Not just mp3 but all compressed music formats,if a file,say a folder containing 100 mp3's,was copied/cut and pasted (or dragged) several times to different folders on my pc could any of the data be corrupted resulting in loss of quality and maybe introduce flaws into any of the music files?

an mp3 or any lossy codec is a File. As such, it is stored on Permanent memory (such as Hard drives, CD-R's or even flash RAM) as bits.

There is a part that contains the descriptor (indicates the name, size and where is physically located), and the actual data.

Thus, a file, to be read, needs these two components intact. Usually, the descriptor is stored twice (this is.. a copy of it is made) so that you're safe on that part. About the data itself, it isn't.

Also, different type of media, have different type of security ( CD Data contain extra bytes of data which help on remaking damaged data. That's why a 80Min CD is 700MB but 80Min in Wave format use near 800MB)


So... to conclude... Yes... they can be damaged, as ANY other document. This does not have to do with the compression at all.

FWIW

I had the same worries when I first got a computer so I burned my mp3's, copied them back and forth between hard drives about 10 times, etc.

I then decoded against the original and did wav compares.

Bit perfect:D

Living in a digital world, no errors occured unless physical world destroyed (failures in cd's or hard drives).

Note: the probably most common thing is failure in chipsets *hint hint*

No more than any other file type. If you have problems like this (with any files), something is flaky with your PC... the RAM, hard drive, whatever.

"Cut/pasted" 10 times, 100 times, one million times... it shouldn't make any difference whatsoever.

Cheers guys,not had any problems or fears with this,only my younger brother was asking and I didnt know for sure,now I can be the all knowing big brother again