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[kkocka]

Just FYI this OP is never returning, with that 1 post and all.

[eyore]

no reason for them to return to the thread - they got their answer in the first reply 
It's getting quite rare for a new member to say "thank you" or give us an update now,

[JonVanSickle]

Well Ill give an update I am currently about halfway done re-downloading everything I lost. 2 weeks of working 8-10 hours a night to track down what I lost.

[pixelated]

Just a thought: if you catalog your collection with freeware like Data Crow
http://www.datacrow.net/
and keep it updated (the *real* trick ), it'll be easier to see what you have and don't have.

I still use Advanced File Organizer but it doesn't work in Windows 7 with external drives mounted as a directory path instead of a drive letter.  I emailed the developer and haven't received a response so I assume the software is no longer actively supported or maintained.  I'm in the process of switching to Data Crow, which is written in Java so in theory I can maintain the code myself if I need to do that.

[eyore]

I'll give anything a try. It's getting quite a task now to track down my audio files. Betcha I won't be able to figure it out 

[pixelated]

The developer of Data Crow has been working on it since 2003 so at least he's committed to maintaining his software.  Data Crow is definitely not easy to setup but that a common tradeoff.  Software that is flexible and powerful is usually also complex.  I haven't quite figured out searching in Data Crow yet and if that turns out to be too difficult, then that's a deal breaker.

EDIT: Here's a recent webpage with a short list of free file (i.e., not just audio) cataloging software:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-file-disk-catalog-organizer.htm

[eyore]

Crow has me somewhat bewildered. I ran it on my "downloads" folder (992 files) and it keeps coming up that there is something wrong with the title of the file and to fix it to continue. I've spent all evening clicking the OK button. Everything so far is in a folder called "empty" in the albums section and, for some reason, is showing a map of Disneyland as the album cover for everything. Oh well. I'll try a few more folders 

[pixelated]

Does the error message window say:
"Item cannot be saved:
Required fields have been left empty. Fill required field(s) Title for item"

I've attached a screen grab of that error message window and the "Create Multiple Items" window that generated the error when I clicked on its "Save" button.

I clicked on the "Ignore Errors" button in the error message dialog window and all the file information was saved.

One annoyance is that I can't save the directory path to an album but I can add the 'filename' column to the Music Track view which is good enough for now.

[eyore]

Similar but there was an extra line in the box about a problem found. I was actually getting the items listed (so hadn't got to a "save" option). The other odd thing is that every item listed has the map of Disneyland as the album cover and the track listing for a Boston Pops Christmas album as the rear - whether Disney related or not. I also cannot find the button/option for running through another folder either - only to add as individual files. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually but it's really hard at the moment.

[pixelated]

Are you using Tools -> Music Album File Import to look through a directory (and its subdirectories if the "Recursive" checkbox is enabled) for 'items' to import?  That tool has a tab labeled "Local Art" and it has a checkbox to enable/disable using any artwork found in the directories.

EDIT: If Data Crow is driving you mad, try ScanFS instead:
http://saleensoftware.com/ScanFS
It's very small (the installer is only 5.82 MB) and it runs very quickly.  The ScanFS GUI has its quirks but I think they're OK since it's a free program after all.

[eyore]

Keep getting box saying to select a file. I'm giving up and just using the Explorer search facility to find my audio.

[pixelated]

Okey-doke but Explorer won't find files that are offline and I know you have plenty of offline storage, just like I do .  That's why I got cataloging software so I could easily search for files in my archives.

I've tried several freeware catalog programs and none of them had all the features that I'm looking for.  So I've decided to try a paid software app, WinCatalog.  My previous catalog apps were also paid apps so once again, you get what you pay for.
http://www.wincatalog.com/
The trial version lets you catalog 10 disks/devices and the full version is $20.

[eyore]

Apart from the oddness of the fact it catalogued around 100 files before I got fed up and turned it off and all shared the same map of the park and rear cover of the same Boston Pops album (!), it did list them fine. I suppose that the files need to be both on the database and/or have all the details on the tags for it to work. I'll uninstall th eprogram and then try it again on some smaller folders (there are several thousand - over  1Tb in the folder I attempted and lots of them have been ripped from vinyl etc with no detaile added to tags etc. Probably gave it a breakdown  .

[pixelated]

I've been using WinCatalog 2014 for about a week now and I'm pretty happy with it.  It has a good search function, you can have multiple search tabs open (very handy for cross-referencing files) and it extracts metadata & properties from media files.  The $19.95 price was a holiday price and now the price is the regular $49.95.  The trial version allows you to catalog 10 disks so I can get by on that until the next sale.