"Item Not Found" error when attempting to copy flac files from one drive to another?

I'm guessing this is likely NOT a CD Ripper issue, but instead a Windows issue. Nevertheless, thought I'd inquire here in case others have experienced this particular problem.

Attempted to copy over 27,000 flac files from one hard drive to another to create another backup. Both drives are very new, recently formatted and "healthy". Towards the end of the copying process, an error window pops-up with the message "Item not found" - "Could not find this item" and it lists a song and all it's rip details, album art thumbnail, etc. This error repeats 37 times, once for each of the 37 files it 'can't find'. Funny thing is, I can see these 37 songs/files clearly present on HDD*1 (source drive). I can hover my mouse over their file names and it shows song/flac data present (between 20-45 MB for each one), yet when I right-click on any of them and go to 'properties', some show no data and 0 (zero) bytes, while others show the same data as when hovering over them. Weird. Crazier still is if I double-click on any one of the 'zero byte' files, Media Player opens and the song plays!

So yesterday this issue happened with 37 tracks/flac files "not found". So today I defragged HDD*1, reformatted HDD*2 and tried again. This time around, instead of 37, only 5 songs/flac files were 'not found'.

The inconsistency between 37 & 5 in particular I find very unnerving. If it had been 37 again today, I would've just assumed those 37 files had become corrupt and I'd just re-rip them. But today it's only 5... 2 of which are the same as yesterday, 3 are different than yesterday altogether.

I initially thought maybe it was too many characters in the file name making things screwy, and while a few are exceedingly long, others are well under the 255 character limit.

Any thoughts on what's going on/what to try?

THANKS! and sorry sooo long...

Have you tried performing a disk error check on HDD*1?

Yes, I absolutely did, neglected to mention. I defragged one drive, formatted the other,ran a disc error check on both. No errors reported.

Possibly the filenames are too long for the new drive or explorer.

I took some screenshots to better show:

*1 Both hard drives side-by-side. The one on the left is the source. Both have the song in question highlighted. Below the album art thumbnail, "Size" shows 106 MB for both: [url]https://i.imgur.com/dNX5XEi.jpg[/url]

*2 Right click > Properties > General on the left (source) drive shows 106 MB; Hovering mouse over right file shows same: [url]https://i.imgur.com/m61OQcf.jpg[/url]

*3 However when right-clicking > Properties > General on the copied file on the drive to the right shows "0 Bytes": [url]https://i.imgur.com/2g65Zch.jpg[/url]

And if a file shows 0 Bytes (like in image *3), it won't copy to a third drive at all (gives the "Item Not Found" error message).

Can you copy an offending file from the source drive to another folder on the source drive?

What is the length of the filepath\filename of an offending file?

[QUOTE=mville;189538]Can you copy an offending file from the source drive to another folder on the source drive?[/QUOTE]

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to all this, I'm completely baffled. Have spent all my spare time for the past 3 days researching, trying experiments, etc. To answer your question, "yes"... but it stays at 0 bytes if I relocate it on the same drive. In some instances though, if I relocate it to a different drive, it 'fixes' it and the bytes are restored. It really seems to have something to do with the folder structure and/or permissions. Like I can go from drive A > B and it changes to 0 bytes. Then (assuming I don't get the error message) I can go from drive B > C and the bytes are restored. Usually I get the error message and I can't do this though.

I have our company IT guy on call to patch-in and see what he can determine. If and when I find the cause and solution, I'll post back and share the results. Still open to suggestions in the mean time=)

[QUOTE=mville;189538]What is the length of the filepath\filename of an offending file?[/QUOTE]

Here's the exact filename of one of the offending files, pretty short: 07 Blue Öyster Cult - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.flac

[QUOTE=Theleb_Kaarna;189539]Here's the exact filename of one of the offending files, pretty short: 07 Blue Öyster Cult - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.flac[/QUOTE]

... and the filepath?

Is your antivirus locking the file while it checks it for a virus? Is your firewall sometimes blocking access to the drive? You might try temporarily disabling them and see if the problem ceases. If so, you'll have to add the directories or filetype to an exclusion list.

[QUOTE=mville;189541]... and the filepath?[/QUOTE]Oops, sorry. My main FLAC library is split between two physical internal Samsung 850 PRO 1TB SSDs:

SSD *1 named: "Music Library [A-L](E)". On this SSD are 5 folders (names in quotes are exact): "~ [A-L] m4a & mp3 (Lame) Files ~" / "~ [A-L] Public Library FLAC Files ~" / "~ [A-L] RED Book & HDCD FLAC Files ~" / "~ Unknown Codec FLAC Files ~" / "+ [A-L] Album Artwork +". SSD *2 ("Music Library [M-Z] (F)") folder structure is exactly the same as "E", except substitute "[A-L]" with "[M-Z]".

So 4 music file folders and 1 artwork folder per drive. Then within each of the 4 music folders are the Album Artist folders CD Ripper generates (default folder structure).

