hey folks,

so i am trying to get a messy project back in line. the user has the project file on his mac, but media spread across multiple drives. in addition, these hard drives have media from other projects.

ultimately, i'm trying to get all the media for this one project on one g-raid drive. i'm going to copy it onto the new hard drive so i can keep the originals as they are.

my thinking is i could go one of two ways:

1) use MDV, target my project and all the hard drives. do a copy command onto thew new hard drive.

2) use media tool and have it find all the media files (deselecting precomputes and master clips), then just do a consolidate or copy with all the media.

does this sound right and can anyone offer improved/additional advice? thanks.

First, look for MDVx.  This is a newer, more feature rich version of MDV.  I would use it.

http://djfio.com/mdv/

Jef

Note that with all these approaches you are relying on the metadata in the media files having the correct Project name in them.

Each time media is created MC adds the project name (external apps that make Avid media may or maynot add this metadata)

If you need to rely on that metadata to sort the media you need to ensure the media was flagged correctly.

@grandosegood:

Sounds right! I'd change this step:

grandosegood:

2) use media tool and have it find all the media files (deselecting precomputes and master clips), then just do a consolidate or copy with all the media.

Into these steps:

0) Quit Media Composer.

1) (Same step you outlined.)

2) After copying the media to the new hard drive, unmount / disconnect all the other drives with the scattered media. So the only connected media drive is your new drive with all the media in one place.

3) Relaunch Media Composer. MC will rebuild the media stream managers on your new drive.

4) Open your project and voila! The media should be linked to the clips. No need to use Media Tool.

Also, +1 on @jef's suggestion. Make sure you're using MDVx, not MDV.