Hello everyone,
I had a database with almost 2000 movies inside it, but my system HDD crashed and i was forced to reinstall everything.
The previous OS was Vista so now i am moving to Win7. Everything is up and running already, except my old database.
Unfortunately i don´t have backup or something like that... all i have are my movies stored in folders and each movie has its own *.xml file (about 13Tb of data).
I have tried to import everything by selecting the import option in the main dropdown list. What did happen ? i have my files back in the database, but everything is completely wrong.
Example : i have 15(!) movies shown in the WMC with the same posters, names, etc. . Moreover if i play every single movie of theese 15, it plays me 15 different(!) movies. I can assume that the MM Colection managment reads somehow in a wrong way the contents...
Is there any way to rebuild my database correct, i mean all the movies with correct info + content and everything ?
If somebody knows anything about this issue, please help !
It will be a nightmare to manually search, upload and try 2000 movies...

Thank you in advance

Thank you snarbo,

I am well awared of that you have written, but it will be a nightmare if i have to check every single movie (2000 movies...)
I think that if i set up "Folder Monitoring" CM will assign everything in the same wrong way..
It will be pointless.
I am looking for something that will rebuild the DB, without the need of doing everything manually. It should take me 15 days to fix that

Thanks

How can i be sure which one is correct and which isn´t??
I can see that even there is a xml file in the folder, the movie is not recorded in a proper way.
This means that i have to check absolutely everything.
Moreover i have some titles that have been assigned multiple times - from 3 up to 20...
Is there anyway that CM could assign a totally different poster to a movie, that hasn´t been in the old database ?
The customer claims that he sees movie posters, that he hasn´t ever had... it seems very strange, could it be true ?

Thanks

Thank you mrwonker,
I have done exactly what you say, but everything goes wrong... :(
where could i be wrong ??

Thanks

Yes it sounds really strange, but it is true...
No, i am sure that there is no other saftware that may change the .xml file.
Other softwares installed : AnyDVD*, TMT 5, PowerDVD, Avast antivirus and CloneDrive.
Nothing more or less.
Also the customer is very positive, that before the crash everything was has been done in a proper way.
Could it be something wrong from the migration from Vista to 7 ?

Thanks

_{* Installing and/or using AnyDVD is illegal in some countries. Users are themselves responsible for complying with local law when installing and using AnyDVD.}

All the data is stored on a RAIDs.
There are DVDID.xml files as far as i know.
And what is the main difference between a DVDID.xml and *.xml file ?

Thanks

my best guess for the descrepencies is that the database was flawed before you lost it, this may not have been apparent at the time do you remember when you did the import what it said in the notification box, I mean along the lines of titles added with data and titles added without data? If your database was accurate then after the import it should have said x amount of titles was added with data and 0 titles was added without data, I'm guessing that it added titles that contained no data, this could most likely be due to multi disc titles where not all of the discs were mapped to there locations, I'm afraid nothing can be done about this now I imagine the majority of your titles are correct? To cross reference any mistakes in your database I would recommend exporting the complete database .xml and viewing it in excel, if you search the forum you will find info on this, to start with I would select just two fields to view in excel 'location side A' and one of the titles name, I think you will find this the quickest way to correct any mistakes.

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my advice is given to help, my advice might not always be the best solution but is given to the best of my knowledge, my advice is not always approved by MyMovies and often isn't, if my advice ever suggests changing in any way a title from what is contributed on the webservice please insure no invalid changes are contributed, please read the following guides Disc Title Contribution Guide, Contribution Introduction, TV Series Contribution Guide

1. Do as MrWonker says and unhide the hidden files.
2. Create an empty DB, backing up your previous one.
3. If you want to be absolutely sure and I am not sure what would happen in this case. Rename name the folder of one of the movies to something silly before copying it in, look inside the MyMovies XML file, see what it's named to. Then let the folder monitor work. If it's working from the MyMovies XML then it will come up with the proper match because it's used the MyMovies XML.

So the folder was originally called ALIENS [Blu-ray], you rename it to MY LITTLE PONY, leave out the blu-ray, not sure if there is a MY LITTLE PONY in blu-ray. Look in the ALIENS folder for the MyMovies XML file and make sure that's been named inside to ALIENS, no point in using a test case with crap match.

Skar & mrwonker

Did you not read what globaltv stated at 6:20:10.

He stated that the .xml files are DVDID.xml

here's one from my own system for the movie Thor

?xml version='1.0'?
Disc
Name>THOR /Name
ID MMDISCID|DZJHRFXM /ID
/Disc

(this has had to be edited to allow posting)

Yes it tells you that the Movie is Thor but it doesn't tell you which release it is. You will find that the data for the Version of Thor that I own is held in the My Movies.xml which as you quite rightly stated James are now encrypted, and have been since I believe 4.02.

MM cannot rebuild the DB from these DVDID.xml files unfortunately, whereas had they been My Movies.xml files that would have been a different matter.

I thought originally like the pair of you that the OP was talking about My Movies.xml files, but it appears not so.

Steve

yes steve thats why added note about them being hidden whilst he may have dvdid.xml files i'm sure he will have the mymovies.xml files as far as I am aware the dvdid.xml like any additional meta data files are just additional to the mymovies.xml which will always be created.

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my advice is given to help, my advice might not always be the best solution but is given to the best of my knowledge, my advice is not always approved by MyMovies and often isn't, if my advice ever suggests changing in any way a title from what is contributed on the webservice please insure no invalid changes are contributed, please read the following guides Disc Title Contribution Guide, Contribution Introduction, TV Series Contribution Guide