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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2013
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OP
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Joined: Aug 2013
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This is baffling and really annoying. I installed BIAB on an external drive, following Andrew's advice here: https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=573850&page=2Worked fine until just now. I was using BIAB 2020 on a simple project. Worked fine, then froze; then I got a Windows "oops something went wrong" message, did some kind of count to 100%, after which the PC shut itself down. When I rebooted, BIAB would not launch at all (neither 32 bit nor 64). Their icons were replaced by the generic icon Windows uses when it doesn't recognise a file association. Same applies to my SGU files. Clicking on them causes Windows to ask me what program to use. Then I checked my external drive's BB folder. Gone! Not even in the recycle bin. Never seen anything like this. I'm on Windows 10 Pro Any advice?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2002
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PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 7,586 |
Then I checked my external drive's BB folder. Gone! Not even in the recycle bin What's gone, the entire bb folder, or just bbw.exe, or what exactly? Can you navigate through various folders in Windows Explorer and open files (e.g. text files) on that hard drive)?
Andrew
PG Music Inc.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2013
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 169 |
Then I checked my external drive's BB folder. Gone! Not even in the recycle bin What's gone, the entire bb folder, or just bbw.exe, or what exactly? Can you navigate through various folders in Windows Explorer and open files (e.g. text files) on that hard drive)? The entire folder is gone. Yes, I can access, open, edit, close and save text and other file types on this external drive just fine.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2013
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Aug 2013
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There's no bbw.exe for 2020 now
Bizarre
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2002
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PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
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You should back up any personal files on that drive that you can access. Just copy them to another disk. Then I suggest running chkdsk for that drive. To do this, open the command prompt window as administrator. Specifically:
1. Find out the drive letter of that external drive (for example, it might be something like F or G).
2. Find the Windows Search bar at the lower left of the screen. You might need to click the Windows "Start" button.
3. Type "cmd", right-click on "cmd" when it appears and click "Run as Administrator"
4. Enter the command:
chkdsk <Your hard disk letter>: /f
Note - if you only want to know if there's a problem without trying to fix it, then omit the "/f"
Andrew
PG Music Inc.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Andrew,
Your suggestion is a bit easier said than done (see below) but before I follow it, may I ask,
-- have you ever heard of this sort of behaviour before? i.e. BIAB or another program glitching and deleting itself?
-- if I do follow your advice, and the check reports that the disk is fine, what would you then suggest that I do?
This is a 2 TB, 7200 rpm USB drive. Before and after this incident, it has worked / still works fine when I copy to or from it, or read / write as I access and edit files which are on this disk (i.e. leaving them in place, not copying them to my PC's internal drive and). I've done this , for example, with files used by Word, Excel, Mixcraft, Sonar, and video editors (e.g. Vegas). I am able, via Kontakt, to have 10-12 instruments reading from this disk at once. It is only when using BIAB 2020 did this or anything like it happen.
To follow your suggestion, I'd have to copy apx 1.5 Tb from this drive to another. In theory it should mean simply selecting all files on the source disk, hitting Control + C, pointing in Windows Explorer to the empty destination disk, hitting Control + V, and waiting. In practice it never goes that smoothly -- often it involves babysitting the process, which sometimes fails, or for some reason forces me to copy certain individual folder / subfolders manually. It can become a long process involving creating detailed checklists to deal with these "stragglers".
Your advice to back up the disk first suggests that the chekdisk could mess up the disk. That would mess me up big time as far as music is concerned. I happen to have a spare 2tb hard drive to copy to, but it is only 5400 rpm, which I know from experience hits performance badly when working with Kontakt and audio apps. If the source disk you want me to check does get messed up in the process, I'll still have the files on the backup, but that's too slow for my purposes.
In other words, what you suggest would seem to require an inordinate amount of work and risk just to troubleshoot your program, which as mentioned is the only one I have behaving this way.
So again, have you actually seen this happen elsewhere, and if the disk check says the disk is fine, what would you advise next?
Just trying to avoid jumping down a time-consuming rabbit hole to determine why BIAB deleted itself while everything else on the disk remains intact and useable / editable from this disk. Bearing in mind that setting up BIAB from scratch again, including the installation of all the Real Tracks, also takes some hours; I'd prefer to minimise how often I need to do that
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Last edited by lingyai; 07/15/20 08:25 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,486
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Jan 2002
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Hi lingyai
Sorry to hear about your strange problem - I have been using Biab since the 1990s by all methods and have experienced or heard of this problem before
Andrew is just trying to eliminate other possibilities' which could be numerous
jazzman
BIAB - RealBand - 2022
Windows 10 64
Zoo computer with 7i processor- SSD 1TB -2TB HDD
Roland keyboards
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Hello lingyai
Definitely I'm trying to be constructive. Somehow I doubt that BiaB uninstalled itself, although the results might appear that way. I suspect some sort of drive error, and maybe something performed a rollback to an earlier time. But I doubt any BiaB program error caused the entire program to uninstall itself. I really think this needs to be explored outside of the BiaB program. Andrew's suggestion to run ChkDsk is a good place to start.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Professional & Windows 11, Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hi lingyai, If your Whole disc went bad then you wouldn't be able to do anything. But if just the section of the disc that holds the BiaB folder, or the GUID Partition Table (GPT), then only BiaB and RB would be infected. So a chkdsk should be run ASAP. If your disk is perfect then you might has a bad virus. Then I would suggest you run these free programs in order: 1-cCleaner - https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download - to clean out all of the temp files in your computer 2-rKill - https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/3-ADW Cleaner - https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/4-anti malwarebytes - https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/5- your antivirus - do a full scan After you get things running perfectly you should do a complete backup of your drive so if this happens again your have covered your butt.
