I am heartbroken. I lost my hard drive and although I would sometimes backup, it seems my backups were incomplete. I managed (with the help of PG) to load a new copy of BIAB. But I can't find my BIAB music notation files. Some of these were not replaceable, but life goes on. 2 Q's. Is there any wildcard I can search on to see if I can find my old BIAB music files on some of my backup devices? If not, where can I download a new copy of 512 jazz tunes for BIAB? I am not sure how many tunes (512, 264, I can't remember!).

Thanks!

This is a long time ago, and I don't recall where I might have gotten these - whether they were part of the program or a bonus pak. PG Music Support would know, though. They may be able to help you, especially if you purchased directly from them.

GOOGLE IT They Are all over..........If you need someone to send it to you PM me........Best, BBB

Wildcard

Yes you could search for *.?g?

The * replaces all alphanumeric characters from the asterisk to the next specified character.
The ? replaces a single alphanumeric character.


More complex but also more convenient:
To have that result in a file go to the command editor:
In Windows press the windows key and enter cmd <Enter> in the field at the bottom of the start window.

A little black window with a blinking cursor opens. Enter the drive designator of the drive you would like to search. Example: H: <Enter> The colon is important.
You will see that the drive designator is now the first character of the new line.
Then enter the command dir "*.?g?">BIAB.txt /s <Enter>

("dir" lists the directory entries, the search string specifies what, followed by a redirection command ">" and a file name without blanks. The "/s" advises the computer to search all subdirectories.)

The computer will work and after a little while it will issue a new line with the drive designator as the first character.
It has written a file with all the file names that match your command sorted under the different directories it has found.

Since it is a text file you can edit this thing with any word processor.

Wooliewillie,

I don't know how confident you feel with computers but, if you feel reasonably confident, this is something that I'd try...

1. Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/ and download the latest version of Ubuntu. It's free. (It's not compulsory to donate through PayPal.)

2. This will be an iso file. Burn the ISO image to a DVD (it's an option in burning software).

3. Ubuntu operates as a Live DVD which means that you can boot up from it and run it as an operating system.

4. Set your bios to boot up from CD/DVD. Now boot up from the DVD. When asked, simply choose the "install later" or "do not install" option (or equivalent).

5. By running Ubuntu (Linux) as your operating system from the DVD, it might give you access to your hard drive that contains the files you are after so that you can copy them to a new location.

6. I have done this in the past with a number of computers with hard disk issues. Sometimes I've been lucky and retrieved data, sometimes I have not. It's worth a try though.

If you are not feeling confident with computers and with what I've said above, it would be better not to try the above.

Just a thought.

All the best,
Noel

I found three sites out of the many that were alive before Geocities went kaput. Be warned though that Biab has over 270 RealTrack sets with demos so while most of the third party repository songs are midi, A lot refer to add on specialties that the improved versions of Biab don't have. for example harmonies I think have been recoded. I spent a lot of time organizing these and quite a few of them cause errors in the current version. But with so many Realtracks its not worth complaining. The deal is that because it is so easy to create a song and drag and drop into your sequencer with all of the processing toys. Its as fast to make something as it is to try to get all this old stuff to work. The PG site has many different worlds to explore. The video's are helpful under news and specials. Best of luck.

http://www.mmissary.com/p21.htm
and
http://www.midkar.com/MidiStudio/BIAB/List.html
and
http://www.alfwarnock.info/alfs/

but I have to say with all of the RealTracks that I feel spoiled that way and guilty for looking through the archives of older Biab.