LouieChuckyMerry

Could you possibly translate that into "Idiotese" so that I can understand it! Thanks.

Thank you both for your thoughts; I appreciate them. I do-did unplug the external hard drive before importing new MP3s, and I surely wouldn't put it past SS to throw a hissy-fit over that fact . So, I tried the optimize option under tools>advanced, but SS still hangs/'Not Responding' within a second of clicking on 'Import'. Next, I tried to import new MP3s from the same external hard drive from which I'd restored, plugged into the same USB port, but SS hung within a second plus it didn't even give me the option it had given me before, to import the music to my HDD before importing it to My Library. Arg! I've already done a fresh reinstall of SS using Avrin's Ultimate4.3 (thanks again, by the way, it seems much more stable; I can actually listen to music from My Library while importing music to My Library without SS crashing ), but my girlfriend is suffering the problem now, as we both did fresh OS/fresh SS reinstalls about the same time. She has no new music to import now, but I'm sure she will eventually, so if you have any more ideas I'd be happy to try them on her laptop.

Thanks for your idea, and I, too, always found the Rename Files... option useful, sort of a poor man's tagger. I dug deeper after reading your suggestion, but when I restore my files using the SS tool, all my music is returned to it's original locations, the standard C:/Program Files/Documents and Settings/All Users/SonicStage/Packages/"Original Sub-Folder Name(s)", as if nothing had happened. Now, I've tried importing new (beyond the restored) music files two different ways: 1) as I always had before, by adding the folder "Whatever New Music" to ...Imported/Packages manually, then importing it into My Library with the 'Import Music Files' option from the Music Source button; this causes SS to immediately hang and show 'Not Responding' in Windows Task Manager, or, 2) by importing the file "Whatever New Music" from an external hard drive, once again using the 'Import Music Files' option from the Music Source button; this gives me the usual two options, something about importing the music to my hard drive first and then to My Library or just to My Library; when I choose to import it to my hard drive first it does, but then SS immediately hangs/'Not Responding' before it imports it to My Library. I've checked: the music is in fact imported into ...Imported/Packages, it's just not imported into My Library. Yep, my head hurts, too. Anyway, thanks for the thought and I'm still willing to try any reasonable new ideas that you might have.

Thanks for your continued input. Today I did as I'd already done with the two different internet-based .exe files, but instead I used your Ultimate 4.3 standalone version. I was once again able to restore my entire 52.3 GB from backup using the SonicStage Backup Tool--I don't understand how, but it authenticated via the internet and two hours later everything was in it's place. Happily, this time I was actually able to connect my NW-HD5 without receiving a message stating that I needed to reformat it in order to use it; sadly, however, I was still unable to import any new MP3 files beyond those restored from backup . C'est la vie, I reckon. Since I've already tried to import the restored files to a fresh SS install only to have My Library very disorganized, I figure that I'll take "advantage" of this most recent kick in the groin from Sony by uninstalling your Ultimate 4.3, reinstalling your Ultimate 4.3, and then importing first my already-converted-from-Atrac-to-MP3-and-carefully-tagged files (about 30 GB), then converting the remainder of my Atrac files (about 20 GB, but most at 48 kbs so quite a few ) to MP3 using HiMD Renderer v0.54, carefully tagging them, and then importing them into My Library. Hopefully, by the time I'm actually able to complete this project I'll (still be breathing and) have saved enough money to purchase a new music player that has a good equalizer and enough storage so that I won't need the NW-HD5's sound options or the SonicStage ability to compress to 48 kbs and still sound very good. Hey, you can't take away my dreams. Anyway, a final thanks for those who spent time trying to help me solve my problem. Ahhh, one last thing: does anyone know where any of the top Sony executives reside . . .

Thanks for the information. I have a 52.3 GB Packages folder after reinstalling SS and using the Restore Tool; everything is labeled perfectly and plays fine, I'm simply unable to import anything beyond the restored music. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling SS, then importing the 50+ GB Packages folder; all seemed to be imported, but all organization was lost. I guess I could import the restored files to a fresh SS reinstall in small enough chunks to check/fix disorganization--hey what's fifty more lashes from SS after thousands previously?--but was hoping to avoid this. Any thoughts? Also, if this is what you think must be done, would you recommend the AvrinSS, either 4.2 or 4.3Ultimate, over the official Sony version? And--thanks for your time--do you know if Avrin's version(s) is-are able to compress-load an NW-HD5? Thanks for your kind help.

