Welcome to what hopefully - crossing fingers - is the documentation for the last in my lifetime CD to MP3 conversion. I began this process on 6/6/2016 and provided updates on the first day of the month and then on the 16th day of the month. Thus, the information in the table below begins with the 20160601 - 20160615 row at the bottom of the table and works up to February 28, 2018 - 1 year, 8 months, 3 weeks, 1 day (632 days) to rip 50 spindles of 100 CDs each. In the bottom row of the table below, I wrote:
I have a tentative goal to work on the conversion for the next 6 months in order to hit a target date of Thursday, December 1, 2016. It's 183 days away.
I missed that goal by 1 year, 2 months, 3 weeks, 6 days (454 days)! Oops!
After the February 28, 2018, date, I made periodic updates to the table.
Before getting to the table itself, some housekeeping:
- To view information about my legacy conversions, see http://prhmusic.blogspot.com/p/reconversion.html
- To view information about spindles of CDs that are completed, see http://prhmusic.blogspot.com/p/cd-spindles.html
- To view posts on this blog specifically related to this project, see 2016_06_05_CD to MP3/Ripping%20CDs%20to%20MP3Note: I am in the process of auditing this blog to ensure all related posts have this label.
- To view posts on this blog related converting CDs to MP3, see https://prhmusic.blogspot.com/search/label/Ripping%20CDs%20to%20MP3Note: I am in the process of auditing this blog to ensure all related posts have this label.
| Start Date | End Date | Number | Notes |
| 20240415 | 20240430 | N/A |
Well... I guess it happened again. I purchased more CDs during the trip to Saint Louis in 11-2023 with Matthew Helmke to see Metallica. On the way to our hotel, we stopped at Slackers and a 2nd music store - the name escapes me - and I walked out with a stack of bargain CDs. So, while I keep proclaiming "I AM DONE" it would appear I am not... I currently have several spindles to convert. I was working on Spindle #59 before I gave up on it - I don't recall why or when that was - and so I have (let's say) 80 CDs to convert on Spindle 59. After 59 is complete, I will begin ripping the following spindles, each with 100 CDs:
To aid in this project, I do have a new-to-me tower that I purchased from a guy in Des Moines in December 2023. I am still messing around with how to have it set up on my desk in the den. I waffle between setting it up in the corner of the desk and the right return of the desk. I can use the right return of the desk (as an option) because I moved the bookcase that was on the right return to the wall next to the light switch. I really need to update the "Den Project" page on this blog, huh? As long as I'm updating this page, I should also mention that I have dipped my toe into the idea of a massive reconfiguration of how I store my CDs. Yes, I will continue to use spindles, but I am evaluating the idea to separate all of my Non-CD-R CDs from my CD-R CDs. I also have to consider a third category of my CDs, which is Data CDs, which are currently spread across multiple spindles. A second project I have been dippig my toe into is the concept of documenting the binders with CD booklets & inlay cards - I may end up creating a brand-new set of pages on this blog to assist with the idea to group the 100s of CD booklets & inlay cards into some sort of order. This organization project is overwhelming. A third project I actually have a pressing need to re-do http://prhmusic.blogspot.com/p/cd-spindles.html and each of its sub-pages. However, it doesn't make any sense to re-do those sub-pages until the reconfiguration of spindles project is actually in-progress. A fourth project I am working on, related to all of the above, is the actual renaming of my MP3s. In my I:\music-shell folder, I ran the following command: dir *.mp3 *.wav *.wma *.3gp *.m4a /s and the result of that command was as follows: Total Files Listed: 278993 File(s) 2,531,520,155,624 bytes I can guarantee with 1000% confidence that I have several 1000 - actual count at this morning 2653 - duplicate files within that folder - so my actual count is 276,340 *.mp3 *.wav *.wma *.3gp *.m4a files. I don't have a project plan around any of these projects as of today, Monday, 20240415. I am purposely setting the End Date column for this row to 20240430 as I am giving myself until Tuesday, April 30, 2024, to develop a plan for the spindle reorganization project as well as for the binder reorganization project. Part of the plan for each will be to assign a Project Name that I can then use in every instance of writing about the above plans. |
| 20221201 | 20221231 | N/A |
Well... I guess it happened again. I purchased another 300 CDs that will come without spindles next week. So, while the row below proclaims "I AM DONE" it would appear I am not... Additionally, I am knee-deep in reorganizing my MP3s. I have created an absolute MESS! |
| 20220301 | 20220331 | N/A |
Well... I was online one day and was looking at Facebook Marketplace. I found an ad selling 100 CDs for cheap and if you buy 200 CDs, you get 100 CDs for free! Well... I now have 300 more CDs to convert to MP3! <grin> I intend to begin converting these 300 CDs later this year. I have several irons in the fire right now and I need to decide the high priority tasks, from a long list, and spend my time on those tasks with the highest priority. For example, while I have successfully inserted hundreds of CD booklets and inlay cards into binders, I have at least 100 more to insert into a spiral notebook which is where I am putting the cardboard CD cases that do not fit inside the slot in one of the binders. After all of the CD booklets, inlays, and cardboard things are tucked away in a binder or notebook, I have this idea that I want to document the binders - there are 15 binders that have CD booklets and inlay cards. I would like to cross-reference the location of the CD booklet and inlay card in a binder with the spindle on which the CD exists. I have yet to decide whether I want to use multiple lined tablets to document the binders or a single spiral notebook - I have to decide that first - lined tablets or notebook - before I begin this project. As a bonus, someday, there will be 16 binders as Karen bought a 400 CD capacity binder as a Valentine's Day present. While the 300 CDs from the Facebook Marketplace ad did not come with CD booklets or inlay cards, I feel as though this project will require NN hours. So, while the row below proclaims "I AM DONE" it would appear I am not... |
| 20210302 | 20210331 | N/A |
