I bought Sony's MZ-N1 MiniDisc recorder a couple of days ago. The recorder itself is sweet, it's definately the best one I've ever tried. The bundled software, however, is a total piece of crap! I can live with instabilities, and even the incredibly slow performance. The fact that it makes it's own converted copies of all mp3 files I transfer is annoying, but I think I'll survive that as well.
BUT: Deleting the original mp3 files automagically when I delete the converted files to save some precious space on my hard drive is just too much! I realize Sony has to consider copyright issues when releasing software for making digital music copies, but who gave them permission to delete my own, private mp3 files (that would probaby be me, I didn't read the EULA, but who does?)? Registering them in a database to make sure I don't transfer them more than 3 times to my MD recorder is okay, but the files are all gone!
This post is meant as a warning to others, but I would also like some input on how I can get the files back. Before anyone starts bashing me about piracy, let me make my policy on mp3 clear: I buy music I like. In fact, I buy more CDs now than I did before I knew about mp3. Why? Because I download music from the net, and when I find something I like, I buy it because it's the right thing to do, even though the prices are insane. The first thing I do after I've bought a CD is making mp3 (with higher quality encoding than what's usually found on the net, usually following the r3mix standard) out of it and storing it on my hard drive for easy access. But I have a slow computer, and the thought of having to re-encode the albums because Sony erased my perfectly legal, personal copies drives me crazy. Encoding an album now and then is one thing, but re-encoding the entire collection is not an option.
So, does anyone have suggestions on how I can restore the files? They're not in the recycle bin, but I guess they're still on the drive, only with the FAT entries removed. I haven't written anything to the mp3 partition on my drive since the files disappeared, so if I could just find some software to restore them... I remember using Norton Utilities for that many, many years ago, but that was a DOS-only version. Is there any shareware out there that could help resolve this unfortunate situation?
Thanks in advance for any help.
-NiPNi
BUT: Deleting the original mp3 files automagically when I delete the converted files to save some precious space on my hard drive is just too much! I realize Sony has to consider copyright issues when releasing software for making digital music copies, but who gave them permission to delete my own, private mp3 files (that would probaby be me, I didn't read the EULA, but who does?)? Registering them in a database to make sure I don't transfer them more than 3 times to my MD recorder is okay, but the files are all gone!
This post is meant as a warning to others, but I would also like some input on how I can get the files back. Before anyone starts bashing me about piracy, let me make my policy on mp3 clear: I buy music I like. In fact, I buy more CDs now than I did before I knew about mp3. Why? Because I download music from the net, and when I find something I like, I buy it because it's the right thing to do, even though the prices are insane. The first thing I do after I've bought a CD is making mp3 (with higher quality encoding than what's usually found on the net, usually following the r3mix standard) out of it and storing it on my hard drive for easy access. But I have a slow computer, and the thought of having to re-encode the albums because Sony erased my perfectly legal, personal copies drives me crazy. Encoding an album now and then is one thing, but re-encoding the entire collection is not an option.
So, does anyone have suggestions on how I can restore the files? They're not in the recycle bin, but I guess they're still on the drive, only with the FAT entries removed. I haven't written anything to the mp3 partition on my drive since the files disappeared, so if I could just find some software to restore them... I remember using Norton Utilities for that many, many years ago, but that was a DOS-only version. Is there any shareware out there that could help resolve this unfortunate situation?
Thanks in advance for any help.
-NiPNi