So for example: (SSD *1) "Music Library [A-L] (E)" > "~ [A-L] Red Book & HDCD FLAC Files ~" > "Flim & The BB's" > "Tricycle" > "06 Flim & The BB's - Thunder And Birdies.flac"


Now this is potentially huge and I'm probably an idiot for not mentioning previously, but honestly it didn't seem relevant before today: About a week ago, I completely redid my folder structure on my 2 SSDs. Previously, I had been ripping everything (A-Z) onto my "E" drive, then manually copying every bit of it to my "F" drive, so as to serve as a backup. But I began to run out of room so decided to split my library between the two drives, then backing up everything onto my "G" drive (Western Digital 4TB HDD), onto a portable 2TB drive, and onto my computer at work. So prior to 'the split', I had 2 identical drives (E & F) both containing the exact same content. To make the split, I simply created all my new folders on each drive, moved the relevant files to the appropriate folders, then deleted the redundant duplicate files (so for example any "A-L" files on the "M-Z" (F) drive got deleted). Now I know that with most types of files where applications reference their exact location you should never do this (ie the app can't find the file/link broken). But in this instance, I thought I'd be safe. I mean really, were talking about a bunch of loose files that are referenced (in my case) by two applications: dBpoweramp and JRiver, both of which I relinked no problem... they work fine and see everything.

But now I'm wondering if I've messed-up some registry or folder/file permissions or some such thing with my restructuring. I'm hoping tomorrow to get to talk with my company's IT and he'll shed some light. Also I'll check back here if you guys have any thoughts/suggestions. As I said before, once I find the solution, whether it be here or w/ my IT, I'll post back what it is.

Thanks for reading, sorry so long.
-Theleb

[QUOTE=schmidj;189543]Is your antivirus locking the file while it checks it for a virus? Is your firewall sometimes blocking access to the drive? You might try temporarily disabling them and see if the problem ceases. If so, you'll have to add the directories or filetype to an exclusion list.[/QUOTE]

I'm good there. I use Acronis' Security and Windows Defender. I've run complete manual system scans at home and at work with zero threats detected. Windows Defender security is up-to-date. I also tried temporarily disabling all firewall as you suggested, but the issue still persists.

Good thoughts though, thanks! Keep 'em coming=)

Re-boot your system in safe mode, retry copying one of the offending files and post back with the result.

[QUOTE=mville;189554]Re-boot your system in safe mode, retry copying one of the offending files and post back with the result.[/QUOTE]

Alright, just tried that, Safe Boot > Minimal, and.... no change. Issue still persisting.

*rats*

[QUOTE=Theleb_Kaarna;189552]So 4 music file folders and 1 artwork folder per drive. Then within each of the 4 music folders are the Album Artist folders CD Ripper generates (default folder structure).

So for example: (SSD *1) "Music Library [A-L] (E)" > "~ [A-L] Red Book & HDCD FLAC Files ~" > "Flim & The BB's" > "Tricycle" > "06 Flim & The BB's - Thunder And Birdies.flac"[/QUOTE]

Please can you right-click on an offending file e.g. 06 Flim & The BB's - Thunder And Birdies.flac and select [I]Properties[/I]. Then, on the [I]Properties >> General[/I] tab, copy and paste to this thread, exactly what is displayed in [I]Location[/I]?

[QUOTE=mville;189557]Please can you right-click on an offending file e.g. 06 Flim & The BB's - Thunder And Birdies.flac and select [I]Properties[/I]. Then, on the [I]Properties >> General[/I] tab, copy and paste to this thread, exactly what is displayed in [I]Location[/I]?[/QUOTE]

Sorry for the delay. The Flim & The BB's song is NOT an 'offending file'. To better illustrate the error, I'll Use the following 2 Blue Öyster Cult songs as examples. They're located in the same exact folder and directly next to each other for easy comparison. File/song *10 does NOT have any error, where file/song *11 DOES have the error (once copied to a different drive).

Path examples on my (E) drive, where there are NO 'offending' files (the error only occurs once a file is copied from here to a different drive). Cut-and-pasted from "General" & "Location" EXACTLY as you requested:
[B][U]FILE:[/U][/B] 10 Blue Öyster Cult - Hot Rails To Hell (Previously Unreleased Bonus Track).flac [B][U]PATH:[/U][/B] E:\~ [A-L] Red Book & HDCD FLAC Files ~\Blue Öyster Cult\Some Enchanted Evening - Legacy Edition [Expanded And Remastered Plus Bonus DVD]
[B][U]FILE:[/U][/B] 11 Blue Öyster Cult - (This Ain't The) Summer Of Love (Unreleased Bonus Track).flac [B][U]PATH:[/U][/B] E:\~ [A-L] Red Book & HDCD FLAC Files ~\Blue Öyster Cult\Some Enchanted Evening - Legacy Edition [Expanded And Remastered Plus Bonus DVD]

When I copy these exact 2 songs from my (E) drive to my (G) Backup drive, file *10 copies just fine, while file *11 experiences the error:
[B][U]FILE:[/U][/B] 10 Blue Öyster Cult - Hot Rails To Hell (Previously Unreleased Bonus Track).flac [B][U]PATH:[/U][/B] G:\Music Library [A-L] (E) BACKUP\~ [A-L] Red Book & HDCD FLAC Files ~\Blue Öyster Cult\Some Enchanted Evening - Legacy Edition [Expanded And Remastered Plus Bonus DVD]
[B][U]FILE:[/U][/B] 11 Blue Öyster Cult - (This Ain't The) Summer Of Love (Unreleased Bonus Track).flac [B][U]PATH:[/U][/B] G:\Music Library [A-L] (E) BACKUP\~ [A-L] Red Book & HDCD FLAC Files ~\Blue Öyster Cult\Some Enchanted Evening - Legacy Edition [Expanded And Remastered Plus Bonus DVD]

As you can see, the paths are identical between both tracks on each respective drive, even where the error occurs. I'm still personally leaning more towards the culprit being a registry and/or permissions issue with the individual files/folders.

Thanks mville for your continued efforts to help me. Greatly appreciate you=)