OMG! Winamp and my ENTIRE LIBRARY GONE? corrupted? SERIOUS PROBLEMS with winamp!!

[Batter Pudding]

If the media library is crashing when you add things to it, it is showing it is corrupted. You can close winamp and delete those main.dat and main.idx files and then try your import again. Library should at least start rebuilding.

I would still advise you to get Malwarebytes as Norton is pretty hopeless when it comes to detection. Having a "second opinion" of a free scanner like Malwarebytes will always help. And viruses do not just come from "dodgy" websites, many legitimate websites hand out infections as well when they get hacked.

After your disk check of C, did you look for a c:\found.000 folder? (may be a hidden file).

[jen77]

If the media library is crashing when you add things to it, it is showing it is corrupted. You can close winamp and delete those main.dat and main.idx files and then try your import again. Library should at least start rebuilding.

I would still advise you to get Malwarebytes as Norton is pretty hopeless when it comes to detection. Having a "second opinion" of a free scanner like Malwarebytes will always help. And viruses do not just come from "dodgy" websites, many legitimate websites hand out infections as well when they get hacked.

After your disk check of C, did you look for a c:\found.000 folder? (may be a hidden file).

hello, sorry for not responding yesterday,never had time to try it out.

i downloaded and installed a new winamp (on a different hdd) but this does not work. i'm unable to do anything with the new winamp. Can't add media, can't scan folders - Nothing. Whenever i try to, nothing happens. i doestn crash, but nothing is added.

[Batter Pudding]

Three questions: Did you check for the C:\found.000 folder by turning on hidden files? (A last chance of seeing if the database was recovered after the disk check)

On the fresh install to a new hard disk, did you start with nothing in %appdata%\winamp? Or were you trying from the backed up data.

When you say "nothing happens" when you add music, do you even see the progress bar of the operation starting? And how are you adding your tracks?

[jen77]

Three questions: Did you check for the C:\found.000 folder by turning on hidden files? (A last chance of seeing if the database was recovered after the disk check)

On the fresh install to a new hard disk, did you start with nothing in %appdata%\winamp? Or were you trying from the backed up data.

When you say "nothing happens" when you add music, do you even see the progress bar of the operation starting? And how are you adding your tracks?

1. i turned on hidden files but i found nothing.
2. i had my previous data in %appdata%\winamp i suppose i should clean this one before trying again?
3 Nope, not even a progress bar.

i click 'file' in top left corner,
'add media'
then select my music folder wich has got subfolders,then 'add'.

oh, and i have 'scan folders in background' enabled.

[Spiney]

Always Backup, you have plenty of Hard Drives, I have two backups of my Music, just in case, good luck getting it sorted.

[Batter Pudding]

1\ Okay, we have to give up on the old database then and start fresh.

2\ As there could be something odd with this install, I would uninstall Winamp and then delete that %appdata%\winamp branch to start totally fresh. Then reinstall Winamp.

3\ Lack of progress bar is odd. I assume you have checked the folder still has music in it? What happens if you just drag a folder full of music into the main media library window. Will it add it then?

I think item 3\ shows us we need to look at item 2\ first and do a clean install with an empty %appdata%\winamp folder.

[jen77]

1\ Okay, we have to give up on the old database then and start fresh.

2\ As there could be something odd with this install, I would uninstall Winamp and then delete that %appdata%\winamp branch to start totally fresh. Then reinstall Winamp.

3\ Lack of progress bar is odd. I assume you have checked the folder still has music in it? What happens if you just drag a folder full of music into the main media library window. Will it add it then?

I think item 3\ shows us we need to look at item 2\ first and do a clean install with an empty %appdata%\winamp folder.

okay, something is wrong here. when i start up winamp, i select the 'history' tab in media library (below Bookmars/podcast etc) and then some of my latest played music will show up!
it displays the ocrrect ammount of play count, the correct rating and other information. Also, i can play this track here. this will work. But when i go to the normal library, there is nothing there.

[Batter Pudding]

History data is in different files I think.

Just taking an educated guess, the "recent.idx" and "recent.dat" files in the %winamp%\appdata\ml\ folder are probably holding the HISTORY data.

And you mention PLAYLISTS - so you still have these then?

Sounds to me like just main.dat and main.idx is corrupted. Close Winamp and delete (or rename) just those two files. Reopen winamp and try importing again. Currently I am guessing you cannot import to your database as it is corrupted.