I AM DONEI finished converting the very first cassette tape I ever owned - the Xanadu soundtrack - this morning, Wednesday, 3/31/2021! My Grandma Simons purchased that cassette for me 41 years ago - in 1980 - at the KMart on Collins Road, across from Lindale Mall. Funny story about that cassette is that Mom had told me that I could get a record but because my Grandma Simons was my best friend and she spoiled me all the time, Grandma purchased the cassette tape. At the time, it was around $14 and, in 4th grade without an income - this was 1980 - $14 was a lot of money! I chose that cassette to be the last one converted deliberately.I AM DONE and it feels totally AWESOME!Probably by this time next week, I will have some actual numbers regarding how many hours were converted by each of the 15 boxes as well as some other statistics, but that won't happen right away because I am focusing on some tasks at work that I need to get through.I can say, though, that using rough time estimates per tape - either 15 (for singles), 60, or 90 minutes, I had 405 hours as an estimate. I also can say that if I listened to every cassette I own, back to back, 24 hours a day, it would take me, roughly, 16.875 days to do so. |
| 20210302 | 20210323 | 124873 |
I finished converting Box 12 of my cassettes yesterday! Thus far, I have 557 MP3s spread across 509 folders. I have: By the way, when I ran this command: I'm not going to list the stats for the "Boxes" sub-folders as I anticipate that I will learn that there are duplicates floating around. When I ran this command: There is a lot of excitement about being able to finish this project! |
| 20210222 | 20210302 | 123579 |
I am putting this project into a status I'll call "on hiatus" which means that, for this snapshot in time, I consider myself no longer actively converting CDs to Mp3s. Don't expect future updates of this page on a regular basis. Sure, I have more CDs to convert. However, not enough. In the den closet, I have a 59th spindle with not more than 25 CDs on it. Additionally, I have some other CDs which I have not taken out of the shrink wrap. Hoever, the sum of all of these CDs - (the ones on the 59th spindle) + (other CDs which I have not taken out of the shrink wrap) is less than 100 - I don't even have to count. Thus, until I accumulate enough CDs to complete the 59th spindle, I'm going to call this project "on hiatus" until such a time as when I have 100 CDs on that 59th spindle. When I ran this command: However, that's not the entire story. I have been working on converting Spindle 58 to MP3. As of 2/22/2021, I have 20 CDs remaining, which means that the following statistic for that folder does NOT include information about 20 CDs which will eventually be included in the Spindle 58 stats. Also, I did not run the DOS command with a file type other than MP3 because the 58_Spindle folder has no other file types. That's why I ran this command: I have been working on eliminating duplicate files. My "grand idea" is to copy all files with one of the above 6 file types to a separate flat directory and to then whittle out the duplicates. When I ran this command: I have been using the FreeYoutubeToMP3 software I purchased to download just a bunch of music. Statistics for this were not availalbe when I wanted to publish revisions to this page. There's more going on as I have successfully converted 8 boxes of cassette tapes and am moving on to Box 9! There are 457 MP3 files - lower than the row below this one. Why? When I converted the following cassette tapes, the conversion process created multiple files, instead of a single MP3. I decided that before I began converting Box 9, I would re-convert the following albums with a change in the settings that would create a single file for each of the following:
The re-conversion of those albums will save me frustration in the future. The following are the current elapsed times for each box: This is a "snapshot" of the stats for Box 1009 after a single day (Tuesday, March 2, 2021) of converting its contents : |
| 20210107 | 20210222 | 122266 |
There are a lot of things going on in the conversion reality I have created. When I ran this command: However, that's not the entire story. I have been working on converting Spindle 58 to MP3. As of 2/22/2021, I have 20 CDs remaining, which means that the following statistic for that folder does NOT include information about 20 CDs which will eventually be included in the Spindle 58 stats. Also, I did not run the DOS command with a file type other than MP3 because the 58_Spindle folder has no other file types. That's why I ran this command: Again, there are 20 CDs remaining on the spindle to convert! I have been working on eliminating duplicate files. My "grand idea" is to copy all files with one of the above 6 file types to a separate flat directory and to then whittle out the duplicates. When I ran this command: I have been using the FreeYoutubeToMP3 software I purchased to download just a bunch of music. Statistics for this were not availalbe when I wanted to publish revisions to this page. There's more going on as I have successfully converted 7 boxes of cassette tapes! YES! This project was collecting spiderwebs for quite a few years, but then, on December 21, 2020, I resumed this project. There are 513 MP3 files and, by adding the elapsed time for: |
| 20190927 | 20210107 | 121641 | Well, a lot has happened. As of 1/7/2021, I am converting Spindle 57, which I started on 12/10/2020. I have 40 more CDs to go so I should be able to finish by 1/10/2021. Page 1 = 31.5 hours Page 2 = 35.5 hours Page 3 = 37.0 hours Page 4 = 34.5 hours Page 5 = 31.5 hours Total = 170 hours And, just to level the playing field, when I ran this command: Also, I have been working on eliminating duplicate files. My "grand idea" was to copy all files with one of the above 6 file types to a separate flat directory and to then whittle out the duplicates. When I ran this command: Also, I had been using the FreeYoutubeToMP3 software I purchased to download just a bunch of music. When I ran the following command |
| 20190821 | 20190927 | 120007 | I might try to make updating this page a thing I do on the last Friday of the month. No promises. |
| 20180530 | 20190821 | 120007 | Checking in for the first time since 448 days ago (1 year, 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 day). The total to the left is the result of running the following DOS command: | dir o:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | which includes 946 duplicate files which I know I have because I ran the following command: | dir o:\music_shell\*(2).mp3 *(3).mp3 *(4).mp3 *(5).mp3 *(6).mp3 *(7).mp3 *(8).mp3 *(9).mp3 *(10).mp3 *(11).mp3 /s | Honestly, I am uncertain which spindle is sitting on my desk in the den. I have been trying to use a laptop I purchased for $99 that is terribly slow. On top of that, Windows Media Player has discontinued the ability to right-click files and select Find Album Info to update the artist and album information to the selected files, which really sucks. I am seeking an alternative tool. To read the details about where I am with this project, see How to Test For These Abnormalities?. |
