Can you copy music files from one hard disk to another using WMP playlists?

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Can you copy music files from one hard disk to another using WMP playlists?

Background:
I have a really large music collection on an external disk drive that I back up to an identical 750gb disk drive.

I have a new laptop for travel that I would like to copy a subset of my music collection onto - and that subset is in a WMP Playlist. I was hoping to use Sync somehow to copy the files from my master disk to the laptop's hard drive.

I'd hoped that WMP's sync tool would recognise the backup disk as a syncable device and copy the files to it in a nominated directory so it would be a simple move from the backup disk to the laptop - but WMP isn't picking the backup it as a syncable device.

I know I could just find the files/folders in the filesystem and copy but we are talking about 400 hours of music spread randomly through the library (and I've already done the hard work of using playlists to identify the stuff I want).

None of this stuff is affected by DRM.

Any thoughts on approaches?

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[+3] - pdc - 05/11/2009Hingehead - yes it works In WMP - start playing the playlist then choose File, Save Now Playing List As in .m3u playlist format In Media Monkey - Add/Rescan the folder where the playlist files...

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@hingehead,

Unless there's an easier way to do it, I'd sync it to something that is recognized in WMP sync, like DVDs or something, and then copy those over.

1 Reply

@hingehead,

I seem to recall in the past, back before WMP and ipod, just using a text editor to open the playlists then do a find and replace -

For instance replace G:\ with C:\ which assumes all other folders stay the same.

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

Hi Robert - yes, that's what I was thinking, but DVD is out - too fiddly. I do have 100 gb external drive that might work - the other possibility is to use a computer that hasn't had both drives connected and see if it recognises the back up as syncable - then I could add the master disk to it's library and sync to the back up disk. Hmmmmm.

0 Replies

@parados,

Hi Parados - you are right about the global replace stuff but it's not related to what I'm trying do ( I don't think I explained it all that well) - I don't need the playlist to work on the laptop I just thought it was the best way to get the files onto the laptop. Cheers.

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There should be a file for the Windows Media Player playlist (with an *wpl file extension). You can edit it with text editor (Notepad works) to change the directory identity of every song, but it's probably just easier to try to trick it into thinking its still in the same location rather than edit the code for it manually.

If you rename your drive (and directories) to match your computer, you can resave the playlist and bingo, it should work on your other hard drive.

If you do want to do it manually, open the file in notepad. Look at what the name of the old directory was. e.g.

media src="..\Music\Top\CD 2\day of fire.mp3"

determine what the new directory for your music is. eg:

"C:\My Music\New computer\Mp3\CD2\day of fire.mpg"

Then in notepad, press Edit->Replace. Select the name of the general folder from the first instance "..\music\top\" and replace the text with your new location "C:\My Music\New computer\" --- replace each instance and test it out. If you've done this successfully, it will work Wink

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@RealEyes,

As he's already explained, that just isn't what he's trying to do.

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

It seems overly vague. Is he saying that the files are spread across the hd, and instead of hunting them all down, he wants to know if there is an easy way to sync the music onto the other harddrive?

I think the easiest way to do that without WMP would be to do a search for mp3's, wma's and the like and then select all and send. Once they are all in the same directory, rewrite the playlist file to match the new location.

I can't say I know if you can strictly use WMP to transfer the files. hm. Sad

1 Reply

@RealEyes,

Hi Real Eyes

I don't want every music file transferred, just the ones I've nominated to a particular playlist, from my external hard drive to my new laptop's hard drive. That's about 100gb. If I had an mp3 player big enough I'd sync the playlist to that and then just copy the files from the mp3 player to the laptop using the NFS. But I don't got no steenking giant mp3 player.

And I'm a librarian:- they're not spread over the entire disk - they're in a tree structure with folders for letters, subfolders for artists, subsubfolders for albums. OCD or what?

As the playlists were largely 'artist' based I'll just plug the external drive into the laptop and just copy the artist folders I want. When I have a couple of hours to spare.

1 Reply

@hingehead,

hingehead wrote:

And I'm a librarian:- they're not spread over the entire disk - they're in a tree structure with folders for letters, subfolders for artists, subsubfolders for albums. OCD or what?

Hey HH

OK... so that made me laugh a little.... can yer sort my HD and pics into a tree structure with folders for dates, subfolders for places, subsubfolders for good or blurry and a subsubsubfolder for complete waste of space and won't delete a thing Wink

I'm the world's worst labeller in the world!

You're so organised mate - bless you! Razz

Sorry - nothing useful to say at all - except "HEY" and "HUGS" Very Happy

... and a 750GB drive - TOOOOO COOOOOOOOOOL - I need to get me more space!

1 Reply

@Izzie,

Hi Iz

My pictures are in date folders, but that's as far as i go. I think I'll need to replace my 750s with 2tbs at the end of the year - fortunately the GFC makes things cheaper. It's an ill wind...

And the music subfolders are just the start of my anal retentativeness - I'm scrupulous with the metadata in the music files themselves (genre, year, track number, contributing artist) it all has to be 'just so'.

Wanna know the songs that peaked at number 13 in 1974?

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@hingehead,

Hi Hingehead

I am trying to do the exact same thing for an upcoming roadtrip. I think I may have a solution ! Am just about to save the WMP playlist in .m3u playlist format (select playlist in WMP and use File Save As). I reckon I can then open that playlist in (free) Media Monkey which seems to allow copying of playlist to other drives (other than Flash Drives). Will let you know how it goes

cheers - PDC

0 Replies

@hingehead,

Hingehead - yes it works
In WMP - start playing the playlist then choose File, Save Now Playing List As in .m3u playlist format

In Media Monkey - Add/Rescan the folder where the playlist files are. They will appear as Imported Playlists. Right Click on the playlist and choose Send To, Copy to Folder and specify a folder on the laptop.

Since it will copy them into one folder you may have to use the "replace" facility to modify the playlist on the laptop.

Best of luck
pdc

1 Reply

@pdc,

Thanks for the tip PDC - I've already got media monkey somewhere. Will give it a burl next time.

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Can you copy music files from one hard disk to another using WMP playlists?

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