Copying music files

[Shawn Rosvold]

Hello!

I have finally finished loading my music files onto my B2. 18793 tracks in 1322 albums 601 artists. I am about to copy these files onto my 2 TB HDD in order to transfer them to a second B2. I just want to make sure I am doing this correctly because I know it's going to be a long process and my wife wants it finished.

1. Formatting HDD as FAT. Where do I start? Do I use USB A or C?

2. Copying music to HDD. Where do I go in the menu to do this? How will I know it's working properly and when it's finished? Do I have do anything special to remove the HDD from the B2?

3. Copying music from HDD to new B2. Where do I start? Do I use USB A or C? Where do I go in the menu to do this? How will I know it's working properly and when it's finished? Do I have do anything special to remove the HDD from the B2?

Thanks in advance for your help. This group is truly amazing.

Shawn

[Daniel Taylor]

1. Insert the disk into either A or C.  If it is not already formatted as FAT32, the B2 will behave as if there's nothing there.  Use the Format USB A (or C) depending on which port you chose.  USB port A is said to provide somewhat more power, for those drives that need it.  The Format USB command is on the USB menu.  WARNING(1):  All the information that may have been on the USB disk will be erased.  WARBNING(2):  Don't mistakenly use the Format HDD command (different menu), as that will format and erase the internal disk where all your music has been saved.

2. The command you want for copying all your music to the USB disk is Export to A (or C) depending on where you plugged in the disk.  The Export command is on the USB menu.  After the Export command appears to be finished, make sure there is no longer any track name being displayed on the scrolling info on the front panel display.  Then press and hold the STOP button until the word SAVING appears on the display; release the button; wait until the display returns to the clock - then it is safe to remove the USB disk.

3. I always turn off the B2 before plugging in a USB disk.  Choose either port A or C.  Use the Import from A (or C) command (again depending on which port you're using) - the command is in the USB menu.  Check for it being done the same way you did in 2.  Remove disk same way as in 2.

Did I miss anything?

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Shawn,

If you are using 'flac' compression your collection will be about 375 - 425 GB approximately.  This will take about 15 hours to Export to a USB device, and about the same time to Import to your new B2.

In answer to your queries.

1.  You can use either USB C or USB A.  I usually use USB A, but that's my preference.  From the B2's front panel, the format command is found at 'Settings' --> 'Maintenance' --> 'Format USB A' or 'Format USB C'.

2.  To copy the music from the B2's HDD to the USB device, from the front panel, go to 'USB Functions' --> 'Export to A' (or 'Export to C')

         The front panel display will show 'Exporting 1 - Trackname'.  This number will increment up to something like 22000 (number of music tracks + (5%-25% of tracks for non music data such as jpgs, PDFs,               etc).

3.  To copy the music collection from the USB device to the new B2, on the new B2 front panel, go to 'USB Functions' --> 'Import from A' (or 'Import from C')

         The front panel display wii show 'Importing 1 - Track name'.  The number will increment up to the same number as shown in the 'Export'.

Nothing special is needed for plugging or unplugging the USB device, as long as there is no activity going on on the USB device (when an Export completes, the B2's front panel LED goes to steady 'On' instead of flashing.  You can just unplug the USB connector out of one B2 and then plug it into the other B2.

Regards,

Peter.

[Daniel Taylor]

Oops.  Peter is correct about the location of the Format USB commands.  Please disregard my mistake.

[Shawn Rosvold]

Thank you to Daniel and Peter! I will proceed.

Now to explain to my wife that in about 30 hours or so I will be available to attend to her honey-do list with my undivided husbandly attention.

Shawn

[Mark Fishman]

Somewhere around the time you finish the export will be Father's Day (at least in the USA). Maybe as a Father's Day gift your wife can complete the items on the list for you, while you're busy?

:)

[Shawn Rosvold]

Mark, I value my life. ;)

I thought I had 18793 tracks. It's been about 15 hours now and the B2 says it's exporting 19519 and still going. Is that normal?

[Peter Lowham]

Shawn,

This situation is OK, the Brennan 'Export' function counts non-music files such as 'coverart.jpg', '.PDF', and others.  The Brennan 'Settings & Status' window only counts the music track files.

So the 'Export' and 'Import' functions will always show an equal or greater reading than the actual number of tracks.  The difference can range from 5 - 25% but is typically around 10%.

So your counter could run to about 21,000 depending on how many '.jpg' and other non-music files are present.  It looks like your Export is nearing completion.

Regards,

Peter.

[Mark Fishman]

The B2 shows only the music when it's displaying the number of tracks. But there are also the cover art (JPG) files, and a few other filetypes, that can be included in the export file count, so the discrepancy is normal.

Peter's estimates of how long an export can take is just that, an estomate based on average file sizes and numbers. You're almost certainly in the right ballpark. Be a little more patient.

[Shawn Rosvold]

Peter and Mark, thank you! I just wanted to make sure nothing was amiss.

[Shawn Rosvold]

It looks like it has finished copying to the HDD. The screen says Standby. Should I wait until says something like Ready?

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Shawn,

If you press and hold the 'Play/Stop' button on the B2's front panel until 'Saving' appears followed by the the clock being displayed, then you can just unplug the USB drive from the B2.

Then you can plug the USB drive into your new B2 and begin the 'Import from C' function.

How long did the Export take, and what was the final count on the front panel?

Regards,

Peter.

[Shawn Rosvold]

Hi Peter. I did that and saving was on the screen for maybe 30 seconds and now it says standby again. I didn't see a final count anywhere, but the last time I looked it was about 20,000. I estimate the time was about 18 hours.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Shawn,

You are good to go now.  Once the 'Saving' message has appeared you can remove the USB device from the B2 safely.

Regards,

Peter.

[Shawn Rosvold]

  Okay, thanks! Didn't want to mess anything up.