| 20190228 | 20180530 | 111701 | Checking in for the first time since 91 days ago. I regret that I did not enter a number on 2/28/2019. The total to the left is the result of running the following DOS command: | dir g:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | which includes 249 duplicate files which I know I have because I ran the following command: | dir g:\music_shell\*(2).mp3 *(3).mp3 *(4).mp3 *(5).mp3 *(6).mp3 *(7).mp3 *(8).mp3 *(9).mp3 *(10).mp3 *(11).mp3 /s | I am re-ripping Spindle #53 because apparently, I needed to repeat a task I thought I had already completed. |
| 20181026 | 20190228 | N/A | Wanted to put in an update about what's been going on. The main gist is that I have a lot of external hard drives and a lot of duplicate music files. |
| 20180815 | 20181026 | 101552 | The total to the left is the result of running the following DOS command: | dir g:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | which includes 2528 duplicate files which I know I have because I ran the following command: | dir g:\music_shell\*(2).mp3 *(3).mp3 *(4).mp3 *(5).mp3 *(6).mp3 *(7).mp3 *(8).mp3 *(9).mp3 *(10).mp3 *(11).mp3 /s | I am re-ripping Spindle #51 because I have a lot of data CDs. When I initially did it, I copied all the files from the CD to the root Spindle_51 folder. Well, now I can't tell what album is on what CD. Thus, I am re-doing it. I'm 25% done and plan to do a lot of ripping the weekend of November 9th, 10th, and 11th - which is Karen's Women's Weekend Away. I'm plotting to have 4 machines ripping CDs at the same time on 3 different levels of the house. I'm thinking about doing that so I have to constantly walk from one machine to another and am not planted in a single place all weekend. I will put a laptop on the kids' level, a laptop in the kitchen, the Windows 10 machine in the living room area of the basement (so I can catch glimpses of the Iowa v. Northwestern football game on November 10th) and a laptop in the den. With the purchase of CDs by Steve & Janeeda at Slacker's in St. Louis and the purchase of the CDs from the girl that was going to move from Iowa City to Seattle, I feel like I will love the results of those 3 days. November 9th is two weeks from today! |
| 20180809 | 20180815 | N/A | The process to recover my files completed! Here are the results: Total recovered: 82478 Fully recovered: 35722 Partially recovered: 78906 Operation Completed in 107 hours, 52 minutes, 38 seconds 6453 Total Not Recovered |
| 20180623 | 20180809 | 99548 | It has been 47 days (1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days) since my last update. What has happened? I thought I'd switch things up a bit. The G: EHD is currently processing files and cannot be disturbed. This is a screenshot of the Media Info Exporter add-in for Windows Media Player, which reports that I have 99548 files in my "Music" library. 
I'm pretty sure - like 90% sure - that I only copied duplicates so it should be fairly easy to get a list of the files on the new EHD and then generate commands to look for the file on the other 13 drives. Except I know there are over 4000 files on the new drive. Generating 4000 commands would be very time consuming. I've seen the suggestion to access the EHD through a Mac environment and am trying to figure out exactly how I could do that, since I don't own a Mac. I've also thought about booting up into Linux, but I think the problem I'd face with that is I don't recall the password and when I looked into how to get around that issue, it was a very long and confusing process ... so I gave up, at the time, because I didn't have time to devote to it. I'm hopeful that during the next 100 days, leading to Monday, October 1, 2018, I will figure out what I can actually do with this new EHD. It is on Monday, October 1, 2018, when I plan to begin converting the ~400 CDs from the girl moving to Seattle, the ~100 CDs from the guy I connected with on Craigslist, and the ~50 CDs that Steve & Janeeda purchased with the $40 I gave them prior to going to St. Louis. I'm giving myself 100 days to weed out duplicates and to get my g:\music_shell\*.* files in order. |
| 20180301 | 20180622 | 103898 | It has been 113 days (3 months, 3 weeks) since my last update. What has happened?!? The total to the left is the result of running the following DOS command: | dir g:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | Obviously, having 20564 fewer files means I've been busy, but doing what? I have not begun to rip the CDs I purchased earlier this year, though I'm targeting Monday, October 1, 2018, as my start date. It is 101 days (3 months, 1 week, 2 days) from today. I have been ensuring that I have a good backup of my music. Case in point is I have a sync job running now to sync up g:\music_shell with j:\music_shell. I like this picture because it traces the progress in the Modified Date column of the syncing.    Fun Fact Trivia: Had I never left Quintrex in 10/2010, October 1, 2018, would have been my 20 years of service date. October 1, 1998, was a Thursday and 3 weeks to the day (!!) on October 22, 1998, Alex was born. |
| 20180216 | 20180228 | 124462 | The total to the left is the result of running the following DOS command: | dir g:\music_shell\*.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | Even though I know I have eliminated many duplicate files, two things: 1) Somehow I added 6451 files 2) I still have many duplicate files to go My remaining cleanup revolves around finding files that exist in both a NN_Spindle folder, where NN is a number between 01 and 50, as well as within the g:\music_shell\music folder. Duplicate files are being deleted from the music_shell\music folder as I find them - SearchMyFiles.exe is my friend! These are some screenshots of what I see in Windows Media Player. The first shows all 50 of my NN_Spindle folders:   |
