MediaMonkey Portable Still Isn't Portable [#9647]

[nanite2000]

I just installed MediaMonkey Gold v4.0.6.1501 on a new external hard drive (E:) on Windows 7 x64.

I set the library to continuously scan 'E:\Music'.

I unplugged the hard drive and plugged it back in a few days later. Now it is designated drive letter F:

Now, every time I start MediaMonkey I get an error at startup that says:

"Problem with scanning directory E:\Music\."

[Lowlander]

Are you manually scanning or using Folder Monitoring?

[nanite2000]

Are you manually scanning or using Folder Monitoring?

I'm using Folder Monitoring:

Tools -> Options -> Library -> File Monitor

[Lowlander]

I think this isn't a Portable issue, but a problem with MediaMonkey using drive letter instead of driveID (which it normally uses) in the Add/Rescan Files/Folder Monitoring dialog. Added as: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=9647

[Gaeta]

From my experience; this is mostly a windows problem where it decides it wants to assign a different drive letter when you plug in an external drive. I myself have 6 different external drives. So it can be a bit of an issue when a program is expecting a specific drive letter to access a specific drive. Windows does provide a solution (called Disk Management) that has worked for me. My approach is to assign drive letters to specific drives a bit up the drive letter list. I start with letter K for the three drives where I need a "constant" letter assignment. Every time that drive is plugged in it gets that letter. New drives get lower letters (e.g. E) and do not highjack the assignments.

To do this; plug in your drive; then
1. Click on Start
2. Enter diskmgmt.msc into the search field & press enter

The Disk Management Utility opens; displaying active drive assignments. At the bottom of the screen, right click on your drive. Select "Change Drive Letter and Paths" option. That opens another dialog; press the Change button and select the new drive letter. As I mentioned, select a letter a higher than e; say M: (for media monkey) or whatever else works for you. Every time you plug that drive in it will get that letter. Close all the dialogs and exit the utility. Then you will have to update MM to scan that drive and remove scanning of the old drive. Of course; if you always leave the external drive plugged in; the drive letter will not change (except possibly on a Windows boot)

This Disk Management Utility has options that allow you to do considerable damage to yourself, so if you are not familiar with it, it is probably a good idea to google it and do a bit of reading on it.

[nanite2000]

Hi Gaeta,

Thanks for the info, but the issue here is that a truly portable MediaMonkey installation should not be relying on the drive letter at all. The user should not have to fiddle with the drive manager settings to get it to work.

Still, useful advice for any other programs that may be misbehaving though...

[Jamaladeen]

Gaeta is correct.
I had a similar problem using songbird on a netbook. My laptop always assigned G to my portable drive, but the netbook assigned E. When I ran Songbird, it was still looking in G for my music. I used disk management to change the drive designation and everything worked fine after that. It is truly portable in the sense that you are able to take it with you on a thumb-drive. It is also portable in the sense that every computer you connect it to will designate a drive letter that may or may not be the same.

[nanite2000]

Gaeta is correct.
I had a similar problem using songbird on a netbook. My laptop always assigned G to my portable drive, but the netbook assigned E. When I ran Songbird, it was still looking in G for my music. I used disk management to change the drive designation and everything worked fine after that. It is truly portable in the sense that you are able to take it with you on a thumb-drive. It is also portable in the sense that every computer you connect it to will designate a drive letter that may or may not be the same.

A truly portable solution would not require a user to enter Windows Disk Manager and change the assigned drive letter for a drive. Your average user is not going to know how to do that (nor should they be expected to).