Windows 7 Beta Damages Some MP3

Martin | Jan 02, 2009 | Comments

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It is probably fair to say that the Windows 7 builds that have been floating around on the Internet are very stable and that only a handful of minor errors have been reported yet. According to Neowin the latest two builds of Windows 7 that leaked to the Internet may damage mp3 files under certain circumstances.

The problem was first recognized by users who noticed that the first few seconds of their mp3 files had been cut off. Some thought it was related to bad crossfading first but it soon turned out that the data was not there anymore. Many users thought it was caused by Windows Media Player 12 but it turned out to be a global problem.

It does however only happen under the following circumstances: The first few seconds of a mp3 file will be cut in Windows 7 if the header of the mp3 file is larger than 16 Kilobytes and if meta data is written to the file. Some media players are able to automatically add missing meta data which is the most likely cause.

The changes are irreversible and it is advised to backup the mp3 collection before using them in the current builds of Windows 7. A Microsoft employee has confirmed the bug in the forum. According to his statement Microsoft is working on a hotfix for the problem.

According to him the public beta which will be released in early January will not be affected by the problem.

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About the Author: Martin Brinkmann is an Online Journalist from Germany who discovered his love for technology in high school. He is currently working as a freelancer for several publications and runs his own Internet website Ghacks

  • mp
    that was one of the first things i noticed. the mp3 i tried to play, played fine in xp again though.
  • Mike
    Good find, that is what betas are for.
  • Alan Burns
    If the bug wont be in the official beta, does that mean that the official beta might have a higher build number? Or does it simply mean that there will be a patch available as soon as the build is released? Or even, the download might be a patched iso instead?

    I can't see how it would be good press for Microsoft to have an OS (even a beta one) requiring updates the second it's publicly available. And if it's an increased build number, that would seem to indicate that the "beta 1 leak" turned out to not be a leak at all thanks to last minute changes.
  • smilingman XG
    I disagree with Alan B., that its bad for MS to report issue and have bug fixes for Win7 so early. This is why you release beta software to testers and developers, so that bugs are find before retail versions are shipped.

    MS is now for shipping buggy and over hyped software, but the more per-release testing the better for end users.

    If I remember correctly, Vista had a very short and limited public testing period and we can see the results of that miss step.

    Beside you use alpha, beta, per-release and release candidates at your own risk.
  • if this news is right may be I won't use this as my os until the full version come since I can't work without hearing MP3 music
  • Tin
    Ogg Vorbis: Better quality than MP3, not hindered by patents, and now also not chopped up by Windows for no apparent reason.

    On a more serious note, this is actually very bad if I follow it correctly. Windows EXPLORER (not a media player) is taking it upon itself to re-write files it was not asked to touch. That is a very big no-no in my books.
  • Windows 7 also corrupts jpg files. The same marker problems. I lost a few with the beta build (pre 7000)
  • Pre-releases occur to identify potential problems. Having the higher number of users shines a light on issues, in addition to the company's own QA testing. Indeed, we would have hoped that they were able to identify a common problem with .jpg or mp3 files well before letting a beta out to the public.

    This demonstrates the problem Microsoft has with PR. Every chance people get to identify a problem with the products, even beta, results in a news story.
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