| 20180201 | 20180215 | 118011 | The total to the left is the result of running the following DOS command: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | It's DONE!!!!!| Let the gravity of that statement resonate for a few minutes... I completed Spindles #48, #49, & 50. I made my 2/13/2018 deadline. I pulled it off. All that said, I have some cleanup to do. During the conversion, if I had a CD that wouldn't rip or or that I thought I would need to enter track information manually or that Windows Media Player thought was blank, my process was to put those CDs on a separate spindle and my procedure was to defer dealing with the troubled CD until after the other 50 spindles were completely ripped. Some of the troubled CDs are "data CDs" that came from Chris Motter & Kevin Herren. The other night, after the 50 spindles were completely done, I put a data CD into one of the external CD drives. I likely didn't own either external CD drive when I placed the CD on the troubled spindle. The specific CD I tried had been designated by Windows Media Player as blank so while I didn't expect to be able to see the files, I didn't really trust Windows Media Player's assessment of the CD. Sure enough, the external CD drive recognized that there were files on the CD. There are approximately 20 data CDs to try again, which I will do on Saturday, 2/17, & Sunday, 2/18. I also have not integrated the files from Spindles #48, #49, & 50 into the g:\music_shell folder so the number in this row is not entirely accurate. I also have a LOT of duplicate files to deal with in g:\music_shell - while it's nothing new, I need to get those cleaned up too. My plan is to have all of that work done by Saturday, February 25, 2018, which is the premier of Season 8B of "The Walking Dead." That day is also the 630th day (1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks, 6 days) of working on this project, which seems like a nice round number. I missed the 600 day milestone (1/26/2018). One final housekeeping note is the page with the links to the information about Spindles 48, 49, & 50 will be updated by 2/25/2018. |
| 20180101 | 20180115 | 117088 | I manually ran DOS commands to find totals for the following: | 109042 MP3s 209 WAVs 303 WMAs 126 3gps | I have completed Spindles #41 & #42, thanks to the purchase of a second external CD drive on Friday, 1/12/18. At this point, it's unclear if I'll make my 2/13/2018 deadline. I'm updating this page on 1/16/2018 (a Tuesday) so I have exactly 4 weeks to pull this off. |
| 20180115 | 20180131 | 120038 | The total to the left is the result of running the following DOS command: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | I have completed Spindles #43 & 44. At this point, it's still unclear if I'll make my 2/13/2018 deadline. I'm updating this page on 2/1/2018 (a Thursday) so I have exactly 12 days to pull this off. I had a really good session on Saturday, January 24th when I had multiple machines ripping CDs at the same time. I'm hopeful for another really good session on Saturday, February 3, 2018. Per my schedule, if I am done with Spindles 45. 46, & 47, I will be on schedule. |
| 20180101 | 20180115 | 117088 | I manually ran DOS commands to find totals for the following: | 109042 MP3s 209 WAVs 303 WMAs 126 3gps | I have completed Spindles #41 & #42, thanks to the purchase of a second external CD drive on Friday, 1/12/18. At this point, it's unclear if I'll make my 2/13/2018 deadline. I'm updating this page on 1/16/2018 (a Tuesday) so I have exactly 4 weeks to pull this off. |
| 20171216 | 20171231 | 99774 | Great progress on the morning of 12/31 as I was able to finish converting Spindle #39 & begin converting Spindle #40. My goal is to be done with Spindles 40 - 50 by March 1, 2018 because it is a year prior to my original goal of being done on March 2, 2019 - 1000 days after beginning this project. I figured out I need to average 17 CDs a day each day between January 1 and March 1 to make that goal. I anticipate getting up early tomorrow - likely around 6 AM - & ripping more CDs until around 8, which is when I will go get ready for 9 AM Mass. |
| 20171218 | 20171218 | 100320 | In what could end up being a move I regret in the future, I bit the bullet and reformatted the B: EHD. I had spent a lot of time trying to get files off of it and wht files that were on it were a copy of what was on the G: EHD. Thus, when my laptop asked me if I wanted to reformat, I figured it was time. I had ran a CHKDSK on it yesterday with the Windows 10 PC as a last ditch effort to fix it, but yeah, it appears it wasn't enough. Time will tell if I really did have all essential files on a different drive or if, I fear this does not happen, I had some files only on B: and they are now lost. I am putting all my eggs in the basket of "I've been smart and have a backup" but honestly, I can't judge if I am smart or an idiot. It's why I'm hoping the 1086 files that wre on drive B, but not on Drive G, in the 20171201 line are duplicate files and/or on the V: EHD or the E: EHD. Since I'm updating this page, I may as well also document that I downloaded A LOT of files from youtube.com over the weekend. I found a list of the Top 100 Heavy Metal Albums of 2017 on the Metal Hammer website so I took that list and created a Word document so I could search youtube.com for "BandName_AlbumName_FullAlbum," right-click the URL, and paste it into freeyoutubetomp3, the software I purchased. The number in this row includes the following: 1538 files with (2) or (3) or (4) or (5) or (6) or (7) or (8) or (9) |
| 20171201 | 20171215 | 89854 (drive G) 90940 (drive B) | This is the command I ran on 11/15/2017 in the b:\music_shells folder AND the g:\music_shell folders | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | Wait, what? Why two different directories and two different numbers? I'm too busy with other matters to elaborate & I'm hoping what I would write would be quickly obsolete. Keep hoping that, anyways.... |
| 20171116 | 20171130 | 80106 | This is the command I ran on 11/01/2017 in the b:\music_shell folder: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. The B:\ drive is 'fixed' except I think the final 4 CDs were lost. I will reconvert them soon. The reason for the increase from 61697 to 80106 is because when I synced two directories, there was a directory created with a bunch of files. I moved those files to b:\music_shell\music and haven't removed duplicate files. I'm guessing there will be quite a few. |
| 20171128 | 20171128 | 1066 | Well, in a bizarre and unexplained twist, I could not find the MP3s I created when I converted Spindle #34 from November 10 - 15, 2017. Rather than try to figure out where the files went, I reconverted the CDs. I started on November 25th; I finished November 27th, which was last night, as I watched Monday Night Raw. This AM, the next day, I cannot access some of the files in the b:\music_shell\34_spindle folder. I will reboot in a few minutes and try again, but it's frustrating at this precise moment - 7:17 AM on a Tuesday - that I cannot seem to be "done" with this spindle #34! Grr! I promise to update this page on Thursday, November 30th, per my normally scheduled update, with any additional information about this Spindle_34 folder. |
| 20171101 | 20171115 | 61697 | This is the command I ran on 11/01/2017 in the b:\music_shell folder: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. I purchased an external CD drive which I now have connected to the Toshiba laptop. This allows me to rip CDs on both the Toshiba laptop as well as the Windows 10 tower. Also, since the last time I updated this page, I purchased a 4 TB external hard drive for $90 from a seller on Craigslist. I made a backup of my music_shell folder yesterday:  |
