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HELP! Computer problem. Need to save my MP3s!
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| DeepSix |
My computer has pretty much crashed and Windows XP will not boot now. I have been having problems already, so I am ready to format the hard drive. Problem is, I have quite a few MP3s on the C drive that I need to get off on to a USB hard drive.
I am able to get into DOS and access the files, but when I try copying them in bulk, it only copies one file. I have used COPY and XCOPY with various combinations of wildcards (*.*, *.mp3, a*.mp3) and it always copies one file and then stops and says "1 FILE(S) COPIED). I tried copying the entire directory as well and it didn't work. I tried similar commands on a group of text files (*.txt), and it worked fine, it copied them all at once, so the problem seems to be with bulk copying larger files like MP3s. Any thoughts? |
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| Marc Summers |
| wtf is an mp3? |
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| Tranc3 |
| Hook up to another computer, access drive from there, then transfer files. |
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| ::TranceVanDyk:: |
back up your files!!!!
though i havnt. but i have all the windows updates and my protection is current, so im fineer. |
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| stevieboy32808 |
| so you're having trouble transferring your files in bulk to your usb drive? |
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| DeepSix |
| quote: | Originally posted by stevieboy32808
so you're having trouble transferring your files in bulk to your usb drive? |
Exactly. I am all ready to do a "copy *.mp3 D:\", but it only wants to copy one file at a time. |
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| stevieboy32808 |
Let's say you have a folder with 500 mp3's. Never copy more than 100 mp3's at a time. I've had a bad experience which nearly caused irreversible damage to my HDD. Lucky my h.d. was still in good enough shape that I took all of my music out of there just before it pooped out. So the obvious question is how do you go about copying several mp3's at a time. The answer is easier said than done. Let's say you want to move 75 mp3's at a time, then you would use the following syntax:
copy topgear.mp3+nooneonearth.mp3+......+sugarhigh.mp3 D:\My Music
NOTE: I'm assuming you are already on the C:\ directory and your usb drive letter is D:\
You would literally have to type out all the 75 mp3s in the syntax, but before you do this try it with 4 files to see if it works. If it does work you have a looooonnnngggg job ahead of you. |
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| Coup |
| your using the internet now which suggests to me u have access to another computer, so instead of messing around in dos just take ur usb hdd and ur broken one and plug them into another PC, copy it all over and go home again, sorted. |
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| DeepSix |
Thanks for the suggestions. I was able to get into Windows and am backing up my files normally now. But your comments have led me to another question...
Why is it not good to copy more than 100 MP3s at a time? Is it just too hard physically on the hard drive? Anyone else experience problems?
I must admit I am guilty of copying thousands of MP3s at once while I am away. How much rest do you need to give the hard drive in between copying? |
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| emc^2 |
| Don't matter - there's no rest for HD. Though, if your HD is mechanically f-d I'd recommend running a utility by symantec - Ghost. rip your HD image to another HD in about 5 minutes, which will definitely beat copying your files in "OS" mode, which will take a looooong time. Using ghost is the fastest and best way to save your entire HD image, which you can later disect at your leisure (on hopefully reliable HD). |
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| stevieboy32808 |
| From experience I can tell you that the large transfers were too much load on my hard drive which led to the eventual "collapse". At least that was my conclusion before doing the backup because everything else was excellent. After the mass backup I noticed my pc kept freezing up because of read errors (blue screen of death told me). This was back when I had Win98. After replacing the beat up drive there were no more blue screen errors and my fears were gone. |
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| igottaknow |
| quote: | Originally posted by DeepSix
Why is it not good to copy more than 100 MP3s at a time? |
Rumor has it that the RIAA has been given access to the NSA satellite data. Copying more that 100 mp3 gives off an unmistakable heat signature that can be easily detected. Let's hope you haven't been discovered. :eek: |
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