Ah - a different thought. Before you do the above, are you sure your screen is laid out correctly. Could you just be looking at a confused screen layout? Do you at least see the normal column headers, etc in the Media Library view?

[jen77]

History data is in different files I think.

Just taking an educated guess, the "recent.idx" and "recent.dat" files in the %winamp%\appdata\ml\ folder are probably holding the HISTORY data.

And you mention PLAYLISTS - so you still have these then?

Sounds to me like just main.dat and main.idx is corrupted. Close Winamp and delete (or rename) just those two files. Reopen winamp and try importing again. Currently I am guessing you cannot import to your database as it is corrupted.


Ah - a different thought. Before you do the above, are you sure your screen is laid out correctly. Could you just be looking at a confused screen layout? Do you at least see the normal column headers, etc in the Media Library view?

playlists are all gone, in the media library view its nothing just a gray window. i can upload a screenshot if you like.


i will try that.

[Batter Pudding]

playlists - have you found the .m3u files in your backup of the %appdata%\winamp branch? The copy you made at the start of this. Loads of .m3u files should be in there. Unless we got a total fail of the whole folder.

[jen77]

playlists - have you found the .m3u files in your backup of the %appdata%\winamp branch? The copy you made at the start of this. Loads of .m3u files should be in there. Unless we got a total fail of the whole folder.

No .m3u files in there :/

not in %appdata% or the original backup

[Batter Pudding]

Okay. This is sounding more like you lost the whole of the %appdata%\winamp folder when you had your computer hiccup. Have any other programs been affected? Or just Winamp suffering? (It is a little weird we still have some of the history and yet no .m3u8 files in the plugins\ml\ folder.)

Just to confirm - do you still have your music files safe on the hard disk? The physical MP3 files.

What we finally have to do is to get your music to reimport now. It sounds like we now have now option but to start again. So close winamp, delete the main.dat and main.idx files from %appdata%\winamp\plugins\ml\ and then open Winamp and try importing your music. This should hopefully work this time and rebuild a fresh media library.

[jen77]

Okay. This is sounding more like you lost the whole of the %appdata%\winamp folder when you had your computer hiccup. Have any other programs been affected? Or just Winamp suffering? (It is a little weird we still have some of the history and yet no .m3u8 files in the plugins\ml\ folder.)

Just to confirm - do you still have your music files safe on the hard disk? The physical MP3 files.

What we finally have to do is to get your music to reimport now. It sounds like we now have now option but to start again. So close winamp, delete the main.dat and main.idx files from %appdata%\winamp\plugins\ml\ and then open Winamp and try importing your music. This should hopefully work this time and rebuild a fresh media library.

Only Winamp is acting weird.
i still have all my music files on the HDD
they are on another HDD than the winamp installation is, if that matters.

[jen77]

Okay. This is sounding more like you lost the whole of the %appdata%\winamp folder when you had your computer hiccup. Have any other programs been affected? Or just Winamp suffering? (It is a little weird we still have some of the history and yet no .m3u8 files in the plugins\ml\ folder.)

Just to confirm - do you still have your music files safe on the hard disk? The physical MP3 files.

What we finally have to do is to get your music to reimport now. It sounds like we now have now option but to start again. So close winamp, delete the main.dat and main.idx files from %appdata%\winamp\plugins\ml\ and then open Winamp and try importing your music. This should hopefully work this time and rebuild a fresh media library.

i deleted the main.dat main.dx (made a backup first) and restarted winamp, and right away winamp said "you currently have no media in your library. Add media"

and so i did, i scanned and added all my files (wich btw was at this point 4950) and i can now play them, although all data is gone. if i look in 'history' tab my 'old' tracks are there with correct data, but they cannot be played (nothing happens when i try to play them)


is there anyway i could import a media database now? or anything similiar to give me the data back( i would think it is not all lost since its still in history tab, but i might be wrong here)
or should i just give up and start building on a new library?

thx

[Batter Pudding]

I don't know if there is a way of reattaching the old data to the new. We would need a Dev to answer that one.

The only suggestion I would have would be a rather slow process of hacking a backup. You could export the new library, and then manually edit the data to make it look like those old history files. Then reimport. Which is both time consuming and a little boring.

I think your best bet now is to just give up on the old counts and start fresh. Just now, learn how the Winamp Backup Util works (see elsewhere in forum). Also backup your music files as well. A good habit to get into


At least you have Winamp alive and working with your music again. That is the important bit.