| 20171016 | 20171031 | 61841 | This is the command I ran on 10/16/2017 in the b:\music_shell folder: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. As was true for the 20171001-20171015 row, I've been deleting a lot of duplicates. Out of the number in this row, I can say that I have a sub-directory with 297 files that do not have some aspect of their file definition complete. Some files don't have one or more of the following:
As of this moment, I have 35 more CDs to convert on Spindle #34. |
| 20171020 | 20171020 | 64083 | Special Update!I finished converting Spindle 33 on Thursday, 10/19/2017, and on Wednesday, 10/18/17, I reached the 500 day milestone. |
| 20171001 | 20171015 | 64237 | This is the command I ran on 10/16/2017 in the b:\music_shell folder: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. This number is lower as I had intended to counterbalance the number of duplicate files I've been deleting with completing the conversion of Spindle #32 by yesterday, but I have 30 more to go. The next few days are not going to led themselves to a lot of time to work on this project, but I still hope that finishing Spindle #32 will be completed by 11/01/2017. I purchased 125 CDs for $25 through a Craigslist ad. I call that a mighty fine bargain: $.20 a CD, especially if you consider each CD would have had an average price of at least $10. That's $1250 worth of CDs for $25 - it's 98% off the retail price!! As a follow-up, I had a good time at the Overkill, Crowbar, and Havok concert. The other two bands never showed up. I talked to a guy who played guitar in the prison band - he had just spent 3 years in federal prison. Long story short, he asked me for a ride and I didn't give him one. I feel bad about that and I've been praying for him. I won't go into a lot of what I have been writing about in my private journal, as it's not the right place, on this page, to do so. I will say that there is a lot to be said for saying you want to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and actually living that way. In hindsight, if asked again, I would give the guy $20 to get a cab ride home. We have a busy weekend. We have a wedding in Dubuque on Saturday and on Sunday, we are getting up early and driving to Cedar Falls for Alex's 19th birthday. It is also the start of The Walking Dead Season 8! |
| 20170916 | 20170930 | 67958 | This is the command I ran on 9/27/2017 in the b:\music_shell folder: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. Due to completing the conversion of the CDs on Spindle #31 last night, I'm taking a pause from the conversion until Sunday, October 1, 2017. The reality is that I have to pack to go to Elkader tonight because tomorrow night, I am going to Spicolli's in Waterloo to see Overkill, Crowbar, Havok, and two other bands. I am going with my friend Kevin H. and my son Alex. Kevin is off work @ 5 so I'd like to be on the road to Cedar Falls around 5:15. Kevin lives in NE Cedar Rapids and to get to his house, I take the Boyson Road exit, which is undergoing construction. I will seek an alternate route. |
| 20170901 | 20170915 | 75056 | This is the command I ran on 9/15/2017 in the b:\music_shell folder: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. I didn't finish as much as I thought I would. During the past week, we really didn't have anything going on at home. In the back of my head, I thought it would be a good week to hibernate in the den and rip at least a spindle. That didn't happen. I am barely through 25 CDs on Spindle #31. The number to the left does not include some CDs I ripped because I didn't transfer them from the Windows 10 PC to drive_b, but it does include 2204 files with (2) in the file name. This project will receive less and less (and less) attention as September winds down and October begins. Today is Friday and we are going to the camper in Elkader today. Next week will be busy with some tasks I've been putting off. I need to stack my drums back in the furnace room because I don't want to have them out and have the basement in its current state of disarray when the kids come home. I did briefly consider stacking them in the den or even setting them up in the den, but I have given up on that idea. |
| 20170815 | 20170831 | 59747 | This is the command I ran on 9/5/2017 (due to Labor Day and being in Elkader from 9/1 - 9/4) in the b:\music_shell folder: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. My hope is to finish Spindle #30 by today, September 5, 2017, so that I can say "I finished 30 spindles in 1 year, 3 months (457 days). I was curious how long I can expect to work on this conversion with 2000 CDs (20 spindles) remaining if it took 457 days to convert 3000 CDs. If I divide 3000 by 457 days, I learn that it took 152 days to convert 1000 CDs (or 10 spindles). Thus, I can extrapolate that in order to convert 2000 CDs, I will need until Friday, July 6, 2018, at that pace. Further, if I hit that date, I will finish this CD to MP3 conversion ~8 months (technically, 7 months, 3 weeks, 4 days so I'm rounding "up" to 8 months) (240 total days) ahead of my goal of being complete on Saturday, March 2, 2019, which is when I will be working on this project for 1000 days. Hopefully that all makes sense! |
| 20170821 | 20170821 | 1153 files in 27_Spindle folder 1135 files in 28_Spindle folder | Special Update! My nephew, Tyler, ripped CDs for me on Saturday, 8/19/2017, while his dad and I made music (okay, noise) in the other part of the basement. He finished Spindle #27 and began Spindle #28, which I then finished on Sunday, 8/20/2017. I will begin spindle #29 when I sit down in the den next! It is going to be a while before I have a weekend to rip CDs so I am ecstatic Tyler worked on this project. The jobs to synch u:\, y:\, and z:\ to the new WD 8 TB EHD - which has been christened "E" for future reference - completed over the weekend as well. I was going to start a synch from m:\ to e:\ but when I left for work today, it was storming. I unplugged all EHDs and PCs before I left for work. |
| 20170801 | 20170814 | 51843 | This is the command I ran on 8/18/2017: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. I completed spindle 26 in 3 days! I started it on 8/13/2017 and finished on 8/15/2017! The other big news is I purchased a WD 8 TB EHD for $190.10 at Best Buy. Right now, I have jobs running on my Windows 10 PC that is copying files from the following drives to it: B:\ M:\ U:\ Y:\ Z:\ My goal is to manipulate the files and eliminate the duplicates and then push back a refreshed copy of the files. For example, I can't tell you how many zillion copies of pictures I have, but there is a lot. The same with Word docs, PDFs, and, yes, MP3s. I want to end up with a single version. Then, my plan is to use the U:\, Y:\, and Z:\ EHDs for backups. I do NOT plan to take the WD 8 TB EHD anywhere - it looks exactly like the "R:\" drive that fell from the desk and is currently keeping the bass drum pedal for the Yamaha set from digging into the wall. The CD to MP3 conversion is 66 days ahead of schedule. I completed ripping Spindle 25:  |