Thank you for your patience; I'm in southern Thailand so the time is different. Also, I'm a bit slow , so please bear with me. Are you suggesting that I start over with a fresh reinstall of SonicStage that includes deleting all of my restored music (C:/Program Files/Docs and Setts/All Users/SonicStage/Packages), then importing my backup folder as is, in it's form created by the SS Backup Tool, just clicking on that folder and selecting import files, therefore restoring without using the SonicStage Backup Tool, or, are you suggesting a fresh reinstall of SonicStage without deleting my restored music files, then importing the music files in that form? And, whichever way you're suggesting, would you recommend using the official SonicStage 4.3 or either the 4.2 or 4.4 stand alone AvrinSonicStage? And, are the 4.2/4.4 AvrinSonicStages able to load an NW-HD5, the last generation 20 GB HDD Walkman? Sorry for the questions, but I'm nowhere near my minidisc backups--and won't be for a long, long time--and I really don't want to lose the 50 GB of music that took me years to import from cassettes and CDs, suffering SonicStage all the way. Basically, given the fact that I can restore my backup files, but in the process I lose SonicStage functionality, what would you do? Sorry again for my ignorance, and thank you very much for your time; I really, really appreciate it.

Avrin: thank you for taking the time to reply; I really appreciate it. And also thank you for your work improving SonicStage; maybe there's still hope for using my NW-HD5. I think, however, that I wasn't clear in my original post, so I'll try again (and thank you for your patience). After my reinstallation of Windows XP Home, I have not had any problem restoring my SonicStage backup; first I (re)install SonicStage 4.3, then I restore the backup using the SonicStage Backup Tool; the internet authentification process seems to proceed without a problem and, after the restore, I can access/play all of the restored music files. My issue is using SonicStage 4.3 to import music to My Library after I have restored My Library. Simply, on my laptop with a fresh reinstall of Windows XP Home: if I install SonicStage 4.3 and do not restore my music files, then I can import additional MP3s to My Library with no problem. However, if I install SonicStage 4.3 and do restore my music files, then I cannot import additional MP3s to My Library. That is, I have no problem restoring my backed up files, but once I've restored those files I can no longer import any other files. Any ideas? And thanks again for your time.

Hello, and thank you very much in advance to anyone willing to try and help me. I appreciate it. And, man, I wish that I'd found this site six-some years ago when I first discovered the joys of SonicStage . Seriously, though, thanks for any assistance. My problem: I've been running SonicStage 4.3 on a laptop with Windows XP Home since 4.3 first became availabe, never having any problems beyond the software's obvious limitations until I recently did a fresh reinstall of my Windows. Before the reinstall I was using Hi MD Renderer v0.54--a brilliant program; thank you so so much to the developer--to slowly convert all of my Atrac files to MP3 with the dream of one day escaping the clutches of SonicStage. Album by album I would convert to MP3, then import the MP3s into My Library, then, after checking that I could both play the MP3s and transfer them to my NW-HD5, I would delete the original Atrac files. Slow and tedious, but I had a goal. Now, however, after backing up My Library to an external hard drive using the SonicStage Backup Tool, doing a fresh reinstall of my Windows XP Home, reinstalling SonicStage 4.3 using the same .exe file that I'd used when I originally installed 4.3, and successfully restoring My Library using the newly installed SonicStage Backup Tool I'm no longer able to import MP3s into My Library. Literally, within a second of clicking on the button to import the selected files SonicStage hangs and shows 'Not Responding' in Window's Task Manager. One (1) second. I've uninstalled SonicStage, deleted all the music files, and reinstalled 4.3 twice--once with the same .exe file and once with a 4.3 .exe files I got off this site, both times again successfully restoring My Library from the backup, but still being unable to import any new MP3 files to My Library. With the fresh installation of 4.3 from both .exe files I was able to import MP3s into an empty My Library, but as soon as I restore My Library using the SonicStage Backup Tool I'm no longer able to import any new MP3s into My Library. Also, none of this music came from the Connect Store, not one song; I imported all of it directly from either CDs or Minidisc recordings of cassettes. Sorry if this is a bit confusing; my head feels as a balloon full of lumpy gravy after all of this. Please, if anyone knows of an existing thread with help or has an answer to this issue I'd be very grateful. Ahhh, regardless of the outcome of my present situation, can anyone recommend any alternative software to SonicStage for using an NW-HD5, if possible something still allowing me to achieve 48 kbs? Oh, and also, today's winning lottery numbers .