hard drive cloning

[Rhyman]

I recently changed computers. I went from a desk top to a laptop.I had the hard drive cloned. I know the tech who did it he owns a computer sales and repair company and he said it was flawless.
However when I pulled up mixcraft pro 9 every song I had saved ONLY listed the instruments on each track but had none of the tracks recorded data. How can that be? How do I locate the missing info? Both computers have windows 10.

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

The MIDI clips are missing from virtual instrument tracks?

Or are they audio clips missing from audio tracks?

Greg

[Rhyman]

audio

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

When you load the project, it will show where the audio file was supposed to be. What does it show? That might give you a clue:

Missing sound dialog

missingsoundmx9.png (7.93 KiB) Viewed 16215 times

Greg

[Rhyman]

I don't understand what you mean. Yes this is the screen that comes up. What do you mean by give me a clue. Where is the Mixcraft program supposed to save the files? I created a backup folder but it is empty. Where is your program supposed to backup the files to? shouldn't the data be there. Please explain in length. The drives were cloned ...why aren't they there where they used to be? Why should I have to look for them?

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

The files would be wherever you loaded them from. If you recorded them in that Mixcraft project, they'd naturally be inside the current project folder. If you loaded them from a different hard drive into Mixcraft, they'd be on that different hard drive.

My point was that Mixcraft shows you where it expects the file to be. Your job is to figure out why the file isn't there. Did a folder get renamed? Did a file get moved? Did a file get renamed? Was it on a different drive?

What does it show for the missing file pathname / filiename?

Greg

[Rhyman]

The drives were CLONED...no name change . CLONING is an exact replica. Is the fact that I lost all my data a shortcoming in The mixcraft program when it comes to cloning hard drives. You have never come across this problem before? All the instuments that I used are listed on each track .....but there is no audio data. Explain that please? no different drives. What do you mean my job? What is the problem with your software?

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

It must not have been a complete clone? I don't know what to tell you. If the file was there, Mixcraft would load it.

Did you change Mixcraft's default project folder in recording preferences? By default, the project would have been here:

C:\Users\danny\Documents\Mixcraft Projects\

But instead it's here:

C:\Users\danny\Music\Mixcraft 9 pro backup\

Why "Mixcraft 9 Pro backup"? If you look for the files in that other location, are they there?

Do you have the original hard drive to check?

Greg

[Rhyman]

Every folder that has anything to do with Mixcraft audio track data is empty. Great software. All the other programs are fine . I'm very disappointed. The other disc has been wiped . Maybe you should try cloning some hard drives with the Mixcraft program and see what happens. Because if it happens to you then you guys have a big problem with your software that you need to let your users know about.

[Mark Bliss]

I've "cloned" a hard drive transitioning between computer gear maybe 6 or 8 times?
Not ONE SINGLE time has it ever been 100% successful.

The problem is likely not the software you are trying to copy...
IMO the problem is that "cloning" drives remains more a "last ditch effort" than a "best practice"

In other words...

Copying and backing up files and folders is SO easy.
Why in the world would you rely on cloning a hard drive?

But.. Blame the software. Thats easy enough.

[Rolling Estonian]

All the other programs are fine

Are you loading the same midi tracks and/or tracks to another program? Where are those files located? FWIW, I've cloned twice having owned MC and hadn't had an issue. Like Greg said, if the files were there MC would find them.

M

[Rhyman]

To; Rolling The tracks are audio tracks....no change in program. My audio programs are windows media player, realtime player and groove music that came with windows 10.Were all the appropriate files in the same place after you cloned or did you have to search for any of them. What type files were they? ..mx9, .wav, .mp3? can you suggest where I could look. I'm glad you had success with your cloning . I really didn't give it a second thought based on the little I know about cloning I expected the same results . Do you know if all cloning programs work the same way? Thank you.

[JonInc]

Cloning is not really recommended when moving from one machine to another. All the hardware will be different -- so as soon as you boot it up it has to reconfigure/seek out new drivers, etc.... So it's certainly not as straightforward as when you clone a drive that would remain in the same system or model of PC.

Also, with new hardware, it would require a new activation of Windows. Not a problem for a retail license -- but kinda iffy on an OEM system. Maybe your tech knows a way around this...

In any case, you need to sit down with a PC-savvy person and figure out exactly what happened with the "cloning" and if your files are intact somewhere.

With nearly 30 years working in corporate IT, I've cloned/imaged HUNDREDS of PCs, and can recall only one time when the restore failed, and that was because the hard drive died. Normally, with proper software and procedure -- it just works.

[Rhyman]

Thanks Jon

[cactus-head]

Just an Idea: check the security for the folder(s) on the new computer. There might be something that doesn't allow you access to the contents of the folder. When you look it just comes back as empty but maybe there is something in there you can't access.