Best way to collect files?

S

sn1ckers

New Member
I have a little under 2,000 music files spread out over various folders on two hard drives. Now I want to take the bigger of the two hard drives and turn it into an external hard drive so that I can have all my music/multimedia/paperwork on one hard drive that I can use with either my laptop or desktop by simply just connectign the external drive. What is the best way to go about collecting all of these files? I did a blank search for music files on my computer, but I ended up getting 4700. That is 2900 files more than my itunes library lists as my total music. I know that it took all music files on my computer, so there may be a couple duplicates, and soem that aren't in Itunes. Would doing a search, then moving all the files to one folder on my soon-to-be external drive? I think this could cause soem problems if I end up moving a file that is classified as music, by is actually a sound file for some program? What if I copied all the files to a new destination? Then I would have to go and delete all old instances of the files that are spread all over. Are there any ideas that you guys have?

Thanks.
 
For music files here simply creating a main directory to have several(one for each group/artist) folders contained in it separates the various tracks respectively without ever mixing them with wav files default or otherwise with Windows. When looking inside any folder with Windows Explorer you can change the view setting to display files in order by type rather then name. Once that is done you can highlight and copy or simply drag those files over to the second window opened to the destination. This is a simplified organization of various files by various artists and file types.
 
Thanks, I didn't think sorting the differently. I guess I was too hopeful that I could have found a quick and easy way to get this done, but I guess this will be one of those lengthy projects.
 
The view settings are for each folder individually. Please note that. When you change from one folder to another for the first time anyway you have to repeat the setting change again. With Window Media Player 10 now ripping cds into mp3s as well as the wma type the creation of individual folders inside a main music directory keeps the groups, individual artists, and even types of music listened to and stored separate from each other to avoid confusion.
(gee the rolling printers now have a folder to themselves while the SATAs are over there somewhere.)
 
I guess what you could do, if you have enough spare room on the drive you want to make external, create a music folder within it, open iTunes, select all the music, then click and drag over to the folder you just made.

This assumes all the music you want to move is on iTunes.

It's probly best to move the music to the SMALLER hard drive, format the bigger drive, then move the music over to the nice and empty drive.
 
It will also depend on how much drive space is taken up by the volume of files being stored. With a large primary drive as a stand alone you can create a second extended storage partition to backup the existing files downloaded or otherwise to the primary. With two drives you have the added avantage of duplicating your files and data in the event of a primary crash or infection where at least your important files are still intact on a secondary drive.
 
Here's another problem I have. I want to be able to play my MP3 files on my cell phone. So I put them on my little Micro SD card and pop it in to my cell phone... However only a few showed up so I put it back on my computer to see why. I noticed that all the files that I used Itunes with are in MPEG-4 Audio File format, and ones from Windows Media player are in MP3 format. The problem is almost all of my music has been into Itunes, so most of it is eaither MPEG-4 or ACC. Is there anyway that I can change all of my music into MP3s?

EDIT

Okay so what I did was, I went into Windows Media Player I had it add all media files that weren't in program folders to the library. It put the all in MP3 format for me. Unfortunately, I had soem duplicates over my two hard drives. SO now I have two of almost all my music files. Is there an easy way to 1) remove the duplicates, and 2) move all of these files to one hard drive?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
you can use the consolidate library feature in itunes (advanced>consolidate library) to move all of your stuff to one place, in your itunes music folder within my music, then you can just burn a backup to dvd
 
Hmm I think I'll try that. Can I pick where the folder is at?

I noticed another oddity. In Windows Media Player it displays the musics as being MP3s, but the files themselves claim to be the MPEG-4 Audio Files. Are there any converter programs to turn all my music into MP3s?

Thanks
 
"How To Convert Mp4 to Mp3
Thursday, January 19, 2006

Download a freeware or purchase an audio format converter that supports Mp4 to Mp3 conversions.

Install the audio format converter software.

Follow the instructions the software interface provides you with and you will be able to convert Mp4 files to Mp3 format.
Here are some Mp4 to Mp3 converters for your reference:

Easy CD-DA Extractor 9.0.1 build 2 by Poikosoft
This program has a free trial period for your evaluation.

River Past Audio Converter
You can purchase and download this program for a reasonable fee." was one simple instruction at http://www.howtodothings.com/electronics/a1664-how-to-convert-mp4-to-mp3.html For a list of sites carrying both shareware and freeware utilities for this browse the links at http://infospace.abcnews.com/_1_RI8TG903N4K5WW__info.abcnws.toolbar/search/web/mp4+to+mp3+converters
 
You may have to try a few to find one that works the best. Sometime back I tried Musicmatech to convert wav files into mp3 files. Converting differents types into others can be a little awkward if you end up with one not so great for this. You may go through a few others to find one suitable.
 
Thanks for all your help. I have decided to transfer all of my music from one drive to the one I want it on. Sort it, delete duplicates, and then convert files. This will take me a while, but in the end it will be worht it.

Thanks for all your help!!!

Edit 1

I did some searching and found a totally free converter called "Switch". It lets me add an entire folder to the "convert this" list. I can also select the bit rate, quality, and destination folder. So this lets me organize as I convert. Then all I have to do is go back and remove the old files. Far more than I would have expected a free program to do.

Again I thank you and I'm sure that I've found a new home for all my computer help needs.
 
Last edited:
We can always use the flowers around here. There are a lot more freewares as well as sharewares for file conversion as well as organization then there were a few years back. I trust the utility called by the name Switch is the same as seen at http://www.nch.com.au/switch/
 
Yes, that is the smae program. I used it to convert all my files and I organized the destination folders. It is a very good progam with a easy to sue interface.
 
You may want to keep the link there in your favorites if you need to download another copy. It helps to keep links for the ones you are know are good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top