What you normally do:
1 ) Run clrmamepro, go to profiler, add one exe-based profile for *the current* MAME: Profiler -> create... -> filename: browser for your mame binary, description: MAME, Emulator MAME, hit create profile
2) double click the profile, it will prompt that it runs mame etc....after confirming, it will import data. If a prompt asks you about importing Software lists, answer NO. Other prompts while importing can be answered with OK to all and yes to all.
3) after the main window appears, go to settings, top left drop down box should show ROM-Paths. Now you can add your rompaths here (either drag'n drop or use the Add... button). Same can be done (if needed) for sample paths (if you switch the drop down box accordingly)
4) Go to scanner, select your prefered merge mode (most likely it's split or merged sets) and that's basically it (maybe disable samples if you don't use them). If you now hit "new scan" your rompaths are scanned. Nothing is touched since you didn't enable the check options yet.
Everything which now appears in the scan results window is bad.
Now what does BAD mean:
You can examine the output (expand/collapse) to see what is wrong with the mentioned set.
If you think that can't be right, then maybe your setup is not ok.
For example: You're checking a collection which does not belong to the loaded database or your rompath setup is bad. If you have your roms in e.g. e:\temp\test\neogeo_roms\mslug.zip and f:\other\pacman.zip, then e:\temp\test and f:\other should be setup as rompaths. Or your chosen merge mode does not match the one of your collection.
Enabling the fix options and running another scan will actually FIX the problems (if possible).
This is one standard scan (+ fix)....after that the scan result should either be empty (no problems) or you might miss files (e.g. when a new MAME is out and new stuff was added). There are various ways of adding missing files, one is the rebuilder (rebuilder destination should point to your rompath).
When a new MAME is out, you don't have to repeat all of the above. You simply replace your MAME binary and when you load your old profile, cmpro sees and asks you to update its database. And of course you don't have to resetup your rompaths again or your scanner options.
So basically it's:
- load profiler, run a full scan with all fix options, use the rebuilder to add missing stuff (there are some nice scanner context menu options for drag'n drop which automatically run another scan after a rebuild etc....)
"Tons of errors" is not normal. As mentioned, you either use a wrong database, didn't setup the rompaths correctly or used a different merge mode.
Maybe some additions:
You should store sets like this (and setup your rompaths accordingly)
rompath\setname.zip (.7z/.rar) for compressed set
rompath\setname\file 1... file n for decompressed sets
so e.g. c:\temp\test\puckman.zip (with puckman.zip holding the puckman roms and c:\temp\test is your rompath)
or c:\temp\test\puckman\pm1_chg1.5e (and so on) (with c:\temp\test is your rompath, puckman is the setname which is a folder then and the single files like pm1_chg1.5e inside that folder
The merge modes:
- full merged (sometime also simply called "merged"): Only parent sets exist but the sets include the clone set files, too
- split merged (simetimes simply called "split"): Each set exists but the clone sets only hold the files which are unique and aren't shared with the parent set
- unmerged (not merged): forget that mode...it's not really used, each set exist and even clone sets have the shared parent files in them...a waste of diskspace and not even a real standalone since today a set has other dependencies as well (bios / devices).