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]

I'm sorry, but if you can't upload that .7z file, I won't be able to do anything for you. :-(

 

[Wolkie 72]

That's okay. I googled "why can't I upload a 7z file?" and I am reading it now.

Just a couple of questions before we leave the "battlefield" (😁).

1. Could my download of "Everything" have interfered with this in some way? Should I delete "Everything"?

2. What should I do with drive G now? WIpe it? It seems to have all kinds of info on it other than music.

And finally, Sincere THANKS to all of you who tried to help me with this. I will reload all the cd's and do it right this time.

 

[fzabkar]

I have no idea what happened, but I wouldn't delete or wipe anything. There is plenty of space on that drive.

 

[fzabkar]

Are you able to send that .7z file as an email attachment? You can test this by emailing it to yourself. If so, then I'll contact you privately and you can then email it to me.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Okay. There is 1 more thing I wanted to ask USAF Ret.

Can you please point me to a link which explains how to create subfolders, etc. to correctly store my music. If this was all my mistake, I don't want to repeat it.

Thanks again.

 

[Wolkie 72]

It gives me that choice, but wants an association already , or if not set one up in default app programs. I looked for that, but was unable to find it. I also reloctaed the files associated with all my cd titles and copied down the path this time. Probably won't help, but at least I know they're there.....somewhere.

 

[USAFRet]

Okay. There is 1 more thing I wanted to ask USAF Ret.

Can you please point me to a link which explains how to create subfolders, etc. to correctly store my music. If this was all my mistake, I don't want to repeat it.

Thanks again.

Just in File Explorer.

In the G drive, Right click on some empty space on the Right
Select New - Folder
By default, it will be called NewFolder. Change that to Music
Then...double click on the Music folder.
Again, right click on the bare space on the right.
New - Folder, call it Abba.

This folder will hold all the subfolders for all your Abba music.



And it wasn't YOUR mistake.
Rather, your IT dude led you down the wrong path.

Your current path of "FileHistory/Bill/DESKTOP-C1JLQJP/Data/G/FileHistory/quasi/DESJTOP-IKGD673/Data/C/Users/quasi........." This should never have happened.
And is basically easier to redo it completely, than to try to "fix" this.

Especially as it appears that there are double entries for these mp3 files.

If my most favorite grandchild came to me with this system, I'd just start over.
With all the tears and teethgnashing that implies.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Sorry, sir, but "New Folder" doesn't appear as that. What does is "Change Drive Letter And Paths". "Format", "Shrink/Delete Volume", "Properties", "Help", "Open" and "Explore". I'm trying to stay away from that "Format" choice (thinking it means "wipe"), but it is the only one giving me the chance to change the name of the folder.

 

[USAFRet]

Sorry, sir, but "New Folder" doesn't appear as that. What does is "Change Drive Letter And Paths". "Format", "Shrink/Delete Volume", "Properties", "Help", "Open" and "Explore". I'm trying to stay away from that "Format" choice (thinking it means "wipe"), but it is the only one giving me the chance to change the name of the folder.

You are looking in Disk Management.
That is not what you want.

File Explorer is what you want.

 

[Lafong]

Wokie:

Yesterday, you said that this file:

G_file_list.txt

was on your C drive.

Have you even attempted to open it?

Your G drive has over 50 GB of files on it. That is likely thousands of different files. I'd assume your music is there.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Yes, I did open it up and here are SOME the files I copied:

https://imgur.com/a/wQ4Gm28

What would you like for me to do next, Lafong?
View: https://imgur.com/a/wQ4Gm28

 

[Lafong]

Yes, I did open it up and here are SOME the files I copied:

https://imgur.com/a/wQ4Gm28

What would you like for me to do next, Lafong?
View: https://imgur.com/a/wQ4Gm28

That's about 30 files.

Roughly....how many were there in total?

I think you said your music files totaled perhaps 1500.

Did you see ANY file in that list that sort of looked like a song title?

If the songs are supposedly mp3, do you see any file that appears to be an ordinary mp3?

I would not expect to see any file name beginning with tmp like I see in your picture, so it is anybody's guess what has happened.

If you have a file named Don McLean - Vincent.mp3 on drive number 1 and tell a tech you want your music files to be put on drive 2, I'd expect to see Don McLean - Vincent.mp3 somewhere on drive 2.

If you don't see ANY music files in that long list, we are left to speculate about what has actually happened.

 

[Wolkie 72]

The temp uploads stopped at 999. I then see this:
G:\ABBA\ABBA Gold- Greatest Hits
G:\ABBA\Unknown album (6-11-2020 2-03-33 PM)
G:\BillMusic (G)\BillMusic (G).lnk.

