Old windows media player files are not working after formatting the laptop

Question

I have lots of songs which are Windows Media Player files. All of these files were working fine. After I formatted my laptop, most of them stopped working with Windows Media Player. Previously I was using Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, and I installed the same version when I re-installed, but still the files are not working. When I try to play those files some message is showing like files are compressed are not supported or something like that. However, the player is working fine if I play movies or few old files that are working. Wht might have gone wrong?

Answer 1

Are they .wma (windows media audio) files? If so, it's likely that there was Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection on them. Windows Media DRM can prevent files from being played on a different computer from the one they were originally bought or downloaded on. It's possible that your audio files had DRM protection, and when you reinstalled your OS, it now appears as a "new" computer, so you can't open the files. There are ways to remove the protection, though be warned that this may not be legal in some jurisdictions. If you still have access to the original source, it would be a safer bet to download them again.