| 20170716 | 20170728 | 54932 | This is the command I ran on 7/28/2017: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. I'm updating this page a couple of days early because we are going on vacation. I won't be in front of a PC again until Monday, 8/7. I completed ripping Spindle #24 this AM. I ripped Phillippe & Opprobrium at 3:49 and 3:51 AM:  Anyways, this project is now 48 % - 24 spindles x 100 complete out of 50 total, as shown below:  |
| 20170701 | 20170713 | 44643 | This is the command I ran on 7/13/2017 in the b:\music_shell folder | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. I'm updating this page a couple of days early because Alex & I leave for the Chicago Open Air concert tomorrow AM. I won't be in front of a PC again until Monday, 7/17, which is when we are coming back to Iowa. Thus, here's the picture of my WMP folders:  |
| 20170616 | 20170630 | 44023 | This is the command I ran on 6/29/2017 in the b:\music_shell folder | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a *.amr /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. Somehow, I reduced my count 981 files from the 20170615 row. I know I removed some duplicates but, darn! I wanted to continue the trend upward. I completed Spindle #22 on Wednesday, 6/28/2017 and will likely begin converting Spindle #23 on Wednesday, July 5th. Just for the record, the CD drive on the Toshiba (family) laptop does not rip CDs - don't know why - and my work laptop does not have a CD drive. I am contemplating the purchase of a ~$40 external CD player that I could hook into either laptop with a USB cord. Starting tomorrow, 6/30, we will spend the weekend in Elkader. We will go to the Garnavillo 4th of July parade and then, likely, return home before any local fireworks begin. Because I do not have the aforementioned external CD player, I am not planning to convert any CDs over the weekend or even on July 4th, due to watching the fireworks. |
| 20170601 | 20170615 | 45004 | Will I or won't I - that's the question! Today is actually 6/14/2017 and here is the scoop. I have 10 CDs remaining to rip on Spindle #21. Will I be able to finish ripping those 10 CDs tonight? Update on 6/16/2017 I finished converting Spindle #21 and began ripping the CDs on Spindle #22 - 10 done, 90 to go!  I am happy to be able to say I have over 45000 files in my music collection. At 20 Spindles, I had 25688 files so an average of 12.844 songs per CD, rounded up to 13. 13 x 2000 = 26000 when I finish ripping Spindle # 40 and 1/2 of 26000 = 13000, which is what I would project I would have for Spindles 41 - 50. Thus, added all together and I get: 25688 + 26000 + 13000 = 64688 files from the 5000 CDs on my 50 x 100 capacity spindles. Add 16175 from my Music_shell\Music folder and my Music_shell\_youtube folder and that pushes my grand total - projected grand total that is - to 80863 tunes when this is all said and done. Thus, my goal (hee hee) is to obtain 1472 more CDs. Why that number? 100000 - 80863 = 19137 divided by the 13 songs / CD average = 1472.076, which I will round down to 1472. |
| 20170516 | 20170531 | 40268 | This is the command I ran on 5/26/2017 in the b:\music_shell folder: | dir *.mp3 *.3gp *.wma *.wav *.m4a /s>musiclist.txt | to get the number for this row. I am calling this row early even though I have less than 20 CDs remaining on Spindle #20. I don't believe I will finish that spindle prior to 6/1/2017. In fact, this may be the end of the era where I make weekly and substantial progress on this project. Looking at the calendar, I don't see a lot of weekends where I will be able to convert CDs. Of course, I will try to slip downstairs to the den to keep this project going, but as for the weekends between now and ... WOW! Saturday, November 11th, which is Karen's Women's Weekend Away. Even that is not a sure thing, to be honest, as it's a full 24 weeks away - 0.4615384615384615 of a year! I just looked at the calendar and between the graduation activities this weekend and next, starting our weekly treks to camp in Elkader, I just don't see a lot of opportunities to continue this project at the same pace as I have since beginning it. The project is not going to be forgotten as I'm likely to slip in some time sometime between now and November 11, 2017, to rip CDs. I admit this project is not what I'm thinking about the most lately. I'm trying to be more engaged in Alex's graduation from high school tomorrow (5/27), the preparation leading up to his graduation party on 6/3, going to Newton, IA on 6/9/17 to see Metallica with Alex on 6/9. I'm really looking forward to Alex's reaction to the concert - to see if he walks out a Metallica fan, like I am. It is only a short 2 weeks from today!! The plan is to work from 7 -11 AM and then head to Newton. It will be the 5th time I've seen them in concert:
On the weekend after the Metallica concert, we will be in Elkader for Father's Day and, beyond that, it's really too far out into the future to accurately describe. |
| 20170501 | 20170515 | 40012 | I finished converting Spindle #18 and have begun converting #19. I am hoping - fingers crossed! - to purchase a tower later this week (Wednesday, May 17) so I may be converting more than 1 CD at the same time. Doing the conversion one-at-a-time sucks. I liked what I did for the 20170401 row with a screenshot of WMP. I am going to do that for the row that includes the 1st - 15th of the month.  |
| 20170416 | 20170430 | 37248 | Why is there is a decrease from the row below? I eliminated a lot of duplicate files. I had hoped to be able to report that Spindle #18 is complete, but it is not. I have 48 more CDs to go. The Toshiba laptop has been very unreliable when I insert a CD in the CD drive. Sometimes, Windows Media Player immediately opens the CD and I can simply click "Rip Now" and sometimes... it spins and spins and spins. If I am going to have ANY chance of completing this project within 1000 days (I have 670 days remaining until 3/2/2019), I am going to have to have two PCs ripping CDs at the same time. The 1000 days goal means I need to average 50 CDs / day. Right now, I have 22255 files that have come from spindles and 14993 in non-spindle files. My goal is to finish Spindle #18 by 5/15/2017. I know we are likely going to Elkader on Friday so that, eliminates 4 out of 14 days (1 day for prep, leaving Friday, returning Sunday) so it will be a challenge to accomplish my goal. |
