Relocated files to root of O-drive, but mysterious O subdir appears

[CollieDog]

Hi,

I've been having a weird problem for weeks.

I run IMatch in a Windows virtual machine in Linux.
Some months ago, using the "Relocate" feature in IMatch, I relocated my photos folders (on separate drives) to new locations "L-drive", "M-drive".
The relocation process was painless and accurate except for "O-drive" where, for some reason, a subdirectory "O" was created which contains all of my photo folders.

I cannot figure out how to fix this in IMatch. The file structure on the harddrive does not include an "O" subdirectory.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Mario]

This is the root folder of drive => O:\
If you add the root folder by some means, this is how it looks.

Try this:

1. Make a backup copy of the database.
2. Select O:\ and use the "Remove from Database" command from the context menu.
When asked, choose to keep the sub-folders in the database.

[CollieDog]

Thank you Mario.
I finally got around to trying that fix.
It didn't really work.

The photo folders within in the top-level folder "2017 Photos" and "2018 Photos" are fine. Everything returned to where it was.

However the corresponding photo folders for "2019 Photos" and "2020 Photos" did not return to those categories. This is shown in the screenshot "Imatch problem with drive in VB 001.png"

If I select and relocate each of the renegade folders ie, relocating "O:\2019-07-07 Temple festival 002"  to O:\2019 Photos appears to work. But there are many folders for 2019 and 2020.
Is there an easier way to do this?

I suspect this may have happened because of the way Virtualbox handles shared drives on Windows guest systems. At some point VirtualBox changed the way it assigned drives to guest systems and a number of these changes led to the current problem. I've attached a screenshot of the way I assigned drive letters in VirtualBox.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix this?
Thank you all!

[Mario]

You can relocate

- disks and all folders on them
- media and all folders on them
- individual folders
- individual files

There are no additional relocation features.

Usually when you relocate O: to whatever the new drive is, IMatch will automatically relocate all folders from O: to the new disk.
Or, when you relocate a top-level folder, it relocates all child folders.

Maybe restore the original database, relocate O: first to the new drive (or media serial number on the same drive) and after all folders have been relocated, remove the O:\ root folder with the trick I've described above?

[CollieDog]

Thank you for your help Mario. Always appreciated.

However I continue to have ongoing problems with hard drive #4. This is the only drive that experiences this problem. All the drives are the same brand, and are installed the same way in my desktop system. Very odd.

I followed your recommendations above and deleted O-drive and kept the subfolders, but the problem reappeared with a fake "VBOX_HSdisk4" as a new weird top category underneath the actual drive VBOX_HSdisk4.  This is shown in image #1

This time however, there is no option to delete the fake top level "VBOX_HSdisk4"
This is shown in image #2

Any suggestions on how to fix this? This problem has been going on for so long that all my backups seem to suffer from this same issue.

[Mario]

The extra level is a media node.
Usually you see these only when you work with removable media like DVD or BR-D, when IMatch has to manage multiple media in the same drive. IMatch then displays one node for each media it has seen on that drive. And only shows a media node when it has seen more than one media.

This looks like the media serial number of your drive is changing?

[CollieDog]

Hi!

The problem I was having with an extra directory appearing under the drive letter disappeared for many months.
But now a similar problem has been occurring for a few months.

First, I should note that I'm running Imatch 2020.14.2 in a Windows 10 guest in a Virtualbox virtual machine on a Manjaro Linux host.
The drives on which images are stored are all formatted as EXT4.

Each time I start Imatch 2020.14.2 (and several previous builds), all of the folders in one drive are reported as being offline.
This is visible in the attached screenshot "Imatch- O-drive disappears every time but other drives are fine.png"

When I select relocate O-drive to O-drive, Imatch will run through a time-consuming rescan after which the folders are shown as online and I can work with them.
The attached screenshot "Imatch- O-drive relocating to O-drive.png" shows how I relocate O drive files to O drive.
But after shutting down and restarting again, the folders and images are offline again requiring me to "relocate" once again.

Any idea why this is happening or how to fix this? I have attached a log file.

[Mario]

Each time I start Imatch 2020.14.2 (and several previous builds), all of the folders in one drive are reported as being offline.

1.  Your virtual box environment simulating a Windows file system via the SAMBA emulation running on your NAS most likely changes the media serial numbers every time.
And since IMatch uses the media serial numbers to identify unique media, IMatch considers the folders as off-line afterwards.
Just make sure that this does not happen. See the manual of virtual box or your NAS box for more information.

Tip: You can see the media serial number and drive label in IMatch in the folder properties in the Media & Folders View.

2.  Relocate is usually super-fast. But it has to check that each folder and file exists via some Windows file system function calls.
And running in a simulated PC in Virtual Box which then needs to access your files via a bridged or simulated network adapter on a NAS box which simulates a Windows server via SAMBA - that's pretty much the description of the worst case.
An operation which takes milliseconds on a normal PC may take several seconds in your environment...

[CollieDog]

Thank you for your reply!

Interestingly, for many months, I was able to use Imatch without any of these problems with offline files. It worked for months with the Virtualbox settings shown in the screenshot. I'm guessing something changed in Virtualbox that is changing the media serial numbers.

My files are not on a NAS or RAID array. My image collection is on internal harddrives in the computer case. I backup onto an external NAS.

I spent a few hours looking into how to prevent Virtualbox from changing media serial numbers, but am probably searching for the wrong information.
With luck, I'll find a solution.

The setup (running Imatch in a VM Windows 10) is indeed not ideal, but it was working well enough for me to manage my collections.
I particularly LOVE Imatch, but I will not move back to Windows