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frannbug

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 6, 2009
50
0
South West London, UK
I am in the process of transferring all my iTunes files to an external hard drive for the second time. The first attempt was onto a FAT32 formatted disk to be used with a GoDrive network bridge and resulted in endless problems - files disappearing straight after copying them in, numerous files getting corrupted and so on. So I've bought an Extreme Base Station to do the job in a rather more Apple way with a proper Mac formatted disk rather than FAT32. I did find I could wirelessly pick up and play the sound files that weren't corrupted or spirited away without problems (although video wasn't so good), so I'm not really concerned about the poor performance often reported when people try to use a USB drive with a bridging device rather than dedicated media servers.

So here I am with an iTunes folder on my internal hard drive, my old MBP drive which is connected via USB, a FireWire drive, and both of the 1TB USB drives - the old FAT32 one and the new Mac Extended formatted one, both temporarily connected via USB to speed up the process of transferring the media files. Each has an iTunes folder on it; some are vast, some contain corrupted media files and each contains some files the same as the others and some unique ones. Chaos!

Well I've received some good advice and copied over all the files from my internal drive via 'Add to Library' as a base to add to. The next step was to turn off the 'Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library' function, and add all the contents of the other iTunes folders. Now I've done that I can get iTunes to show up all the duplicates and separate these by time/date sorting so I only delete those added after the first files were copied across. Check 'Copy files to iTunes Music Folder' again and consolidate my library to copy the remaining additions across and I'm done. Finish up by making a complete backup before destroying all the old files that were filling up my hard drives and at last I can breathe!

But what about the corrupted files? I really need to know where they are so that I can ensure that for each corrupted file I either preserve an uncorrupted copy from one or other of the disks or I download a fresh copy while it's still available (and much of this stuff is a bit rare). I have been finding that bad files just didn't get copied across - with no dialogue box or anything to alert me to the fact that one of my files was faulty. If I delete the iTunes folders I won't know they haven't been copied across and will possibly destroy my only reference to the file - so I won't even know what it's called if I want to find a duplicate on-line (I'm now talking about long talk files - interviews and suchlike - rather than music).

Years ago we had Norton Utilities and it used to check every file on your HD and tell you to replace anything dodgy. However I have been searching in vain for a similar utility. I only want to LOCATE the files, not recover them, fix them or delete them. I certainly don't want a whole list of every music file on each disk (including empty space) as that will tell me nothing about which ones are faulty! :eek: I don't mind moving them into a new folder (that would be good!) but I want to deal with them my own way and I need them separated from all the thousands of good files. Is there ANYTHING that will do this for me?
 

frannbug

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 6, 2009
50
0
South West London, UK
Maybe I was too verbose?

Ok, sorry if I put anyone off reading my rather lengthy and thorough post.:eek: To simplify my request, does anyone know of a piece of software that will allow me to present it with an iTunes folder and it will tell me which, if any, of the files are damaged or corrupted so I can download them again?

And to add to yesterday's request, I have found my library of about 20,000 items is much reduced after copying my old folders over. I need something that will sync all my old iTunes folders onto the new one on the external disk and tell me if anything is missing on that folder.

The alternative to this is to play each file to check it's OK and then copy it across manually - a LONG JOB!!!

Thanks - I hope that's a bit more digestible! :D
 

interslice

macrumors member
Jul 10, 2008
40
0
NL
I feel bad for MacRumors

You must hav found somthing to fix this problem now?
But if you have not then I hear that
mp3val
is one of the best for this proceedure
THere is a compilable GUI but you need a few experience with MAc to install this
 

interslice

macrumors member
Jul 10, 2008
40
0
NL
jpg corrupt file finder?

What i'd like to know - is there any JPG or JPEG file finder and destroyer?

... yet again my MAC has decided to destroy another hard drive and make some of the files corrupt - every time the drive scans these files it CRASHES and locks up the entire finder system - unable to reload finder i have to pull out the drive physically ...

How do i kill these currupt files and stop wasting days at a time to restart my system!

The files are in a sparse image

*even scanning files with a virus scanner makes the drive click on a currupt file and then stop working !!!

Why can't everyhting be solid state and why can't mac get a life and give the correct power rating to usb hubs! arrrrg

(this is my 3rd HD in a yr MACbook has ruined)
 

frannbug

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 6, 2009
50
0
South West London, UK
Me too!

Maybe it's the PDF files that some lecturers send out with their podcasts. Can they cause a similar snarl-up? I haven't found an answer to my problem yet, I'm afraid, but I'll try what you suggest. So far I've just been fixing stuff as I use it and find it corrupted. The trouble is, that means I have terabytes of diskspace filled with superfluous iTunes files which I daren't delete just in case they contain the only uncorrupted version of a file.

The reason I say 'Me too' is that I have now got through two 1.5tb disks, three 1tb ones, a 750gb one and a few smaller ones in my quest to get my iTunes library sorted. All the material is duplicated but they've all been subject to corruption of one sort or another. I would so love to be able to free them up!
 
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