Crashed HDD: how to reimport Full MAME romset, not losing any Metadata?

[erling1000]

Hi 😊

Yeah - just dropped my HDD and it died. Did a backup on my second HDD a year ago 🙄

So I’m reimporting all mame games in the Full way (can’t remember the right terms now.

Last time I did like this, I ended up losing all my Metadata, and I don’t want that again. Have been spending many hours on inputting my own Metadata in Launchbox, so the fields doesn’t show what I could import, but my own data.

Very important for me to keep.

My Launchbox and MAME folder are on my SSD (C-drive) - only my roms were on the external (D-drive). Should I backup a folder in Launchbox and then copy-overwrite a new one after Full import? Just to be sure? And would there be a setting I could uncheck to prevent loss of Metadata? I would like both answers if possible 😃

Oh yeah, and would keeping my favourites be a part of this solution?

Greetings, to all of you 🤓

Edited December 16, 2022 by erling1000

[JoeViking245]

If your LaunchBox/emulator(s) setup is all on your C-drive and only the ROMs were on your now-dead drive, all you should need to do is put your backed-up ROMs somewhere accessible (on a new external D-drive?).  If the new drive becomes your D-drive and the folder structure is the same as before (D:\path_to\Roms), you shouldn't have to do anything.    If it's not the same, in LaunchBox go to your Arcade platform, select all the games, then Tools, File Management, Change ROMs Folder Path for Selected Games.  Point this to the new ROMs folder.

[erling1000]

Thanks 😊 but I’m updating as well from Mame 0227 to 0250, so I’m doing a Full Import. So will that overwrite my Metadata or not? And how do I keep them safe? Is there a folder I need to backup? Or a setting I should uncheck 😬

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, erling1000 said:

I’m updating as well from Mame 0227 to 0250

Good to know.  That changes everything as it sounded like you were going to use your backup.  

 

1 hour ago, erling1000 said:

I’m doing a Full Import. So will that overwrite my Metadata or not?

 

1 hour ago, erling1000 said:

Or a setting I should uncheck

Since you're [now] updating your ROM set, when you run the Import MAME Arcade Full Set Wizard, when asked if Would you like to download metadata for your games, un-check the box.  At least, that worked when I ran a quick test.  I imagine it will work for games that you marked as favorites as well.  I didn't test that part.

 

1 hour ago, erling1000 said:

Is there a folder I need to backup?

If you don't already have the Automatically back up the LaunchBox XML data files turned on (pretty sure it's on by default), you could make a backup copy of your /LaunchBox/Data/ folder.  Just don't put it on an external drive that you might drop.  

[erling1000]

😁 fantastic 👍🏼