| 20170401 | 20170415 | 42643 | What?!? How did I go from 111285 to 42643, a decrease of 68642 files?!? Relax. Breathe! What I have done is to create a separate directory to store the "not a music file but related to this project" files. This means that all of the .txt files that I create through my various DOS batch files are no longer included in the music_shell folder, like had been done in the past. The reason for this is I wanted the number on this page to match the files Windows Media Player says I have in my b:\music_shell folder. WMP does not include .txt files. the actual "music" files I have from the "non-music but related to music" files I have, as shown below:  I realize this is going back to the way I used to calculate the number in this table when I would run separate DOS commands to report the number of each file type. I think that's better than over-inflating the number on this page. It's more real. |
| 20170316 | 20170331 | 111285 | I am weeding out many duplicate files. The next number will be lower than this row. |
| 20170324 | 20170324 | 108121 | Special update on Friday, March 24, 2017. I ran the following DOS commands last nightcd\| to copy all the duplicate mp3s from (1) to (19) to the v: drive, which is a 1 TB EHD I might have mentioned somewhere else on this blog - it is a former EHD that I thought was dead, but it is (obviously) not. I ran similar commands for .jpg, .txt, .wav, .3gp, and .wma files. No longer will the numbers on this page reflect duplicate files in my y:\music_shell folder! |
| 20170301 | 20170315 | 104164 | As a reminder, the number in this row is the result of this DOS command: dir y:\music_shell\*.* /s Because of a special situation, this row reflects a snapshot of the y:\music_shell folder on 3/13/2017. When I ran this command dir y:\music_shell\*(*).* there are 3932 File(s) listed. Then, when I ran this command dir y:\music_shell\*.* there are 104164 File(s) listed. I have less than 50 CDs remaining to be ripped on Spindle #15. In the near future, I plan to purchase a tower from the Johnson County IT department for under $100 so that I can have a second machine ripping CDs. I also plan to purchase a portable external hard drive that does not rely upon electrical power to replace the y: EHD that I take back & forth with me to work so I can listen to tunes as I write. |
| 20170216 | 20170228 | 94286 | As a reminder, the number in this row is the result of this DOS command: | dir y:\music_shell\*.* /s | I am 65% complete with Spindle #14. I have set a goal of being done with it by 3/12/2017 because, in my Excel file that has a tab for the CD to MP3 conversion, I should begin converting Spindle #15 on 3/15/2017. I know that I will not have much time to work on it this weekend (Lou & Jean are visiting) so that is why I am giving myself until next weekend. Special Update: I finished converting Spindle #14 on Sunday, 3/5/2017 @ 9:18 AM so it's on to #15, which will be 100 CDs I own thanks to the purchase I made in late 2016. |
| 20170201 | 20170215 | 83002 | As a reminder, the number in this row is the result of this DOS command: | dir y:\music_shell\*.* /s | While increasing 42 files may seem awful, it isn't for the following reasons:
I've also wrote about this idea in the 10 year project journal but it is worth mentioning here. I really REALLY love my job. I am 40 days shy of my 1 year anniversary and have my first performance review with Bob this week - Friday, 2/17/17, at 3 PM. I am excited about my current project and even more excited for the future. Just to recap, I am the only technical writer in a large department. To read the specific goals I submitted at work, refer to Goals? Of Course I have Goals. |
| 20170116 | 20170131 | 82960 | As a reminder, the number in this row is the result of this DOS command: | dir y:\music_shell\*.* /s | Between now and 2/15, I hope to increase that number by ripping more CDs while, at the same time, I hope to decrease that number by eliminating duplicates. In other news, I finished ripping Spindle #12 and am ready to move on to Spindle #13. I also stopped by the North Liberty Police Department on Friday, 1/27/16, to pick up some empty cake boxes. I now have the storage capacity for an additional 1050 CDs in my collection due to the 10 x 100 spindles and 1 x 50 spindle I now have in the basement. An idea I have percolating is to take my favorite 20 CDs from each of my other 50 spindles. I haven't decided if it's a good idea or not, but it is an idea. Another idea I've had is to not do anything with those 11 empty spindles in the hope that I fill them with CDs I do not own. I realize it seems I have an endless supply of empty spindles, due to my relationship with the North Liberty Police Department, but I don't want to presume that will always exist (even though I think it will as they will always have backup cameras). It's certainly possible that they (someday) cease burning DVDs and only use online (Cloud) storage. In other news, I am moving forward with this project with a dedicated machine. On 1/29, Alex & I went to Best Buy in Coralville. I purchased a Lenova laptop - his high school graduation present. Per Alex, the Toshiba laptop does not hold a charge. He had been taking it to school because of his online class and his class at Kirkwood and needed a reliable machine. I had grown increasingly more uncomfortable with the prospect of the "main" machine traveling back and forth. And yet, in other news, I am likely to download a lot of tunes from youtube.com in preparation for the Chicago Open Air 2017 concert in July 2017. Hotel reservations have been made for Alex, his buddy Nick, and I. |
| 20170101 | 20170115 | 90367 | From this date forward, I am only going to track my progress by using this DOS command: dir y:\music_shell\*.* /s . No longer will I manually run DOS commands to find totals for specific file types. I think that is the best way to track the "gigantic" scope of this project. For the 20170116-20170131 row, I will have moved all music files on the y: drive that are outside of y:\music_shell to the y:\music_shell folder. |
| 20161216 | 20161231 | 48743 | After I manually ran DOS commands to find totals for the following:
|
| 20161201 | 20161215 | 44957 | After I manually ran DOS commands to find totals for the following:
|
| 20161116 | 20161130 | 33869 | After I manually ran DOS commands to find totals for the following:
|
| 20161101 | 20161115 | 32580 | After I manually ran DOS commands to find totals for the following:
Note to me: Volume XVII, Section III, pages 26 - 28 contain the pre-planning for the 1000 day timeline. |
| 20161016 | 20161031 | NNNNN | I delayed entering this row's information because I was close to finishing a spindle on 10/31/2016; then time slipped away and it was 11/15/2016. |
| 20160916 | 20160930 | 38984 | Okay - now that's better. After I manually ran DOS commands to find totals for the following:
In other news, I finished converting Spindle 04 and added a new page with its information. |
| 20161001 | 20161015 | 72609 | Okay - now that's better. After I manually ran DOS commands to find totals for the following:
In other news, I finished converting Spindle 05 and added a new page with its information. Originally, I was going to be out of town both the weekend of 10/22 & 10/29, but because of a change in plans, I will be home on 10/22, which is Alex's 18th birthday, and able to work on Spindle #6 prior to the Iowa v. WI football game at 11 AM. I hope I am up by 6 AM so I can work on it for multiple hours. |
| 20160916 | 20160930 | 38984 | Okay - now that's better. After I manually ran DOS commands to find totals for the following:
In other news, I finished converting Spindle 04 and added a new page with its information. |
| 20160901 | 20160915 | 669 | Due to the den project being assigned a higher priority than this project until 9/15/2016, there will be zero new CDs ripped to MP3 during this time period. |
| 20160815 | 20160831 | 669 | I suppose I have to go lower before I achieve new heights? |
| 20160801 | 20160814 | 716 | Yeah, I'm dumbfounded by that number as well. I am doing more research. |
| 20160716 | 20160731 | 14847 | Editor's Note: Updated number column on 7/29/2016 to 14847. Also, as a way to measure progress, I am converting Spindle 04. Yes, that's the right number. I've gone through great effort to rid the music_shell folder of duplicates. There's also as drastic of an update to my grand scheme of re-re-converting my spindles of CDs by 12/1/16. That's just not going to happen. Today is actually 7/17/16, a Sunday. We had our twice-a-year MMC gathering at our house yesterday and all my time really went into preparing for that. I did manage to complete two spindles of 100 CDs each. I'm going to create a new page where I will post the contents of those spindles (each on its own page) for future reference. I'm currently working on spindle #3. Back to the subject, the reason 12/1/2016 is not going to happen is because there will be 11 Sundays before I am likely to be home in the den on a Sunday morning. Between Elkader & UNI home football games, that's what the calendar likely holds in store for me. There will be likely be little to zero time on non-Sundays to work on the re-re-conversion. Thus, if there was a time to feel bleak about doing this project in a timely manner, that time is now. That said, I will continue to do what I can to complete this project, but it's not going to be easy. |
| 20160701 | 20160715 | 75236 | The terrible AWFUL news is that DriveSavers in California is unable to recover files from my EHD. It sucks, to say the least about an awful situation. I think in some odd way I hesitated sending it to them because I didn't want to know that the overriding majority of my Uncle Rico the Band rehearsal recordings were vaporized when that EHD became unusable. I did have two small bits of good news. First, I had an EHD in the side hutch in the den and couldn't recall why I had never taken it out of the plastic case and tried to access it with my 2 bay dock that I use to access other EHDs. So, I opened the case and plopped it in. Guess what? It worked! The second bit of good news is that there was a message on our home phone answering machine on June 21st. The caller asked that I call her back at the North Liberty Police Department. When I called back, the officer couldn't find any record of needing to talk to me and suggested I call the next day when the office staff would be present. When I did, I learned that they had saved empty CD spindles (also known as "cake boxes") for me! You see, back in February, when Alex had a car accident, I had stopped in to talk to them and had noticed that they were using CDs from a spindle to back up camera footage. The burned CDs were then placed into a soft case wallet. I asked what they did with the empty spindles and was told they were recycled. I said that I could use them. Then, actually, I forgot about it until the phone call. When I stopped there, I was given 10 x 100 capacity spindles and 2 x 25 capacity spindles. They are going to keep my name and number and call me when they accumulate more. On eBay, these spindles are expensive! Back to my new 4 TB EHD - always assigned to Y for future reference - there are 327820 File(s) files with a (2), (3)... (9) on this drive. That means, assuming they are all duplicates, I have 548887 actual files on this drive. It's a start but time will probably reveal more files that I am not remembering at the moment. At least Megan's pictures from her Europe trip are safe - that makes me feel relief. |
| 20160616 | 20160630 | 63571 | Don't get too excited by the number you see in this row. It's a trick - that number includes the 36021 files I had when I ran this command: | dir y:\music_shell\music\*(2).mp3 *(3).mp3 *(4).mp3 *(5).mp3 *(6).mp3 *(7).mp3 *(8).mp3 *(9).mp3 *(10).mp3 *(11).mp3 /s | And the difference between those two numbers? 27550. It's going to be a long journey... I have the package to send to DriveSavers in California sitting in the truck. I thought there was a Federal Express dropoff box in front of the local Casey's, but there is not. I discovered this when I drove by the Casey's to drop it off. There is a mail supplies store on 965 that I can stop at on our way to Elkader after work. |
| 20160601 | 20160615 | NN,NNN | I officially declare that I am going to reconvert my CDs, beginning on Sunday, June 5, 2016. It's a sad thing to have to admit to, but it's my reality. Especially since Gillware sent back my 4 TB EHD and I have a Federal Express label to apply to the box they sent it back to me in so that it can go to DriveSavers in California. It's been a chaotic couple of weeks but I hope to get down to Federal Express very soon - certainly prior to 6/16/2016, which is when I return to this page. In the meantime, I have started to slowly and haphazardly reconvert my CDs. I have 4525 CDs. I was able to successfully export the Media Player library to a text file and it's beyond massive. Part of me is overwhelmed with this project, even though I've done it before. I have a tentative goal to work on the conversion for the next 6 months in order to hit a target date of Thursday, December 1, 2016. It's 183 days away. How many CDs do I have to rip each day to hit that goal? Dividing 4525 by 183 tells me my answer: 24.72 CDs a day or, more accurately, a spindle with 100 CDs on it every 4 days. When I did the previous conversion, I sometimes had my work laptop, the family laptop, and a PC running Windows XP converting CDs simultaneously. Believe it or not, my work laptop at my job (5/28 was my two month anniversary) doesn't even have a CD drive so that bumps me down to two machines I can have running at the same time. However, using the Windows XP PC is excruciatingly awful and slow and mind-numbing - I'm unlikely to attempt to use it again. That drops me to a single CD drive. What does all that mean? I'm unlikely to hit my 12/1 date, but I'll still shoot for it. |
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