B2 Format in Error?

[First Second]

I received a 2tb external drive today for backing up my B2. About 600 albums that took me a week to rip onto the B2. I knew I had to format the external drive first and going through the menu options there was format HDD so I selected it, it asked me if I was sure as everything was going to be deleted and I thought, yup, I've got an HDD and I want to make sure it's clean so selected it.

Then I tried to export to USB C and not a lot happened, but I did notice that the LED display now saying 0 albums 0 songs 0 artists.

I've wiped them all haven't I? 

[Daniel Taylor]

I am sorry to say that it looks like you have deleted all your music.  The Format HDD command is for formatting the internal HDD.  The command you need to format an external disk is either Format USB C or Format USB A, both located in the Maintenance menu.  If you really did use the Format HDD command, you have my sincere condolences.

[Brian R]

Just thinking aloud here. I wonder if Recuva could retrieve any files if the internal HDD was fitted in a caddy. 600 CDs is a lot of work to lose.

Brian

[First Second]

Yes, I've scanned the disk and checked in the web browser. Music has gone. 

I noticed in this conversation Backup wiped the Hard Disk

Quote

What I would also like to say is that "wiping the hard disk" doesn't happen.

I mean even when owners have formatted the internal hard disk - we have recovered the music.

There are many faults that could make the music inaccessible and require our intervention - but unless the disk breaks down the music is still there.

Unquote

Ironic I should lose my music trying to back it up, I really hope that Martin/Brennan Support can ride to the rescue ...

[Russell...@hotmail.com]

Hi - there is possibilities to "unformat" the HDD - I used to do this type a thing (a long time ago) in a professional role - if you were considering that option it would be very important not to start overwriting the formated disk in any way. However either you doing it or a professional support company does bring it's own issues and added cost so it may be the better option to re rip the CDs and swallow that bitter pill - I'm sorry mate it's a really crap thing to happen. - Russ

[First Second]

If Martin/Brennan say the CDs are gone I'll have to start the re-ripping process until then I'm hanging onto that thread of hope that the posted quote above has given me.

Thanks for the condolences!

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

I am so sorry that this has happened.

While I think you are going to have to re rip everything in the end, while you are waiting for Martin/Brennan to respond it is VERY IMPORTANT that you do not do anything to write to the HDD in the interim. I am afraid that the Scan Disk will

have done this but it is not a big change and not a music file - one hopes it did not overwrite anything.

Fred

[First Second]

Once my sore head from banging it on the wall subsides I'll start ripping onto a USB stick from my laptop as it will be quicker than ripping via the B2 unit. 

I've a 64Gb stick and a 128Gb on the way, both USB 2.0.

I've formatted the empty USB flash drive on the B2 unit and will stick it in my laptop where I will create a top level folder called Music and then rip into that folder.

I don't need compression (600 odd CDs in WAV not an issue on the B2) and as I think compression adds another stage, ripping to WAV should be quicker.

If and when I receive the bad news from Martin/Brennan then I'll import from the flashdrive onto the B2, if anyone sees any problems with that then please feel free to pipe up. I'm presuming that multiple imports from the USB to the B2 will not cause any issues, I may have to do it 3 or 4 times. I'll back up the B2 via Export C: onto that 2tb HDD after each import from the flash drive. 

I think I now know how to backup/export the B2 properly, a harsh lesson does that.

One day I'll laugh about this, but not yet.

[PMB]

Hi ky6,

Sorry to hear that you have ran 'Format HDD' by mistake - I have asked our service guys - AudioTech - if their setup can recover your music and will let you know what they say.

We did move 'Format HDD' from 'Maintenance' to the 'Advanced' menu to reduce the chances of this happening....

Paul

Brennan Support.

[First Second]

Thanks Paul, appreciated, I'll keep checking to see if there's any update. 

[Daniel Taylor]

Hi First Second,

If you will be ripping on your computer, you can rip directly to either FLAC or MP3 as you desire and it will be MUCH quicker than the compression time on the B2.  I do all my ripping directly to FLAC on my computer.  The other day, I ripped a CD on the B2 for the first time, as a test, and the compression stage took over an hour.  The same job on my computer took just a few minutes.

