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

[jen77]

hello!
as i'm writing this, i am desperate!
i have had winamp installed on my pc for the last two years /in short; the best music player by far etc./ during this time i have built up a nice library with thousands of tracks, and i have a perfect rating/comment system together with several playlists /play counts etc. This might seem not important to some, but to me it is important, since i use winamp every day and has done so for the last 2 years.


Anyway; today i started to experience serious problems with my computer. it was slow, programs were crashing etc. So i rebooted.
Upon reboot i discover that Winamp no longer works. i panic! i desperatley try to boot up winamp, but nothing happens. After about 3-4 minutes winamp starts up, EXTREMLEY slow. As a shock i notice that this is not my winamp! this is a grey and (no offence devs) ugly standard theme (i normally used a color-modified bento theme i think its called) and the settings in the program has all been changed back to default!
I instantly try to browse my library but there is nothing there!!!
playlist, tracks, playcounts, comments, ratings etc.. ALL GONE!

now, i know i can just re-add the media to the client, but all (i think you call them metadata? correct me if i'm wrong) information about each track will be lost. Now i _CANT_ have that, i desperatley need for this to work again, cant live without my winamp!
i've tried restoring my pc back to an earlier date, about 4 days back, but still this problem exists. When i boot up winamp i have a huge waiting time of more than a minute, and then all i had is gone. My installation is still there, but anything else is gone.


Could somebody please tell me how to get my REAL winamp installation back? restoring pc to an earlier date does not seem to work, i still have the 'corrupted' winamp installation.

i'm in desperate need of help here. I know from before that when purchasing a new computer you can never transfer old winamp installation containing the track information that i want (play count, rating etc.!) but please let it not be the case here.
Also, if someone could give me an explanation for WHY this happened in the first place. Maybe it ddint have to do with winamp, since my PC in general got F*cked up today tho.



once again, PLEASE i need your help!

ps, ignore any spelling mistakes as i wrote this insta fast in panic + my born language is not english.


thank you!

[jen77]

Please, someone ^?

[jen77]

NOTE: i have done a system restore to get back to a point were winamp was actually working. This does not work. Going back there does not change anything..

[jen77]

Now winamp crashes whatever i do! I try to add music again! I try to change language. What the fuck is the problem here?!

[jen77]

i would expect more...

[CJ_Man]

Be patient. This isn't a high-traffic forum, people will come by over time.

The closest I've come to experiencing something like you describe, affecting not just Winamp but everything, was caused by the hard drive beginning to fail. Do you have another machine available?

[jen77]

yeah. and i've got 5 hdd's in my pc. But the one with Winamp also has other programs that run good though.

[Batter Pudding]

Run a SMART check on that hard disk, it could be corrupting itself. Have you got any hidden folders called C:\folder.000 C:\folder.001 etc? These will often hold recovered damaged files. If lucky, you may find your recovered media library files in there. You may also get some luck with a CHKDSK on the partition. Depending on the damage occurring.

Your winamp database is stored in %APPDATA%\Winamp\Plugins\ml\ (Or %APPDATA%\Roaming\winamp\Plugins\ml on Vista\Win7 systems) but if it is gone, then it is gone. Winamp does not keep a backup, so if your hard disk corrupts and damages the database - there are not many ways back.

FIRST STEP - BACK UP THAT %APPDATA%\WINAMP folder to a safe place so you can start to experiment.

If you have a Professional version of Vista or Win 7, then just roll back to previous versions of the database files using the built in "Previous Version" options. (If you don't have these OS's, no point in me explaining this deeper)

[jen77]

Thank you for responding. I just did a check on my hardware and there are no problems with any of my drives.



Should i perhaps reinstall Winamp completley, and then add the database files to that new installation. Perhaps that would solve? or it might just corrupt another (if there is infact corruption in the database files wich i doubt)

[Batter Pudding]

Did you find what it was that made your PC splutter? Which OS are we on? And how did you "check your drives"? Did you download the manufacturer's test disk and give them a proper check? Would not want to have a sudden failure. (I assume this has reminded you to back up....)

