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Author Topic: HowTo find ALMOST empty audio files?  (Read 6270 times)

Curt

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HowTo find ALMOST empty audio files?
« on: December 20, 2008, 08:44 AM »
For a couple of months I have been using a DRM-remover+converter, to transform ten thousand locked WMA files into free MP3 files. There were no problems when I did this on the old XP, but when I purchased this new Vista, I had to cut down on expenses for a while. One of the tricks, I thought, was to run the giveaway programs, that I had on the old XP, off the backup drive. It seemed to go well, but now I have discovered that several of the audio files are damaged: they are almost empty but not all empty. Because they are not all empty I really have no program that will offer to find them. And I am not going to search for them manually...

So my question is: How to find ALMOST empty audio files in a large collection of folders and subfolders?
Perhaps there even is a program that can do it automatically?
 :tellme:


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Concentration © Swamibu.jpgHowTo find ALMOST empty audio files?


« Last Edit: December 20, 2008, 09:01 AM by Curt »

zridling

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Re: HowTo find ALMOST empty audio files?
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2008, 11:54 AM »
I've no idea short of an MD5 checksum file comparing the empty file to the valid/original file. Until you listened to the song, how would you -- or a program -- know that it is damaged or has the end cut short?

Grorgy

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Re: HowTo find ALMOST empty audio files?
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2008, 01:07 PM »
you could do it with something like Locate, tell it to search for all mp3 (or whatever) and choose the maximum size, it will return a list for you.

Curt

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Re: HowTo find ALMOST empty audio files?
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2008, 01:15 PM »
the only thing I can think of myself is that no music files in this directory should be any smaller than a couple of MB. The shortest I can think of was a little piece by Elvis, 43 seconds, which took up 1.4 MB. Are there any program to search a directory & delete files smaller than 2 MB?

And this is just what Grorgy was telling me to do while I was typing ;-)

you could do it with something like Locate, tell it to search for all mp3 (or whatever) and choose the maximum size, it will return a list for you.

Curt

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Re: HowTo find ALMOST empty audio files?
« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2008, 01:35 PM »
oh, and Vista can do all this, without the need of another program!
Well, well, suddenly I think a lot more of this system!  :D 

cmpm

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Re: HowTo find ALMOST empty audio files?
« Reply #5 on: December 20, 2008, 02:49 PM »
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mp3val

This all I could find Curt.

Duplicating the folders and running a duplicate checker
will show the size of the files.

This program works good for duplicate checking.
But in the results you would have to check too many boxes to get the files out that you want to get rid of, I would think.

http://www.mindgems....ile-Finder-About.htm

But this 'auto check' option may help with the size.
I'll get a shot of the advanced options for auto check.

edit-cause it sounds crazy enough to work :)
Auto check automatically selects the oldest file.
Or can be set to.
Also it doesn't scan your whole computer.
Just the folders you select.

Then when you are done you can delete the new duplicate folder.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2008, 04:04 PM by cmpm »

Curt

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Re: HowTo find ALMOST empty audio files?
« Reply #6 on: December 20, 2008, 07:22 PM »
Wow, cmpm, you have gone far to answer my initial question! Thanks!  :up:

However, as I was trying to imply in my previous post, there was no need to do anything else than to ask Vista Explorer! Open the Music directory, place the marker in Search, type *.mp3, accept that Vista will say there are far too many answers, click Size, and read, mark & delete the top answers. The hole procedure took about twenty seconds.

 :)

cmpm

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Re: HowTo find ALMOST empty audio files?
« Reply #7 on: December 20, 2008, 07:38 PM »
Cool, getting it done is the main thing.

The 'lots of files' and the size parameters clued me in on my dup cleaner. Googled to find that mp3 program, which I don't use, but was recommended on a forum or 2 for mp3 work.