everyone for all the help and suggestions. I won't forget it.

 

[Lafong]

Not sure why you are still using KLite codecs.

It's been at least 10 years since I've had any use for them.

I curate over 30,000 individual mp3 files and play them daily using nothing but Windows Media Player..........without incident

Can you post a screen shot of File Explorer with the G drive highlighted on the left side of the screen? I'd like to see what shows up on the right side.

Should look something like this:


https://postimg.cc/235QyQrX

 

[Wolkie 72]

HOLD EVERYTHING, PLEASE!!!!

Fzabkar, I went back to the recycle bin and my goodness! THERE they all were, so I hit restore and they went into "cache" (that was the destination), then it stopped running (the rsetore) and said I needed to be an authorized user to go any further. I looked in file explorer but didn't see anything marked "cache" and none of the G drives show me the cd's. WhHat can I do? I'm so happy all my albums are somewhere on my rig!

 

[USAFRet]

HOLD EVERYTHING, PLEASE!!!!

Fzabkar, I went back to the recycle bin and my goodness! THERE they all were, so I hit restore and they went into "cache" (that was the destination), then it stopped running (the rsetore) and said I needed to be an authorized user to go any further. I looked in file explorer but didn't see anything marked "cache" and none of the G drives show me the cd's. WhHat can I do? I'm so happy all my albums are somewhere on my rig!

Please redo the WinDirStat run, for ONLY the G drive.

 

[Wolkie 72]

https://imgur.com/a/AWmYMAu

View: https://imgur.com/a/AWmYMAu

 

[USAFRet]

No difference, so nothing yet 'recovered' to the G drive.

At this point, I'd say just redo the ripping.
Yes, it is a pain. But do it right, so it once.

 

[Wolkie 72]

But if they're all in the cache? And can you please link me to how I can do this correctly when I do it again? I thought you just ripped the album and the computer sets everything into the library automatically.

Thank YOU, AIr Force!

 

[USAFRet]

But if they're all in the cache? And can you please link me to how I can do this correctly when I do it again? I thought you just ripped the album and the computer sets everything into the library automatically.

Thank YOU, AIr Force!

I have no idea what your particular "cache" refers to.

Your IT guy looks to have screwed this up completely.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Yeah, okay. But thanks to you and all the other folks for the help.

 

[USAFRet]

I thought you just ripped the album and the computer sets everything into the library automatically.

No.
You rip the CDs to a folder tree on the drive.
Then, your chosen playback application, on command, reads that folder tree and builds a library or playback list.

 

[Lafong]

Have you used any type of search tool for a particular song title?

I saw "El Paso" and "Gate Walks To Board" on one of your previous screen shots.

If those MP3s of those songs are anywhere on any of your drives, an ordinary search tool should find them quickly.

 

[Wolkie 72]

I put "El Paso" into my start box at bottom left. It brought it up at the top and I clicked on it and it started playing. Marty Robins - El Paso. Thanks, Lafong, but apparently I have to begin again. 🤣

 

[USAFRet]

I put "El Paso" into my start box at bottom left. It brought it up at the top and I clicked on it and it started playing. Marty Robins - El Paso. Thanks, Lafong, but apparently I have to begin again. 🤣

That searched the internet, not your personal PC and hard drives.

 

[Wolkie 72]

But then I found the below and the whole album was listed and the song El Paso was on there twice. Don McLean NOT Marty Robbins as I stated before.

Want me to send a screenshot of what I saw or does it matter?

 

[Lafong]

I put "El Paso" into my start box at bottom left. It brought it up at the top and I clicked on it and it started playing. Marty Robins - El Paso. Thanks, Lafong, but apparently I have to begin again. 🤣

Windows built in search is a bit cryptic. I don't use it, but it certainly should be able to search ONLY your personal drives.

A far superior tool is something like "Everything" from voidtools.com

It will find any file within 1 second flat as long as you know some portion of the file name.

 

[Wolkie 72]

https://imgur.com/a/v75W1iz

View: https://imgur.com/a/v75W1iz

 

[Wolkie 72]

Don't know why they're on there twice, but I can deal with that. I'll take another look tomorrow, maybe we will have found a way by then. If not, well, I'm only 73. I think I should be done by the time the reaper comes after me. 😄

 

[Lafong]

Can you play any of those McClean songs shown on the right side of File Explorer.....Wonderful Baby, Love Me Tender, etc?

I see 2 instances of "BillMusic G" on the left side of File Explorer.

If you poke either of them, does a bunch more songs show up on the right side?

Offhand, it looks like you may have a "BillMusic" inside of another "BillMusic".

 

[USAFRet]

Assuming those are actual files in that whole subfolder chain....that can be "fixed". Maybe.

But whoever created that (your IT dude?).....completely messed it up..

Fixing it will take diligence.

 

[Wolkie 72]

I can't get a song list to appear on the right side. The rig saved the DOn McClean album and I can click on it and bring it back. That way. How do I find this file tree?

 

[fzabkar]

DMDE can recover deleted files. Recuva should also be able to do it, but I'm not a fan of this software.

 

[Lafong]

I can't get a song list to appear on the right side. The rig saved the DOn McClean album and I can click on it and bring it back. That way. How do I find this file tree?

I see 3 instances of "BillMusic G" on the left side of File Explorer in your picture in post 69.

Right click each of them, one at a time.

That should bring up a list.

"Properties" should be near the bottom of that list.

Right click "Properties".

That should bring up a small window showing "used space" and "free space".

What numbers do you see for "used space" and "free space" on each of those 3 instances of "BillMusic G"???