OK I sort of understand now. I certainly wasn't trying to be offensive.

Murray
Go-Wit-Da-Fro

Even if it could create directories based on artist/album from the id3 tags, that would be awesome.

The files are easily grouped by artist/album just drop them back into emplode.

this was bugging me anyway, so:

I added option noflat, to create directories of playlists and download tunes to those.Links across playlists are not handled yet. Tracks which are in 2 playlists will be copied twice.

As far as tunes without track numbers go, that's still not handled.
Also not handled is keeping playlist tags over track tags.

As usual, watch out for bugs. consider this a pre-alpha tool. keeping a copy of the last good binary may be wise :)

Amold, this is awesome that you are working on this. Once you have a full release, I want to pay for being able to download the software from you. I've been dying for something like this buy don't have the skills to create anything like this - so I have no problems with making it more worth somebody's time. I know you aren't asking for money for this, but consider it shareware and let me pay to register it ;).

Also, I'd like to put in a vote for this utility creating multiple copies of a track if it appears multiple times. Hard-drive space is so cheap now, I will be able to buy a monster drive that will dwarf my total empeg capacity. I spent so much time linking songs in emplode to multiple playlists, that I'd hate to have to re-do that. And there is rumor that emplode 2.0 will be able to "find duplicate" so that I can tidy up after.

Is the database stored as an actual file on the empeg?

32GB Mk. II in a WRX
Detroit, MI USA
www.PfeifferBeer.com

If your immediate need is a tool that pulls tracks from the empeg, for backup, then you should be fine using the current version.
the availalbility of a full version depends on how much free time i have, so it could be a while.

there will never be a charge for it (not least because that would obligate some sort of technical support :), but I do mention a couple of charities in the README that you can send donations to.

call it guiltware.

Let's call it a "donation" instead of calling the software "shareware." I think the distinction is important.. This backup util is good work, but the idea of anything on the empeg being shareware sounds kinda shady to me.

I think the user should be given flexibility of they want to duplicate their files or not... Ideally the backup util would be able to restore the database later on, so re-linking in Emplode wouldn't be necessary. I realize that's no small task just yet....

Wouldn't the better approach be to just physically copy every disk sector the way Norton Ghost does? That way you'd be guaranteed an exact backup.. Is there a problem with this approach?

The database is a file, IIRC it's /empeg/var/database or something like that.


-Tony
MkII #554

Well, the problem I see with the single backup file is that iit would probably be hard or anyway more difficult to play the backup on the pc. A very very cool thing would be being able to treat the backup as playable directly from the pc. Ideally, it would be great if one could make changes to the backup in the pc hdd, modifying also the dbase file backed up on the pc hdd, and than restore it to the empeg importing all the changes in it.


Taym
_________________________
MK II BLUE/RED 12GB #923

What you've said is true, Taym. The single file is less flexible. But it'd also be a TRUE backup rather than just a "copy of all your mp3's." I don't care about playing the MP3's on my computer necessarily. I think both backup methods have their advantages.

Actually (brainstorming mode on) the best solution would probably be one where the database and MP3's are copied off and easily restored exactly as they were... Amold's utility as I've seen it doesn't preserve the original FID number or corresponding *1 ASCII fid files. It just saves the MP3's.

I guess the best way to implement this would be:

1) Transfer the database as it is on the empeg. Also, optoinally transfer the config.ini, kernel, scratch partition, etc.
2) Transfer the MP3's, with each one, saving a local database with the FID numbers and the ASCII FID files.

The restore utility could then (probably) copy the MP3's over, rename them to the correct FID number, copy the ASCII fids over, copy the database over, and things SHOULD work... Any Empeg folks care to comment on this strategy?

But as it is now, we all have a way to back up our MP3's, and that's a very good thing.

-Tony
MkII #554

Wouldn't the better approach be to just physically copy every disk sector the way Norton Ghost does? That way you'd be guaranteed an exact backup.. Is there a problem with this approach?

If you have a 96GB empeg with only 10GB full then you'll need 96GB of space to back it up rather than 10GB. Trying to decide which sectors are unused is not worth the trouble, IMHO.

Regards,
Borislav

If you have a 96GB empeg with only 10GB full then you'll need 96GB of space to back it up rather than 10GB.

Ghost images can be compressed, and also set to not copy empty space. I use Ghost on my PCTV machine, so that I can quickly get back to an OS load to watch TV if the current one breaks. The image ended up compressing pretty well, and with a single dos boot disk, I can pull it back over the network.

There is a opensourced program that does what Ghost does, it may be worth a look for those wanting to dump a non-playable backup to their computers. It's called Partition Image.

There is a opensourced program that does what Ghost does, it may be worth a look for those wanting to dump a non-playable backup to their computers. It's called Partition Image.

I take my words back then, Partition Image looks like a viable option.

Borislav

This is exactly what I am doing, only using ftp. In the case of restore the things would probably work immediately. In the worst case, one would drop the database file to force the player to rebuild it from *1 files and playlists.

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

1) Transfer the database as it is on the empeg. Also, optoinally transfer the config.ini, kernel, scratch partition, etc.
2) Transfer the MP3's, with each one, saving a local database with the FID numbers and the ASCII FID files.


1. I think it's much simpler to just rebuild the database after songs have been uploaded. The backup of config.ini is a smart move. maybe also eq-settings?

2. This should be sufficient to completely restore all songs/playlists

I'm currently testing the new backup-functionality of displayserver; it copies all fid-files from /drive0/fids /drive1/fids to a local directory.
I'm going to test a restore tonight

Frank van Gestel

Mmm... Yes, I agree that the disk image would be a total and specular backup. But I think all we really need is:
1) Backup of mp3 files
2) Backup of dbase/playlists
3) Backup of empeg settings.

Now, all those things are already in form of simple files on the hdd of the empeg, so maybe the best and easiest thing to do is simply create an utility that copies those to the pc hdd (and empegmirror is starting to do exactly that), and rerstores the files back to the empeg hdd when needed. Just being able to do that covers completely what a backup sw is supposed to do.

Than, IF you leave the files as they are instead of transfroming them into a huge file, as a second step a GUI could be created to manage what you have on the pc hdd. And obviously one may think of all sorts of different things, that may be implemented little by little: playing, modifying the dbase and playlists locally, change empeg setitngs, renaming according to the empeg dbase, completing the dbase itself, and so on; so that the all changes would be imported back to the empeg if one wishes.

Anyway this is obviously just a secondary nice aspect of the whole project.

Taym
_________________________
MK II BLUE/RED 12GB #923

I think the most useful thing to me would be the ability to backup and restore my playlists. Frankly, I can keep a backup of my MP3 files somewhere else besides on the Empeg (and I do). And... I have the ID3 information all filled out on those original MP3 files long before they ever go to the Empeg.

However, one thing that i have to do manually in Emplode is setup my playlists. If I had a crash and I had to copy all my MP3's back onto a fresh Empeg from my other backup location...I would then have to go in and manual resetup all my playlists all over again. There is no way that I can think of to backup and restore them.

The only thing I have figured is that I must create some kind of utility for the PC that is able to configure playlists... So that I always create the playlists in this other place...and then I can always rerun it to regenerate the new playlist. But how do you reference the MP3 files...since after a restore the Fid's would be different...wouldn't they?