Hi, I recently transferred a bunch of MP3 files from an old desktop hard drive to a portable USB drive. The files are mostly all formatted in Joint Stereo Sample rate: 44,100 Hz Bitrate: 128 kb/s using the Lame codec. When I try to play them in any media player (WMP, Winamp, VLC) they play the first few seconds and then cut out. I am wondering if this could be because the file system on the hard drive was very fragmented or if it could be that the files are corrupted do to a potential hardware problem with the original hard drive. The original source drive is about 10 years old and was used for audio recording. As far as I know it didn't have any problems. Since these are personal recordings that are not really replaceable, I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions on recovering the data. The file information (tags, filesize, bitrate, etc) is all in tact, so it seems like the files should be okay. Thanks in advance. Take care.

You don't mention how you moved the data (floppies, flash-drive, CD-R, DVD+/-R, etc.) In any case, moving MP3's should just be like moving regular data. If you were successful in moving from the old drive to the media, and then the media to the new HDD, then they should play as normal unless somehow the media used was defective.

I transferred them from one hard drive to another by dragging them and dropping them. Sorry, I should have been more clear.

I'll assume that you removed the drive from an old machine and put it in the new one (or a USB case). That being said, the geometry of the old drive may not have been quite correctly seen by the new machine (which could explain why only the first few seconds of the files play OK). See if you can install it back into the other machine and move the data some other way and have the files play properly.

I have xperienced the same problem except that I transferred all my MP3s by copying na dpasting from one external hard drive (USB) to another External hard drive (Also USB). The original USB drive is a modern WD passport and the other one is a few year old SATA drive used to connect to the PC externally. I then deleted all my original MP3s from the original USB drive as I needed for something else. I have now noticed that non of my Mp3 play (just for a fraction of a second) on the drive that they were moved to. I have already taken advice above and moved some of them back to the same USB drive they were originally copied from but even there they do not play. What is intersting is that all the WMA files still play after the transfer but just not the MP3s? Any help or suggestions will be highly appreciated