Uploading after computer crash

[Tryton]

New here. I'm glad I found this forum. Here's my deal:

I don't have a problem with Sonicstage itself crashing and my Hi-MD player works fine. Although the 1GB disk failed and I'm currently using a regular disk. However, my computer has crashed twice since January. Coincidentally, it's a Sony too. In fact, I've been a computer tech for 14 years and I've never seen Windows files just go corrupt on any pc like what happens with this one. I should have built my own like I've always done. But anyway, I'm sure you all know you can't put your music back on Sonic Stage from the player once you've reloaded the pc because it detects it as coming from a different computer. I called Sony tech support about this and I have to say I was treated very rudely. I was basically called stupid for not backing up (even though the backup would have been stored on the hard drive and would have been wiped out with the reload, duh) and was told I'm SOL. This is unacceptable to me and I let the guy know exactly what I thought of his customer service skills. I understand this is their effort at copy protection but I have a right to put the music I already had back on the computer it existed on before the crash. There should be a provision in the software for this very situation as a complete reload is not all that uncommon when you're talking about Windows. Is there any other software that will allow me to do this? My wife spent $200 on this thing because it was the very nicest one she could find. If we had just bought a regular MP3 player it would have been cheaper and we would not be having this issue. My wife has one as well and we like being able to have all the music we both like in once place so we can change what we each have or record other disks with different mixes. Right now, if I want anything she has on hers, I'm screwed because we can't get our music back on the computer. Recording it back in real time is not an option. At this point, I'm considering listing these things on ebay and getting something different.

[Syrius]

It depends on what you want to do.

If you want to backup your WMA's, MP3's and other non-DRM music you can do it normally on DVD or CD as you already know.

If we're talking about ATRAC/OMA files, Sony now allows you to rip and convert to OMA without DRM, so simple drag, drop, or burn will let you transfer that file to any computer without getting the "This comes from another computer." message. Just get SonicStage 3.2

But as of your files already on your discs, trying to upload them will delete them from the disc. So unfortunately, real time recording is the only option.

Sony integrated the backup tool, however, they forgot to think that crashes are unpredictable, and I'm not sure if you could back up your files and save them to CD/DVD without erasing your library already.

If you still have the original Mp3/Wav/whatever, it's just a matter of reimporting them.

Good luck.

PS: If at the end you decide MD is not for you, and want to get rid of them, try also posting them on the trading forum. Some people here are looking for units, and you can save yourself the Ebay fees. (I don't mean this as a taunt. Just a simple suggestion.) Hope it doesn't have to come to this, because believe me that Sony has really gotten their act together with SS 3.2

[Tryton]

Thanks for your help. Not sure what you meant by "depends on what you want to do". I had my music on the computer. Transferred those files to both my wife's and my minidisc player (not all the same songs on both) and now that the computer crashed, the only place they exist in that format are on the two players. It seems logical to me that I should be able to copy those files back to the hard drive, but Sony doesn't seem to think logically. I understand completely the need for copy protection, but I do essentially have a backup of all the songs I had on my the discs so I figure I should be able to restore it. I don't think that's asking too much. They could use a MAC address to identify the computer rather than the way they do it now so even if it got reloaded, that MAC address would be stored on the disc somewhere and allow you to restore everything back. As it is, we have to recopy all songs from cd and I have to redownload all the songs from Connect that I got from there. That shouldn't be necessary. I disagree with the fact that they've gotten things right with 3.2 if I still can't restore my songs from the player. Not trying to be harsh, but this proprietary software makes this a hardship to use and I'm extremely unhappy about it. Their tech who basically could have cared less and treated me like I'm stupid only makes it worse.

The other issue I'm having is the Connect store account now shows 4 computers authorized. That's because I replaced another computer with this one (and there's nothing that tells you you have to deauthorize a computer up front) and I've had to reload this one twice so it thinks there have been 4. It says I need to deauthorized the other 3 but you can't do that unless you're logged in with that computer which, in the case of the two reloads, is impossible. I've had the player for over a year and I love the thing. Except for the fact that the 1GB disk failed on me which, from reading on here, seems to be common. Other than that I've not had any trouble with it, but the lack of one very important function in the software makes me not want to mess with it anymore.

[Syrius]

The thing is that SS 3.2 would let you restore those songs to your system (correct me if I'm wrong, guys) if you had transferred them over to your MD's with SS 3.2. Of course, this was not possible because it wasn't out back then.

Sorry, it seems that either real time recording or re-importing are your only options. I know. It sucks.

If it serves any consolation, you won't have that problem in the future if you use SS 3.2 from now on.

Please correct me, mods. Will you be able to upload a track to another computer, if it was originally transferred to that MD using SS 3.2, and without DRM?

[Tryton]

Hmm, I know I had 3.2 on it before it crashed, and I know there are a few tracks that I possibly transferred with it. I'll have to pick those and see if it will let me. However, when I picked them all, it failed on them all. Maybe it would work if the whole disk had only ever been used with 3.2 which I know it wasn't. The only real way to test it is to reload the computer again and THAT'S not happening. I'm going to get a brand new disk and transfer some songs to the MD and install 3.2 on my other computer and try to restore them. That should be a good test for it. Although I think Sonic Stage has been on the other computer before. However, I recently made it a dual boot and installed Windows 98 on the second hard drive so I could boot into that partition and install it and see if it will let me. I know it's two clean installs that way. Experimentation. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Edited August 23, 2005 by Tryton

[Christopher]

Have you tried C:\Program Files\Sony\SonicStage\Ojbsir.exe ?

Also, what happens when you in Sonicstage and choose 'Tools' > 'Back Up My Library' and choose 'Restore my saved data to my computer'?

Please correct me, mods. Will you be able to upload a track to another computer, if it was originally transferred to that MD using SS 3.2, and without DRM?

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I believe only the PSP can do this. Read more here. I'm going to test this tomorrow to see exactly how it works with Hi-MD, if at all.