[First Second]

Thanks for the info Daniel, I'm going to miss the compression stage out. I don't need to save space, although I understand I'm going to end up with bigger files which will take longer to import into the B2. The real work is in the loading and ripping of CDs one by one. I found the B2 to be slow in ripping bulk CDs but once my music was on it (ripped from an external CD reader) I was only adding one new CD at a time, the speed wasn't really an issue - I could live with that. 

As a  matter of interest I've tried ripping onto my laptop hard drive and then copying over to the flash drive but while the ripping was slightly faster the copying over to the USB flash negated any time savings. I've also tried Dbpoweramp and found it no faster than Windows Media Player at ripping to Wav. So right now I'm ripping with Windows Media Player to WAV straight onto the flash drive. I'm not using the external CD reader this time as it's slightly easier using the laptop CD drive.  

[PMB]

Hi ky6,

The service team say they will be unable to recover any files given their equipment and expertise. So sorry it's a case of loading the CDs again unless you can find a specialised data recovery company.

There is more information about backup up in our How To's pages - link - on the web site.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[First Second]

Ah well that's that then. Thanks for asking Paul. Lesson learned.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi ky6,

I've done a quick estimate for your 'Import' and reckon that it will complete in about 12 hours and will use 300GB of disk space for 600 CDs ripped in '.wav' format.

You should get about 140 albums onto the 64GB stick and 280 albums onto the 128GB stick, so a couple of transfer runs will complete the rebuild.

Sorry for the loss of your collection, that is very painful.

Regards,

Peter.

[First Second]

After some extremely tedious CD loading I'm approaching 2/3 of the way there. I've ripped my CDs onto several USB sticks in WAV format (no compression required). I've ripped them into F:\Music. The flash drives were formatted on the B2 itself before ripping the CDs on my laptop.

I'm going to end up with about 3 or 4 flash drives containing my collection, so I've already got a form of backup, my next steps will be to load the flashdrives onto the B2. Can the knowledgeable confirm the following steps:

Brennan off

USB drive into USB-C on the rear of the unit.

Brennan on

Using front control knob, find USB menu and select 'Import from C'

(Once import starts what indications are on the front LED and is there any indication of progress?)

On completion of import Scan Disk, Save, switch off, swap USB drives, switch on, repeat import process which is incremental so imports will add not overwrite (?)

[Daniel Taylor]

The front panel will display the name of each song as it is copied onto the HDD.

A word of advise:  don't ask the B2 to do anything else, such as playing music, while the Import is in progress.  One thing at a time works best.

[First Second]

Thanks Daniel, I won't do anything else with the B2. I might try importing the 64gb drive today.

[PMB]

Hi ky6,

Import is not incremental but as the files being imported are different each time, they will be added to the HDD/SSD. Files with the same names will be overwritten.

You will need this file structure on the USB for a successful import -

A music folder containing Artist folder/s containing Album folder/s each containing the Tracks.

The music folder must only contain Artist folders

The Artist folders must only contain Album folders

I usually do not power off when inserting or removing USB sticks as they are low power devices and mount OK without any problems.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[First Second]

Paul, I think I've got that, I'm not ever going to importing the same CD twice but I will be importing the same artist song several times over compilation albums and actual artist albums, I presume the fact that they come from different albums means the same song has different naming structures.

I am redoing the import on that 64gb drive as it had finished and was compressing, I must have reset my preferences somewhere along the line or perhaps format HDD does that, I've reformatted the B2 HDD to wipe the import, switched compression off and have started again. I've got time as I don't expect to be up and running for a day or two yet. I'd rather do a couple of button presses than wade through deleting things manually.

I'm getting there...

[PMB]

HI ky6,

Your assumption about compilations is correct - the repeated tracks come from different albums.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[First Second]

12207 tracks in 615 albums 299 artists
8275 WAV 0 FLAC 3932 MP3 0 AAC
Capacity 2000.00G Used 315.72Gb

Not the most exciting jobs I've done, but it's done now. I've got all my music on flash drives but will do a proper backup at some point soon.

Thanks for the help, tonight I listen to music!

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Glad you'r now sorted, please do an "Export yo USB" as soon as you can.

Fred

[First Second]

Will do Fred. Carefully, unlike last time.