Followed by:

G:\DESKTOP-IKGD673\Configuration
G:\DESKTOP-IKGD673\Data
G:\DESKTOP-IKGD673\Configuration\Catalog1.edb
G:\DESKTOP-IKGD673\Configuration\Catalog2.edb
G:\DESKTOP-IKGD673\Configuration\Config1.xml
G:\DESKTOP-IKGD673\Configuration\Config2.xml
G:\DESKTOP-IKGD673\Data\$OF
which ends at 12811

Then some dmde and everything files


Then we get into File History

G:\FileHistory\quasi
G:\FileHistory\quasi\DESKTOP-IKGD673 (just a sampling of the config)

Then file history starts at 10026 and goes to the end with all my games, some pictures and the Robert Klein albums at the very last.

All of this is on drive G opened from the file I had that would not let itself be shared.

 

[Lafong]

It's hard to speculate on that list of files because we don't know how many of them are the result of your activities AFTER the tech supposedly transferred your music files to the drive.....and were not put there by the tech.

2 questions:

1; Your files were supposedly copied or moved TO drive G. What is the status of the drive FROM which those files were moved? In a drawer somewhere? In the garbage? Working well? Not working at all? What is on that drive NOW?

2; Suppose you "ripped" an ABBA CD that had 15 songs on it, using your normal method. Would that result in 1 file containing 15 songs? Or would that result in 15 files, one for each song?

 

[USAFRet]

Start over.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Before I left the shop, I was told that I could now find my music on drive G. I took that to mean it now resided there instead of drive C. C is working fine, just doesn't have music on it. It has paths to where the music is supposed to be, but all I see are titles, no music.

The Abba question. From what I remember , I placed the cd in the drawer (older hybrid machine), and it ripped it. When I later wanted to hear a certain song, I could choose that song only and hear it, not the whole album, so I don't know how to answer your question.

I don't want us to lose sight of the original problem. in WMP, the section where the albums should be has nothing in it. I can only find the titles. Also the codec issue. Here is the way it reads: "A number of queued files cannot be played. To find information about the problem, click the icon next to each file in the list pane." ---- When I click the icon, Windows tells me . "WMP cannot find the file. If you are trying to play, burn or sync an item that is in your library, that item may point to a file that has been moved, deleted or renamed."

Another section, "Web Help", tells me that support for Windows 7 ended on 1.14.22" and to purchase W11.

Below that is the following:

• If the error involves a playback problem, you may not have the right codec on your PC to play that file. For more information about codecs, see Codecs: frequently asked questions.

Further, on the Media Player screen on the far left are the blinking words: "Media Changing". on the right side, after the controls one sees the words, "Updating Media Library G:\" and that's been going on for weeks.

Now to your other question: Did I mess this up after the original error about the codecs? I tried my best to fix it on my own - even posted the problem here when it first started, but no one was familiar with it at that time so the answers either didn't fit or weren't workable. This included using different players, VLC and so forth. So that is where we are now.


Finally, Lafong: Your questions are taking on the tone of a cross-examination. If you suspect me of being a troll, report it and we'll let the mods handle it. Otherwise, if you don't respect me for what little I know about computers, I'll ask you to at least respect my age.

 

[USAFRet]

I don't want us to lose sight of the original problem. in WMP, the section where the albums should be has nothing in it. I can only find the titles. Also the codec issue. Here is the way it reads: "A number of queued files cannot be played. To find information about the problem, click the icon next to each file in the list pane." ---- When I click the icon, Windows tells me . "WMP cannot find the file. If you are trying to play, burn or sync an item that is in your library, that item may point to a file that has been moved, deleted or renamed."

Another section, "Web Help", tells me that support for Windows 7 ended on 1.14.22" and to purchase W11.

Below that is the following:

• If the error involves a playback problem, you may not have the right codec on your PC to play that file. For more information about codecs, see Codecs: frequently asked questions.

Further, on the Media Player screen on the far left are the blinking words: "Media Changing". on the right side, after the controls one sees the words, "Updating Media Library G:\ and that's been going on for weeks.

Disregard any "codec" issues. Disregard WMP.
That is secondary, at best.


Your concern is HOW, exactly, these files have ended up in that totally borked up folder tree.
And HOW, exactly, they were ripped from the original CD, or "copied" to this external G drive.

Both of those are totally unknown.

"A number of queued files cannot be played. " suggests improperly ripped music files.

As I see it, your best way forward is the two simple words I've said:
"Start over"

What you currently have is unfixable.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Then may I ask that the thread be closed, USAF?

Thanks

Bill

 

[USAFRet]

Then may I ask that the thread be closed, USAF?

Thanks

Bill

Closed, as requested.