It takes courage for a man to admit his wife was wrong.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 7,586
PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 7,586 |
Andrew,
Your suggestion is a bit easier said than done (see below) but before I follow it, may I ask,
-- have you ever heard of this sort of behaviour before? i.e. BIAB or another program glitching and deleting itself?
-- if I do follow your advice, and the check reports that the disk is fine, what would you then suggest that I do?
This is a 2 TB, 7200 rpm USB drive. Before and after this incident, it has worked / still works fine when I copy to or from it, or read / write as I access and edit files which are on this disk (i.e. leaving them in place, not copying them to my PC's internal drive and). I've done this , for example, with files used by Word, Excel, Mixcraft, Sonar, and video editors (e.g. Vegas). I am able, via Kontakt, to have 10-12 instruments reading from this disk at once. It is only when using BIAB 2020 did this or anything like it happen.
To follow your suggestion, I'd have to copy apx 1.5 Tb from this drive to another. In theory it should mean simply selecting all files on the source disk, hitting Control + C, pointing in Windows Explorer to the empty destination disk, hitting Control + V, and waiting. In practice it never goes that smoothly -- often it involves babysitting the process, which sometimes fails, or for some reason forces me to copy certain individual folder / subfolders manually. It can become a long process involving creating detailed checklists to deal with these "stragglers".
Your advice to back up the disk first suggests that the chekdisk could mess up the disk. That would mess me up big time as far as music is concerned. I happen to have a spare 2tb hard drive to copy to, but it is only 5400 rpm, which I know from experience hits performance badly when working with Kontakt and audio apps. If the source disk you want me to check does get messed up in the process, I'll still have the files on the backup, but that's too slow for my purposes.
In other words, what you suggest would seem to require an inordinate amount of work and risk just to troubleshoot your program, which as mentioned is the only one I have behaving this way.
So again, have you actually seen this happen elsewhere, and if the disk check says the disk is fine, what would you advise next?
Just trying to avoid jumping down a time-consuming rabbit hole to determine why BIAB deleted itself while everything else on the disk remains intact and useable / editable from this disk. Bearing in mind that setting up BIAB from scratch again, including the installation of all the Real Tracks, also takes some hours; I'd prefer to minimise how often I need to do that Hi, I have seen files disappear before (though not the bb folder specifically) due to logical errors on a disk. I have certainly seen chkdsk fix errors on a disk (e.g. partition table errors) that have appeared suddenly, though in most cases there has been an obvious problem with the disk, whereas in your case everything else seems fine. However you CAN still run chkdsk - it is quick and easy, and not labour intensive at all. Just run chkdsk without any options "chkdsk <driveletter>:" It won't do anything to the disk, it will just tell you if there's anything that it CAN fix. Then optionally to fix it you could run it again with the /F option and that might take a minute or so. The reason I recommended backing up your personal files, because using this option /F will potentially make some changes on your disk, and so it could make matters worse for you. Note that chkdsk has another option /R which I have never recommended, but you can read about that option. I think that has a higher potential to cause problems because it tries to repair bad sectors. Also it takes a REALLY long time. I didn't know you were dealing with a 2 TB disk with a gazillion programs and files on it. Why don't you run the chkdsk without the options and let us know what it says? Then we can decide if you should proceed to backup your files, and do the chkdsk \F. You should probably have a backup of the material on that disk either way. Normally backing up an external disk to another external disk is straightforward, since at minimum all you need to do is copy the files from one disk to another in Windows Explorer. There are tools that can help you with this process that are inexpensive or free, but not required. If you have USB 3.0 disks plugged into USB 3.0 ports this can definitely make the process much less painful because it is so much faster. Before you start copying, turn off the power saving features of your computer so that nothing goes to sleep if you walk away from it for a few hours while it's copying.
Andrew
PG Music Inc.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
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Iff the drive in question is monitored a system restore procedure might help.
Martin
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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The /R option can also often fail, depending upon how many sectors have already been reallocated on this disk. My 2TB 7200 RPM disk went out recently as well; and the /R option failed. So instead, I did a full reformat (not a quick reformat) (based on a recommendation I saw online), and then ran CHKDSK and it seems to be fine now. Nevertheless, it is no longer my boot drive and I just use it for intermediate storage, but so far so good. And yes, that whole process took a very long time to complete.
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 8TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 11TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting and construction)
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
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We've just released XPro Styles PAK 10 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 28 RealTracks and RealDrums!
Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
Here’s just a small sampling of what you can look forward to in XPro Styles PAK 10: Soft indie folk worship songs, bumpin’ country boogies, gospel praise breaks, hard rockin’ pop, funky disco grooves, smooth Latin jazz pop, bossa nova fusion, western swing, alternative hip-hop, cool country funk, and much more!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 10 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of XPro Styles PAKs.
Video: XPro Styles PAK 10 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
Introducing Xtra Styles PAK 21 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
We're excited to bring you our latest Xtra Styles PAK installment—the all new Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher)!
Rejoice, one and all, for Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box® is here! We’re serving up 200 brand spankin’ new styles to delight your musical taste buds! The first three courses are the classics you’ve come to know and love, including offerings from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, but, not to be outdone, this year’s fourth course is bro country! A wide ranging genre, you can find everything from hip-hop, uptempo outlaw country, hard hitting rock, funk, and even electronica, all with that familiar bro country flair. The dinner bell has been rung, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 21 today!
In this PAK you’ll discover: Energetic folk rock, raucous train beats, fast country boogies, acid jazz grooves, laid-back funky jams, a bevy of breezy jazz waltzes, calm electro funk, indie synth pop, industrial synth metal, and more bro country than could possibly fit in the back of a pickup truck!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 21 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 21 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of the Xtra Styles PAK 21.
Video: Xtra Styles PAK 21 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 21 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
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