How do I Move my Collection to a new Hard Drive or Computer?

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

This is a question we get asked quite often so we thought we would post some guidelines here.  Essentially, you need to copy across your 'raw' recordings and your MCF file (which contains your track listings and suchlike).  The split-up tracks can be regenerated by VinylStudio automatically, or you can copy them across as well, it's up to you.

The easiest way to get the files from one computer to another is to network them together using the file sharing features built into Windows.  If you cannot do this, you can copy them via an external hard drive.  Memory sticks are generally too small to fit all the files on, although you could do it in several smaller chunks, at a pinch.

You raw recordings and your MCF file live in the following folder:

    My Documents
        Recordings
            <name of your collection>.mcf    -- a file
            <name of your collection>        -- a folder
                  Elton_John~Best_of~side1.wav
                  Elton_John~Best_of~side2.wav
                  ...

or in older versions of VinylStudio:

    My Documents
        My Music
            Recordings
                <name of your collection>.mcf    -- a file
                <name of your collection>        -- a folder
                  Elton_John~Best_of~side1.wav
                  Elton_John~Best_of~side2.wav
                  ...

Drag everything in the Recordings folder across to your new drive, making sure that nothing is moved between folders in the process.  You should then be able to open your collection in VinylStudio using the Open Collection command in the File menu.  If you run into problems, compare the file and folder layouts on the old and new drives to see what has gone wrong.  Note that you can put the files anywhere you like on the new drive, provided that they remain in their original folders.

To install VinylStudio on your new PC, see: http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=22.0

[Brad-Michigan,USA]

Ok, here's a related question. I'm running out of room on my D: drive. How do I split my collection so I can continue to have access to all my files without moving them to an archive? I'd like to move as many as possible to my C: drive so I can continue to record to my D: drive. Can I create a new collection on C: and copy my older .wav files to that collection w/ related artwork? What about album split info, noise correction, etc?

Thanks, Brad

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

There's no way to do that currently - it's all or nothing I'm afraid.  It's a popular request though so we will bump it up the list.  Sorry I can't offer an immediate solution.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Update (somewhat delayed): as of VinylStudio 8.0, you can move recordings between collections from within VinylStudio.  You will find this feature under the 'More' button in the Save Tracks / Batch Operations screen.

[bear1202]

I agree.  I have all my other music on a dedicated hard drive.  I really want to be able to record with Vinyl Studio directly to that hard drive.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

In that case, please proceed as follows:

1.  From the File Menu, select New Collection and create a new collection (with a different name) on your new drive.

2.  From Recent Collections in the File menu, reselect your original collection.

3.  Go to the Save Tracks window.

4.  Select all the albums in your collection.

5.  Under the More button, select Move or Copy Selected Albums  to Another Collection.  You might also want to tick the 'Copy' option as this will leave your original collection intact.

6.  Navigate to your new collection and then click Continue.

7.  When the process is complete, open your new collection via Recent Collections from the File menu and you should find all your albums to be present.

[bear1202]

That's awesome.  I thought there must be a way to do it, but nothing I tried doing worked.

Thanks much.

[audionote]

If one drags everything to a new hard drive, can single albums be dragged back to work with in Vinyl Studio.
Also, I have Windows 6, and I don't see my albums in my Documents folder. They are on my desktop in My Albums.mcf and My Albums. I assume these are just dragged the same way.
Thanks! Great software...

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

You don't drag anything anywhere.  You just follow the procedure described above.  You can elect either to move or copy albums, depending on whether you want to preserve your original collection or not.

You albums are on the desktop bedase that's where you created your collection.  Putting collections in the Documents folder is just a default - you can override it when you create them.

[audionote]

I meant Windows 7.

I had read the instructions at the top of this thread, from 2008, about dragging files; when you say to follow the procedure described above do you mean the procedure described in your April 27 2014 post?

Thanks a lot.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Yes, that's the one.

[audionote]

Worked beautifully. Thank you!

[mrmike_49@yahoo.com]

may want to mention that you should also move the .CRD files, else theses files would need to be regenerated by running the Clean-Up procedures. The waveform files are automatically generated if needed-no action required there, but the CDR files would take user action, and can be quite time consuming if you use different settings for different albums

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

VinylStudio will do this for you if you follow the recommended procedure.