Clrmamepro

clrmamepro (Cool little ROM manipulation and management engine) by Roman Scherzer is a tool for Windows (and Linux through Wine) to organize the files on a hard disk according to a dat-file, so that the emulator is able to find and run games.

It's very flexible and powerful, with many options. ZIP, 7z and RAR archives are supported. It can be used for upgrading and downgrading ROM sets, converting between non-merged, split and merged sets, checking CHD Files and creating dat-files.

Its main functions are:
 * Scanner: check the folder where your organized files stay
 * Rebuilder: add files from other folders to the folder where your organized files will stay
 * Settings: define in which folder your organized files will stay
 * Profiler: add, remove and choose a dat-file to use

Hint: Always fix all files with the Scanner before using the Rebuilder. That's because the Rebuilder always assumes the files on the target folder are correct.

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Known problem
Recent 7-Zip versions (that clrmamepro relies on) don't work properly with archives that were torrent7zipped.

It's recommended to use 7-Zip version 9.22 beta (which can be downloaded here) or 9.28 alpha.

You can install 7-Zip of one of the versions above and copy  from the installation folder to the root of clrmamepro.

Guides
Follows a list of guides:
 * How To Clrmame Batchmode MESS Software Lists Easily
 * How to create a dat-file with clrmamepro
 * How to hash a file with clrmamepro

External guides:
 * Mucci's Guide
 * LaunchBox Forums - How to update your MAME ROMset to a newer version with CLRmamepro
 * Krick's MAME cabinet page - clrmamepro Quick Start Guide
 * clrmamepro 3.x guide (outdated)
 * MAME Rerecording's Guide

Reference

 * clrmamepro's Home Page