Hello,

What is the difference between moving media from the Folder Level vs. using a tool like Media Mover?

I just got a new project, and it's a doozey: 6 external hard drives for one project. Most of the drives are filled up to the brim, and I'm running out of ports. I want to reorganize this whole entire project structure so it's as clean and pain-free from the very start before I get into editing. I've already cleaned up the bins and organized the media to the appropriate bin locations as well.

I have only experienced consolidating, then editing off the duplicated/consolidated sub clips, but I don't want to create more bins just for consolidates...I have never moved an entire library of media into one single drive and relinked the entire project to work off of the new drive.

So going back to my question, I would like to find the 'process' on how to do move and relink media to the masterclips, and sequences.

 I have read amongst the forum that you could go to the media drive, and copy-paste the media manually inside the MXF>1 folder into the directory of the new drive under Root Drive: > Avid MediaFiles > MXF > 1 > (put media in this folder).
Then repeat this step from all drives into the new drive > Delete MSM files, and it will automatically relink.

OR, use Media Mover. I have only used Media Mover to turn my old media files offline, but never to Move Media. On the MM support website, it wasn't too clear to me, but I think I have an educated guess on how to do it which is: Open MM > Select Volume > Find Media Folders > Analyze Media Files > Move Offline > Backup Media to new Volume > Move back online (and then MM will put the media back into the Root Drive > Avid MediaFiles > MXF > 1 Folder). Then delete MSM files, open Avid and it will relink automatically.

Do I have the process right? Any suggestions or shared solutions would be great, I'm all eyes. Thank You!

kta:

 I have read amongst the forum that you could go to the media drive, and copy-paste the media manually inside the MXF>1 folder into the directory of the new drive under Root Drive: > Avid MediaFiles > MXF > 1 > (put media in this folder).

This is the way I do it. I even go as far as to put each drive in it's own numbered folder inside the MXF folder. So drive 1 would go in folder 1, 2 in 2 and so on. If you only have this single project  on all the drives it sounds like it would be simple to just copy all media at the OS level. If you don't use separate folders for each drive, keep in mind there is a limit to the number of files in a folder. I believe it is 1500 then Avid will create a new folder with a new number. I have never used media mover to know if it works well or not.

Kta:

Are you looking to move media on a project by project basis? If so, MDV may be the right tool for you. It can cluster media files by project at the folder level, if you have enough projects where that is important to you.

And you do have the process right, just let me give you some reference material. First, the media folder ground rules:

1) The "Avid MediaFiles" folder (for MXF media) and the "OMFI MediaFiles" folder (for OMF media) MUST reside at the root level of the media drive, never inside any other folders or the system will not find the media.

2) The folder names must always be the factory default names listed above (minus the quotes) or the system will not find the media.

3) There can be only one of each folder type on any given media drive.

And here is the media database rebuild procedure. Quit the application. Then, from each numerical folder inside the MXF folder inside the Avid MediaFiles folder, delete the two files that identify by type as "MSM Media Database" also identified as "msmFMID.pmr" and "msmMMOB.mdb" . If you have an OMFI MediaFiles folder, delete the same two files. On re-launch, the system will detect the missing files and build new ones at the "Initializing Media Streams Manager" stage. You will see the system go into a scanning and indexing mode at this point.

If you're sure that you don't have any other project's media sprinkled onto those drives, then I'd suggest just copying via the Finder.  

Inside the MXF folder you've noted that there is a "1".  You can create multiple subfolders and don't have to put everything inside the "1" folder.  Some people like to create "2, 3, 4...." etc folders.  In your case, I'm sure these other drives have names, so I might consider naming the folders as DriveA, DriveB, DriveC and so on.  (path would look like Avid MediaFiles>MXF>DriveA  

The beauty of this is that it will keep all of your contents of drives A, B, C separated and Avid will still be able to read the media from within them.  However, if you create any new media, then Avid will see that a "1" folder doesn't exist and it will auto create it and dump all new media into that.  Which will keep all of the original drive's media untouched.  

Or you could opt to create folders named 99, 98, 97, and Avid will also see that a "1" doesn't exist and it will create one whenever you render or create your own media.  

Wonderful, Thank You all so much.

So I will be moving forward, moving all the media files manually from MXF > 1 into the new drive with the identical structure. I'll create some subfolders as well to separate the drives.

However, as Kenton mentioned, I believe there is one or two more project's media sprinkled in one or two drives somewhere.

Would it be safe to say that using MediaMover to turn these projects & associated media offline will remove those files from the MXF > 1 folder and put into MediaMoverOffline folder which will allow me to move my current projects media w/o having any straggler files trolling around in my new dedicated media drive that belong to different projects?

Larry... is that MDV program Mac compatible? That sounds interesting, I will check it out. Thanks!

kta:

Larry... is that MDV program Mac compatible?

I'm not sure about that.

BTW .... the files/folder limit is 5,000.

Unfortuantley not, just tried it.

I'm gonna look for an old PC, there's got to be someone lying somewhere around here, haha. Thanks Larry.

kta:

However, as Kenton mentioned, I believe there is one or two more project's media sprinkled in one or two drives somewhere.

Would it be safe to say that using MediaMover to turn these projects & associated media offline will remove those files from the MXF > 1 folder and put into MediaMoverOffline folder which will allow me to move my current projects media w/o having any straggler files trolling around in my new dedicated media drive that belong to different projects?

Can someone please advise on this question posted earlier? Thanks a ton!

I'm attempting contact with the owners of the MDV site to see what the status, if any, may be about a Mac compatible version. I have indicated to them the need for that on this Forum.

Quesiton. If you had DriveA, DriveB, and DriveC. And all the drives hit 5000 items each, would MC create DriveD or a number? I never really messed with the thing thinking that it would throw my stuff offline. Good stuff to know.

kellyv:

If you had DriveA, DriveB, and DriveC. And all the drives hit 5000 items each, would MC create DriveD or a number?

Avid only knows how to create a numerical folder, so if you have drive's named DriveA, DriveB etc.  Then two things stand:

a)  No media will be added into DriveA, Avid will only add media into numerical folders, such as 1 or 2 etc. 

b)  If you delete the msm database files in the DriveA folder, then Avid may not rebuild it because the DriveA folder really is "read only"

Thanks!

Larry Rubin:

 Are you looking to move media on a project by project basis? If so, MDV may be the right tool for you. It can cluster media files by project at the folder level, if you have enough projects where that is important to you.

MDV sounds very good, but as we now know, it isn't Mac-compatible.  So does anyone know if Media Mover (which is Mac-compatible: http://www.randomvideo.com/products/mediamover_avid.html) does the same thing?

Malcolm