Why are you convinced your database files are not corrupt? From your description, I would assume your whole database has been stuffed. But you may be lucky.

Have you backed up that Winamp folder? the whole branch under %appdata% (not just the ML plugin, all of it). Once backed up, I would try a fresh installation. First an "install on top" - see if that picks up the database again. If that does not work, I would uninstall Winamp and delete the %appdata%\Winamp branch and try a fresh install. This will get your skins back and so forth (you will need to copy skins from your backup)

Once that is in place, the database consists of files in the plugin folder. I think the database is in "main.idx" and the "main.dat.*" files. You could try reintroducing these to the fresh Winamp install - see if it will bring your database back.

How big are your main.* files? On my PC, with a 50,000+ database of tracks, main.idx is 1018KB and of the 6 main.dat.* files I have, five are 40-50,000KB is size with one at zero KB. ( I am guessing these are the correct files... I'll see if I can get a confirmation for you...)

[Batter Pudding]

BTW - the worst case you are looking at here is reimporting all your music. This will mean you will still have all your artwork, and all your track names, artist names, etc. The only thing you will loose will be your "last played" dates, playcount and your ratings.

(Newer versions of Winamp can store ratings in the tracks, but that is not relevant here at this moment)

Notice too that in the %appdata%\winamp\plugins\ml folder you will see some "*.m3u" files. These are your playlists and can be reimported (they have just lost their titles, but still know the tracks to be played).

[jen77]

Did you find what it was that made your PC splutter? Which OS are we on? And how did you "check your drives"? Did you download the manufacturer's test disk and give them a proper check? Would not want to have a sudden failure. (I assume this has reminded you to back up....)

Why are you convinced your database files are not corrupt? From your description, I would assume your whole database has been stuffed. But you may be lucky.

Have you backed up that Winamp folder? the whole branch under %appdata% (not just the ML plugin, all of it). Once backed up, I would try a fresh installation. First an "install on top" - see if that picks up the database again. If that does not work, I would uninstall Winamp and delete the %appdata%\Winamp branch and try a fresh install. This will get your skins back and so forth (you will need to copy skins from your backup)

Once that is in place, the database consists of files in the plugin folder. I think the database is in "main.idx" and the "main.dat.*" files. You could try reintroducing these to the fresh Winamp install - see if it will bring your database back.

How big are your main.* files? On my PC, with a 50,000+ database of tracks, main.idx is 1018KB and of the 6 main.dat.* files I have, five are 40-50,000KB is size with one at zero KB. ( I am guessing these are the correct files... I'll see if I can get a confirmation for you...)

i'm not yet sure what cause my pc behave bad. i contacted Norton symantec, my antivirus software manufacture, and they did several scan on my pc and found no virus or any other malware.

My OS is windows 7 64 bit. i checked my drives using this software:

http://download.cnet.com/Stellar-Smart-Monitor-Hard-Drive-Performance/3000-2122_4-10620654.html

i'm not convinced. The Winamp stopped working after a reboot. i just dont know.

i've backed up the entire %appdata% winamp folder.


in this folder there are main.dat and main.dx
main.dat is 2673 kb in size and
main.idx is 61kb in size.

[jen77]

BTW - the worst case you are looking at here is reimporting all your music. This will mean you will still have all your artwork, and all your track names, artist names, etc. The only thing you will loose will be your "last played" dates, playcount and your ratings.

(Newer versions of Winamp can store ratings in the tracks, but that is not relevant here at this moment)

Notice too that in the %appdata%\winamp\plugins\ml folder you will see some "*.m3u" files. These are your playlists and can be reimported (they have just lost their titles, but still know the tracks to be played).

i see. So in the future, or if this cannot be fixed (i hope it can tho) i should be looking to get a newer winamp version wich can store more track data in the files.


thanks again for replying!

[Batter Pudding]

In the current release of Winamp it can store the ratings in the actual files. Look in Preferences under Media Library and you will find an option labelled "Save ratings to file for compatible formats (default: off)". Tick this and all your future ratings are kept in the actual music file.

