Re-Setting A Portable Hard Drive

[andy-hughes]

I have borrowed a 1 Terra-byte hard drive from a DJ colleague to copy it onto mine.

The copying took five hours, and now, the music on both hard drives is located in individual folders.

I am unsure if somehow the stand-alone MP3's have been deleted, or gathered into files - obviously I don;t know what exactly was on there before copying.

I did have a quick glance, and there were masses of individual MP3's that are no longer visible.

Is there a way of returning the borrowed drive to its original format before I copied?

[ToraToraTora]

How did you copy it? It should not have changed at all.

[ToraToraTora]

a lot of music organisers these days love to group songs in albums within artists under folders but that should not happen to the drive it is reading from. Can you drill down the folders to see the individual MP3s?

[ToraToraTora]

there is free software out there to get all the files out of all the folders but you can do it yourself......

[andy-hughes]

I know it should not have done this - but it has!!!

Oh well, have to fess up and hope he doesn't kill me!!!

[fender62]

what did you use to copy, did you select all then copy to, i would have cloned the contents or exact copy with software, do you still have the original drive with the mp3's and let's assume some flac files.

[andy-hughes]

fender - // what did you use to copy, did you select all then copy to, i would have cloned the contents or exact copy with software, do you still have the original drive with the mp3's and let's assume some flac files. //

All I did was copy and paste the contents of one hard drive to the other, and it seems to have 're-filed' them to suit itself somehow.

[fender62]

clone the drive this is one software there are many, use free ones
https://www.minitool.com/backup/system-backup.html

[fender62]

i to have erm thousands of tunes on drives, some people do not organise correctly and basically make a mess of it, i use mp3tag and tag&rename to correct issues, i like it all organised literally, clone the drive and use the above software to go through collection, it will take some time, trust me...patience luke

[andy-hughes]

Thanks Fender, but I am understandably reluctant to let software loose on a drive I don't own in case of issues.

[fender62]

put the software on your laptop, insert the usb hd with the tunes, do a scan after software install if your worried, it will be fine..

[fender62]

it goes something like this, clone software installed, you have two external usb hd i assume, your and your mates, first thing id do is format your hd i assume is blank? if not get one, or wip an old one you don't use, run software, insert mates hd, point software to that drive, clone it will ask or should for drive to clne to, after its done copying, insert other drive or have them both in usb ports, d to e drive etc

[andy-hughes]

fender - Thanks, but i am too old and computer-illiterate to be able to understand that, but thanks for trying!

[ToraToraTora]

yes but HOW did you actually copy it? Drag and drop?

[andy-hughes]

I picked up all the contents together, dragged and dropped.

[andy-hughes]

OK, Senility is setting in!

I popped round to the friend who made the original. He confirms it has copied perfectly!

What I had done was open a folder, assume that was a list on the drive, and then panicked when I couldn't see it again!

So all fine, I have had a lie down and a cup of tea, and made a rule not to get involved in tekky stuff ever again!!

Thanks for all your answers.