Member Avatar for cuivenion

Hi there, Would appreciate any help you can give. I am trying to copy my music collection from this windows 7 machine:

Toshiba Satellite C660-17E
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Service pack 1
Intel Celeron Dual Core T3500 @2.10ghz
4gb Ram
Toshiba MK6465GSXN 650gb Hard Drive 5400rpm
Intel graphics

To this windows 8 machine:

HP Pavilion g6-2265sa
Windows 8 (Home) (64 bit)
Intel Dual Core i3-2370M processor
4GB RAM
750GB hard drive (ST750LM022 HN-M750MBB)
Intel graphics

I tried using a Western Digital My Book 2.0 Essential USB 2.0 external HD to copy it across first. When it had finished I tested a few MP3's at random on the win8 laptop and found they wouldn't play, coming up with "error", just a few seconds of noise or 2 songs mixed together.
Assuming there was a problem with the External HD I deleted the files from the Win8 machine and started again.
This time I created a wired connection via ethernet between the two and copied the files over again. When I tested the files on the Win8 Machine again the music played ok but the imbedded images (covers) on some files had changed and moved around leading me to conclude there was a problem again.

In both cases corresponding files on the Win7 laptop played and displayed covers just fine. I used two different softwares to play the MP3's on the Win8 machine and had the same issues on both. So I'm pretty sure thats not the problem. The total size of the transfer is about 300gb. I've since done two in depth error checks of the MY Book external HD and it's come through fine with no bad sectors or any other problems. It's also passing it's SMART tests fine. Help!

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  • 6 Months Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by cuivenion

Dani AI

Generated

Useful diagnostic + fix summary (builds on suggestions from and )

Start by proving whether files were corrupted during copy: compute a cryptographic hash on a few problem files on the source, on the external drive after the copy, and on the destination. Example (PowerShell):

Get-FileHash 'C:\path\to\song.mp3' -Algorithm SHA256

Compare the three hashes — if any differ the transfer path introduced corruption. (Windows also includes certutil -hashfile as an alternative.) (learn.microsoft.com)

If hashes differ: suspect the external path (cable, USB port, controller, enclosure firmware). Try another cable/port or attach the drive to a different PC. Re-run a surface/repair scan if needed and avoid copying very large batches with a single drag/drop until the problem is isolated. Also consider using an NTFS volume for Windows-to-Windows transfers — NTFS supports things (like file streams and richer attributes) that FAT32 does not. (learn.microsoft.com)

If hashes match but album art is wrong: the issue is likely metadata/library handling, not raw file corruption. Windows Media Player and other players can cache album art (those AlbumArt{GUID}*.jpg files) or interpret multiple APIC (attached-picture) frames differently; different ID3 versions (v2.3 vs v2.4) are handled inconsistently by players. Use a tag editor (for example Mp3tag) to inspect/remove duplicate APIC frames or to convert tags to ID3v2.3 if needed. (superuser.com)

For large transfers use a robust copy tool with verification and logging instead of Explorer: Robocopy is built into Windows and handles retries, logging and multithreaded copying. Example:

robocopy "C:\Users\Me\Music" "E:\MusicBackup" /E /MT:16 /Z /R:3 /W:5 /V /LOG:C:\logs\music-copy.log

Robocopy and checksum verification together will tell whether corruption happens in transit and will produce an audit trail. (learn.microsoft.com)

Quick checklist: (1) hash-compare problem files; (2) if hashes differ, test cable/port/enclosure & run chkdsk; (3) if hashes match, clean player cache and standardize ID3/APIC frames with Mp3tag; (4) re-copy with Robocopy and log.

Recommended Answers

All 11 Replies

Member Avatar for Radio2006

What program are you using to play the files? Is the same program on the orginal PC. Also, what is the file format?

Member Avatar for cuivenion

The files being transferred are mainly MP3's. I'm using windows media player and virtual DJ to play the files. Same problems on both software. The file format of the external hd is FAT32.

Member Avatar for caperjack

The total size of the transfer is about 300gb

i suggest moving files in smaller sizes ,about 50 gig at a time ,just using drag and drop ,go to this location of the music files on the computer assuming you keep them in the default location .
C:\Users\username\Music

Member Avatar for cuivenion

If I use drag and drop, would that move rather than copy the files? I'll try your suggestion, but I'm curious as to why I can't copy the whole music folder across.

Member Avatar for caperjack

just because i think it so large, and more prone to errors,like the ones you aregetting ,and use the right click when you drag and drop to give choice of copy or move ,I always use copy in case something goes wrong in the move you still ahve the orignal ,

Edited by caperjack
Member Avatar for cuivenion

No probs, I'll try that later then.

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

Could be a codec problem. Try downloading gspot. It will try to process the file and will tell you if there is a problem with a codec (bad or missing). Try installing VLC Media Player. It's free and open source and can play just about anything.

Member Avatar for cuivenion

Tried shifting about 50gb at a time as suggested over the LAN. The covers are still getting mixed, on exactly the same files as before, weird. The music's fine however so I'm carrying on with the transfer. Reckon win8 or the media player has some sort of issue with the id3 tags with the covers imbedded. Not sure why the files went haywire after being transferred via external HDD but they play OK if transferred over LAN. That HDD is quite old so I'll I guess I'll have to get something more up to date. It's just annoying when you can't find a fault.

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

Here's an oddball possibility. If you are moving the files from an NTFS device to a non NTFS device And If the missing data was being stored in alternate data streams then that data would not be copied with the files.

Member Avatar for cuivenion

Bit over my head that, but thanks for the help guys.

Member Avatar for cuivenion

Installed Windows 7. No more problems.

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