In future, you can backup the Winamp folder. There is a backup tool that can be found in the forum that will do this for you. That means keeping the playcounts and dates as well as many other Winamp settings.

-=-=-

How many tracks do you have? main.dat looks pretty small to me, so I am assuming it is empty and your database is probably lost. You are probably just going to need to rescan the database and restart the playcounts and ratings.

As I guess there is no backup, you can try a chkdsk and see if anything lucky pops out in a c:\found.000 folder. The SMART software you found was helpful.

Next run a Disk Check on the C: drive and see if any lost files are found. It sounds to me like you had some form of disk corruption which damages the files in the %appdata%\winamp folder - or maybe just the ones in memory at the time. This would explain why Winamp restarted "ugly" as it had lost winamp.ini as well as the database.

If you are lucky, a Disk Check may find that lost branch of settings.

-=-=-

Norton isn't the best of Anti-Virus out there. If you suspect a virus, you could download Malwarebytes and give it a scan. www.malwarebytes.org

What happen when the PC went odd on you? How old is it? And could it be full of dust and overheating?

I repair computers by day, so can help you narrow this down. Ask me questions, and I'll help you through these different things. I don't know your experience level, so let me know what level to pitch the details.

Do a Disk Check, see if we are lucky finding anything. But, as it stand now, I think you have lost your database when your PC spluttered.

[jen77]

In the current release of Winamp it can store the ratings in the actual files. Look in Preferences under Media Library and you will find an option labelled "Save ratings to file for compatible formats (default: off)". Tick this and all your future ratings are kept in the actual music file.

In future, you can backup the Winamp folder. There is a backup tool that can be found in the forum that will do this for you. That means keeping the playcounts and dates as well as many other Winamp settings.

-=-=-

How many tracks do you have? main.dat looks pretty small to me, so I am assuming it is empty and your database is probably lost. You are probably just going to need to rescan the database and restart the playcounts and ratings.

As I guess there is no backup, you can try a chkdsk and see if anything lucky pops out in a c:\found.000 folder. The SMART software you found was helpful.

Next run a Disk Check on the C: drive and see if any lost files are found. It sounds to me like you had some form of disk corruption which damages the files in the %appdata%\winamp folder - or maybe just the ones in memory at the time. This would explain why Winamp restarted "ugly" as it had lost winamp.ini as well as the database.

If you are lucky, a Disk Check may find that lost branch of settings.

-=-=-

Norton isn't the best of Anti-Virus out there. If you suspect a virus, you could download Malwarebytes and give it a scan. www.malwarebytes.org

What happen when the PC went odd on you? How old is it? And could it be full of dust and overheating?

I repair computers by day, so can help you narrow this down. Ask me questions, and I'll help you through these different things. I don't know your experience level, so let me know what level to pitch the details.

Do a Disk Check, see if we are lucky finding anything. But, as it stand now, I think you have lost your database when your PC spluttered.

-ok i'll look into that backup tool in the future thx!


i'm not sure how many tracks i had, but i'm guessing maybe 3000 tracks. Not sure though as i cannot add the media again to the currently corrupted winamp i have, it will only crash.

i ran the disk check on all drives i have (C/D/I/F/J) and it found no problem on any of them. The D drive uses winamp so i checked it again to be sure - still nothing.

i'm not really suspecting a virus, as i don't download / visit 'unsecure' websites regularly, and i update and scan very often.
When my pc was behaving bad (running slower etc. ) i restarted, however, i think during the restart that maybe the psu died or something, because for a moment i think the pc had no power. Maybe the pc died when i was restarting, and winamp didnt close properly yet, and therefor it is now broken idk.

My pc is about 11 months old, and i clean it from dust (all fans and the entire case) with compressed air at least once a week.


i'm not sure what i would say my experience level is. i wouldn't want to say highly experienced because then i might not understand later and it would be embarrassing
so i guess i'm going to say medium.

i guess i'll have to download a new one :/
thx