Friday, July 13, 2007

Merge your CD playlist from one Windows 2000 Pro machine to another

The ability to share and move your music database eliminates the need to re-enter or re-download the track list for each CD in your collection. The CD Player in Windows 2000 Professional uses an Access database located in Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Microsoft\CD Player\DeluxeCD.mdb to store the CD data.

Moving or copying the DeluxeCD.mdb database from one computer to another brings all of the CD titles and tracks from the source computer to the destination computer; but any track listings already on the destination computer are lost when you replace the database file. If Microsoft Access is on your system, however, you can create update queries to merge together the two databases so you don't lose any existing titles. Here's how.

  1. Close the CD Player and open the Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Microsoft\CD Player folder on the destination computer.
  2. Rename the file DeluxeCD.mdb to Old.mdb.
  3. Copy the DeluxeCD.mdb file from the source computer to the Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Microsoft\CD Player folder on the destination computer, retaining the original name.
  4. Open Old.mdb in Access and click Queries.
  5. Double-click Create Query By Using Wizard to start the Query Wizard.
  6. Select Table: Titles from the Tables/Queries drop-down list, add all available fields to the Selected Fields list, and click Finish to open the query.
  7. Choose View | Design View to switch the query to design view.
  8. Choose Query | Append Query to open the Append dialog box.
  9. Select Titles from the Table Name drop-down list and then select the Another Database option.
  10. Click Browse and locate and select the DeluxeCD.mdb database file you copied previously.
  11. Click OK twice to close the file selection and the Append dialog boxes.

Repeat this process to add one query for each of the other tables to perform an update query from one table in the Old.mdb database to the corresponding table in the DeluxeCD.mdb database, such as Tracks to Tracks, Titles to Titles, and so on.

When you finish creating all the queries, run each one to merge the records in the Old.mdb database to the DeluxeCD.mdb database. The next time you open CD Player, you'll see the track lists from each database.


http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6114342.html