I used Windows Media Player to rip my CD collection as .wav files (I know, I know...). Anyway. I took a quick peek and noted that it was creating directories for the artist, and then the albums as a sub directory, as I would expect.

What I did not expect, after two months of ripping my entire library is that the ablum directories are empty, and there are 17,000 tracks in the 'unknown artist' directory. Some place there must be a file tying all of this together as WMP shows everything directory, but I do not know where it is.

Moreover, how do I fix this?? I want the music in the proper directories. Wwe can debate what I should have done after I find a solution to this mess.

-thanks.

I'd say you have 17,000 songs to listen to, rename and move to your desired directories. I'm not aware of a program that will do batch labeling. You could just identify and move the files and rename at a later date. That is what I would IIWM. BTW my guess is media player may have expected you to visit the online music database to first label your tracks before ripping. I use CDex for ripping and it allows you to do that.

I would have looked at the library after loading just a few CDs. Microsoft windows media player (Vista) normally automatically identifies the music content and fills in all the data, it create folders, and allows you to choose what system of organization you would like it to display.

In any case, I had a similar problem with windows media player after I had installed a usb turntable, the tables software somehow turned off windows ability to identify the CDs. I can't exactly remember how I fixed itm I spent an entire afternoon pulling my hair out, but there is a setting somewhere that you need to change. Perhaps reload media player and set it to default. After I got my system reset I would click onto a group of tracks and windows filled in the information. Mine had at least grouped each Cd as an unknown artist, hopefully yours has done the same.

If you get the settings adjusted, then load a new CD and make sure that it identifies the artist and tracks. If the computer doesn't then identify all the track listings it might be quicker to delete the whole lot and start reloading the CDs. I hand entered justa few CD listings and it was very time consuming and easy to make errors.

I hope your time spent uploading the CDs has not gone to waste.

WAV files do not contain meta data to identify the tracks.
Windoze media player stores this info in ..\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\ in a wmdb file.
With WAV files you are totally dependent on this database unless.
The only way to fix those files is to edit thier properties in media player AFAIK.
I always suggest using a lossless format the contains track info (flac, ape, alac, etc.) for large libraries for this reason, you're running the risk of losing your entire library's information.
If the file names contain the track info, you could batch convert and insert the metadata from the file names.