Moving SonicStage "My Library" to Laptop

[hector1954]

I am very new to Sonic Stage and having trouble working out what it will and willnot do. I want to create my library on my desktop, but have the option to move it to my laptop when I travel. The shop I bought the Sony Flash walkman from doesn't know if it will let me do it or not. The laptop is in being serviced at the moment, so I can't try it out, and I hope I'm not wasting my time building up My Library on my desktop.

I am using Sonic Stage 3.4.03.15140 with a Sony Flash walkman NW-E005F. I run Windows XPhome SP 2.

Main Question:

I hope I can use the backup tool to backup My Library to an external hard drive, then import it into Sonic Stage My Library on my laptop. Can anyone tell me if this is going to work or not?

Secondary Question:

Also, it seems that Sonic Stage does not import mp3 files directly into My Library, but just links to them wherever they are stored on the hard drive. If I do a My Library backup, do the mp3 files get backed up in the process? If, for example, I backed up My Library, and had to do a complete reinstall of my computer, due to a hard drive failure, would the Sonic Stage reinstall of the backup include the mp3 files that My Library was originally linked to? Or do I need to backup the mp3 files seperately?

[JustAnUnCoolCat]

All you literally need do is take the files and folders that contain the content you have (noting the fact that, as you say, the files in question are not stored in SonicStage's self-generated optimised files location) and copy them lock stock and barrel to the external drive.

This works for any format that SS can read, and i talk specifically only about files that are not copy-protected when we talk ATRAC items too, and all you do is point SS to look at the new storage location and reimport the files after removing the entries out of the existing library listings in SS.

Tends to be quicker, i find, that using the backup util.

For portable storage of my library, with the laptop, i keep my MP3/WMA/ATRAC encodings on a partition on my old H300 HDD DAP and have the laptop's SS install look there for it's library content.

Likewise, i have a choice for the stationary installs of copying the H300 stored content back to the stationary HDD for proper permanent localised location for the stationary installs of SS - or add the content to SS by drag and drop when the drive is connected.

A more permanent solution, but bear in mind that the transfer speed from SS to player action will be slower and likewise so will importing and updating library content, would be a NAS type HDD .. which is my main location preferred for keeping my ATRAC files.

In this case, and worth considering since a 200Gb NAS type HDD unit can cost not much more than a 200-300Gb quality external HDD, you can also make the files then more accessible remotely or between multiple machines - since all that's needed is to make your machines see the NAS device and the associated root folder/shared drive holding your centralised content as a network drive.

The files/folders can (once you can access from the desktop, the shared drive instance/network location) be drag and dropped to add to the SS library on a given installation.. or assign (on a Win installation) a drive letter to the network drive/shared folder instance that would be the NAS and use the import facility on SS by point it to the network drive/shared folder driver letter instance.

This method, however, does not tackle importing/duping playlists generated in SS - never needed to, so never tackled it.. since i use .m3u playlists to store playlists of my external stored files and drag those into SS when i want to add them to the library.

'Tom Kat'