benwakeford Posted July 22, 2003 Report Share Posted July 22, 2003 Hey guys! New to this whole minidisc/protected music malarky, so please bear with me! Having recently bought a MZ-N710 w/ Sonicstage 1.5 and copied a whole shedload of my CD's into Sonicstage and subsequently checked them out to a shedload of minidiscs, I now find myself in the predicament of having to rebuild my system tomorrow. (Silly Windows - have to do it every summer without fail for one reason or another! Thats another story though...) I've looked into the Backup Tool and it all seems a little long winded and pointless. What's even more annoying is that it says to check-in all my media. Seeing as I have 30 odd minidiscs filled with stuff, I really don't have time for that. Now, (bear with me) I keep my albums on a separate hard disk which I will not be reformatting. So, if I just wipe the disk with Windows on it, I presume this will wipe all the playlisty stuff. But will the individual OMG files hold their CDDB and check in/out info (much as say in ID tag in an MP3), so I can just rebuild the playlists manually (ie importing the album folders) when I reinstall Sonicstage? And more importantly, will the files on the minidiscs be able to check back in? In other words, are OMG files little self-contained bunnies that are not directly linked with any one piece of software?! Any help would be hugely appreciated - preferrably before I reinstall tomorrow! Cheers Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v1 Posted July 22, 2003 Report Share Posted July 22, 2003 If you just format the windoze disk - everythign from there will be erased but your music will be fine. Why not make an image of the drive before formatting? then you can just load the image, everything will be like it was when you made the image and you'll be laughing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benwakeford Posted July 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2003 Thats very good to hear - quickly ran the Backup Tool and it kindly informed me I'd need 6600MB to complete it! Well, blow that! As for the disk image - oh, if only! No, my Windows has been suffering from overbloating, and in my experience the only way to give it a full bill of health is a complete reinstall. Dedicating a day a year to getting back to a fast and efficient system is not a bad return on investment. Thanks for your reply though. If anyone else can point me towards more information on the .OMG format, I'd appreciate it (just out of curiosity more than anything, seeing as it appears to have inadvertently become my CD backup format!) Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted August 11, 2003 Report Share Posted August 11, 2003 I am not sure that it will be so easy. I recently did exactly the same thing, but after reimporting my omg files, when I try to play the files, OpenMG says that it cannot find the copyright information. This may be in a directory that I did not back up. I only backed up the packages and skins directories. IE: C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataSony CorporationOpenMG JukeboxPackages I dont know where Sony hides the copyright information, but it is not with the OMG files, or the various *. mdb database files that are under the Packages subdirectory. If anyone knows how I can get the copyright info back I would appreciate it, otherwise I will have to recopy 40 odd cd's back onto my computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benwakeford Posted August 11, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2003 Hyd, I'm in the same position too. I copied every last file I could find to do with Sonicstage/Sony, including stuff in Common Files, All Users, even the WinNT System32 folder. It restored all my packages, but said the songs had become corrupted. I've resorted to having to recopy all my CD's back again. At least the situation isn't unsolvable, with a spare day and a very hot CD drive. Unfortunately, the result is that I haven't got round to it yet and am just not using my MD any more. Surely Sony could show how to back up your own copied CD's for those of us with the technical know-how to do it without resorting to the unusable (especially if you're talking in the quantities of CD's we are) Backup app? Or I guess, if you want to seriously use the NetMD, you're just NEVER allowed to change your operating system or computer. Good policy, Sony. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 11, 2003 Report Share Posted August 11, 2003 I don't know why you all find this backup app such a problem, but you do need to use it if you are reinstalling your system. If you have a second HDD you will not reformat, then just back up to that. Afterwards, you can delete the packages, then restore them later from the backup. If you don't have enough HDD space, then you either have a really small drive or tons of music. In either case, get a bigger drive. They are really cheap now, useful for lots of things, and great peace of mind for OMG backups. Regarding checking everything in before you back up: this is optional. The checkin count is saved and restored with the backup. Ideally, a backup that contains a full checkin count is optimum, but if you still have your discs, you can still check them in after the restoration of the backup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benwakeford Posted August 11, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2003 Leland - I've kind of resigned myself to the fact that I've got to use the backup tool in future. Perhaps I was a little harsh in my previous statement. It just would have caused major work-around issues in my reinstall (as I'd run out of space as it was and a new hard disk was part of the reason for the reinstall - 160GB now 8) ) and I had to do it quick cos I needed my machine back for work purposes. Still, live and learn! Saying that, seeing as it required 6.6GB to back up 2GB worth of OMG files - and that was just a small proportion of the CD's I have in my collection - it seems as though were I to have attempted it in 6 months time or so, when I would have considerably more CD's archived, I wouldn't have found a hard disk big enough to cope with the backup! If it only backed up to the size of the original OMG files, then that's almost acceptable, but 3 times the size seems pretty extreme. Presumably it's trying to reconvert from LP4 to standard, though even that seems a little daft as the quality will never be better than the format it's originally recorded in. Just don't understand the jump in file size is all. Good to hear that check in/out is optional though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 13, 2003 Report Share Posted August 13, 2003 Either I missed that or didn't see it in your original post. Frankly, it seems strange to me. I have never had a backup that was any more the actual size of my OMG files. Literally 1:1. My OMG database is about 18.6 gigabytes. When I back it up, it takes about the same amount. Perhaps there is a setting you have that makes a difference. Do you only convert to Atrac3, or do you ask to save the original format also. I think there is some kind of setting like this. I only convert to OMG and do not save the original file formats. These original files might be kept in original locations, not in the same folder as the OMG "packages" but they might be retrieved and backed up when you do a backup. Anyway, again, my backups are the same size and no more than my OMG database files. I agree with you, if my backup cost me 3x nearly 20 Gigs, I would not be happy. It does not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benwakeford Posted August 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2003 Interesting - I was in such a hurry when I was trying to use it that I suppose I could have missed an option like that. I'll be sure to keep my eyes fully peeled next time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted August 17, 2003 Report Share Posted August 17, 2003 The options I am referring to are in the settings for importing the music in the first stage, not part of the backup program, just to be clear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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