apsoul
In Runtime
- Messages
- 248
- Location
- Pennsylvania, USA
Howdy Everyone!
Is there a better way to organize a decade's worth of halfhazardly accumulated and absentmindedly backed up music files? I have an unhealthy mix of AAC, MP3, FLAC, OGG, and others. Some are named/organized properly, some into folders as designated by an iPod (FXC\JYA\AKL.AAC) some are duplicates in various formats, some albums are duplicated with one album missing 2 songs (transfer from Linux to Windows filesystem threw out long filenames and those with unallowed characters)... it is a nightmare to say the least. I wouldn't be too upset to lose some files. However, I also have albums from small local bands that broke up in the 90's. I wouldn't be surprised if I have 1 of 1 remaining sources for their music.
HISTORY(mostly unimportant):
I started in late '03 with my ibookG4 (don't judge me! haha) and my external 160GB HDD, which was absolutely massive for the time. I would occasionally backup my entire internal 20gb HDD onto the external because it was easy. I absolutely hate the me from 15 years ago. I have unsuccessfully tried a few times to organize everything into one neat directory of \Music\"formatType"\Artist\Album\song. Over the years I have bounced around from Windows to MacOS back to Windows to Linux to Windows... you get the drill. Through some sort of divine intervention I have managed to keep all of my music through HDD failures, OS changes, and such but at the cost of disorganization and multiple duplicates. I have a month or 2 left of "free time" before my landscaping business season results in me having zero time or energy to devote towards this task. I also would like to get a new computer before summer's end and therefore would like to get all this media organized before the switch... or I could just add my current HDD's contents to the experiment in chaos theory that is my backup drive. I am sadly leaning towards the latter option. Also, if PP Mguire sees this and remembers me... I still haven't upgraded from september '15 as shortly after our discussion I was given an opportunity to start a business and all my money went into equipment for it. I am long overdue.
Other thoughts of note:
It has been well over a year since I have attacked this project and I believe the current situation is that I have 2 HDD's in EXT3/4 with some music on them, one external HDD in either FAT or NTFS (possibly FAT due to NTFS compatibility issues with linux).
I am rather certain that all the files on the EXT4 drives are present on the external drive... all except the ones with FAT/NTFS incompatible filenames.
My most recent attempt was entirely manual:
Go to first folder, do I own that album on physical media? (Y/N)
if no: Check for duplicates. if duplicates exist in same format, compare files. If files are different then attempt to save better quality. If same, delete one and organize appropriately. If in format other than mp3, Copy/Convert to mp3 and file appropriately.
if yes: RIP CD into FLAC format and file accordingly. Then Copy/Convert FLAC into MP3 for efficient use on phone/mp3player/etc.
progress was slow... after many hours I made it through "C".
I had forgotten certain aspects of my situation when I started this thread and I now realize that I will need to spend some time in Linux to accomplish this task. This leads me to the thought that maybe I should wait for my new build, set my current build up in Linux, and tackle this project next off-season. If there is a workaround to this I would love to hear it. Also if any of you have any tips/tricks/advice for me on this endeavor I will be most grateful.
As always, Thanks in advance:
Apsoul
Is there a better way to organize a decade's worth of halfhazardly accumulated and absentmindedly backed up music files? I have an unhealthy mix of AAC, MP3, FLAC, OGG, and others. Some are named/organized properly, some into folders as designated by an iPod (FXC\JYA\AKL.AAC) some are duplicates in various formats, some albums are duplicated with one album missing 2 songs (transfer from Linux to Windows filesystem threw out long filenames and those with unallowed characters)... it is a nightmare to say the least. I wouldn't be too upset to lose some files. However, I also have albums from small local bands that broke up in the 90's. I wouldn't be surprised if I have 1 of 1 remaining sources for their music.
HISTORY(mostly unimportant):
I started in late '03 with my ibookG4 (don't judge me! haha) and my external 160GB HDD, which was absolutely massive for the time. I would occasionally backup my entire internal 20gb HDD onto the external because it was easy. I absolutely hate the me from 15 years ago. I have unsuccessfully tried a few times to organize everything into one neat directory of \Music\"formatType"\Artist\Album\song. Over the years I have bounced around from Windows to MacOS back to Windows to Linux to Windows... you get the drill. Through some sort of divine intervention I have managed to keep all of my music through HDD failures, OS changes, and such but at the cost of disorganization and multiple duplicates. I have a month or 2 left of "free time" before my landscaping business season results in me having zero time or energy to devote towards this task. I also would like to get a new computer before summer's end and therefore would like to get all this media organized before the switch... or I could just add my current HDD's contents to the experiment in chaos theory that is my backup drive. I am sadly leaning towards the latter option. Also, if PP Mguire sees this and remembers me... I still haven't upgraded from september '15 as shortly after our discussion I was given an opportunity to start a business and all my money went into equipment for it. I am long overdue.
Other thoughts of note:
It has been well over a year since I have attacked this project and I believe the current situation is that I have 2 HDD's in EXT3/4 with some music on them, one external HDD in either FAT or NTFS (possibly FAT due to NTFS compatibility issues with linux).
I am rather certain that all the files on the EXT4 drives are present on the external drive... all except the ones with FAT/NTFS incompatible filenames.
My most recent attempt was entirely manual:
Go to first folder, do I own that album on physical media? (Y/N)
if no: Check for duplicates. if duplicates exist in same format, compare files. If files are different then attempt to save better quality. If same, delete one and organize appropriately. If in format other than mp3, Copy/Convert to mp3 and file appropriately.
if yes: RIP CD into FLAC format and file accordingly. Then Copy/Convert FLAC into MP3 for efficient use on phone/mp3player/etc.
progress was slow... after many hours I made it through "C".
I had forgotten certain aspects of my situation when I started this thread and I now realize that I will need to spend some time in Linux to accomplish this task. This leads me to the thought that maybe I should wait for my new build, set my current build up in Linux, and tackle this project next off-season. If there is a workaround to this I would love to hear it. Also if any of you have any tips/tricks/advice for me on this endeavor I will be most grateful.
As always, Thanks in advance:
Apsoul
