Topic: Windows 10 corrupting audio files imported from external media!!

[Ozpeter]

Essential reading if you record stuff to cards then transfer to Windows 10 PC -

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-files/transferring-wav-audio-files/50bbf42f-84a7-44b9-ab57-8784b5606d09?msgId=f1d49ae7-d869-49a5-baa4-82582882e9bf&page=1&tm=1439475866788

This seems to particularly affect CF cards, but under the circumstances it might be wise to do a mock short recording and transfer before you record something important and discover that W10 has screwed it in the card.

[2manyrocks]

Thank you for the caution. 

[robeti]

thanks, sounds awful. Hope microsoft will fix this asap.

[LikeASong]

Thanks for the warn. W10 seemed almost faultless until I read this - huge bummer. I hope they get it solved, it's sad so many users are being screwed by such a poorly written tool.

[rocksuitcase]

Found this through the original WIN10 thread. THANKS for the ups since this is what I would be doing at some point.   

[Fried Chicken Boy]

This is a pretty serious handicap for Win10.  Thanks for the heads up, marking thread.

[jbell]

I recently transferred 2 ARU shows from my D100 on to my PC using windows 10 without and issue.  Also did all the processing using a windows 10 machine. 

[flipp]

If you transferred D100>W10 then this issue does not affect you. Glad you could transfer successfully but for some folks, me included, a USB card reader is much faster than a direct USB connection to the recorder. According to the microsoft forum thread linked in the OP it only affects files transferred using an external card reader connected via USB. <and on boxes that had W10 installed as an upgrade, not a clean install >

[Ozpeter]

A guy from Microsoft posted in the GS version of this thread asking for anyone experiencing this problem to let him know, as they are working on it but can't reproduce it themselves.  Here's the link to that thread - https://www.gearslutz.com/board/remote-possibilities-acoustic-music-location-recording/1024804-windows-10-corrupting-audio-files.html#post11265254 - hopefully anyone here who encounters the problem will get in touch with him.

[stevetoney]

Until I read that this has been addressed, I'm not installing W10.  Too catastrophic to even risk even though I transfer files directly from my recorder cause I don't really like pulling the card out.  It's a minor phobia I have that the more I handle the card the more of a chance I have of something happening to shorten the life of it.

[ArchivalAudio]

Can I laugh now! 

[voltronic]

Until I read that this has been addressed, I'm not installing W10.  Too catastrophic to even risk even though I transfer files directly from my recorder cause I don't really like pulling the card out.  It's a minor phobia I have that the more I handle the card the more of a chance I have of something happening to shorten the life of it.

Agreed - best to wait and see how / when this resolved.

The moral of the story: Let other people be the early adopters (AKA paying public beta testers).  I see the same thing with my Apple-fanatic friends who always pre-order the latest iPhone, then after they get it are left with a problematic device until updates / patches are released.

Second bit of advice from my days as a PC repair tech: You are always better off with a clean install for major OS upgrades, preferably after wiping your system partition and starting fresh.  This is very old advice, but it bears repeating.

I'm not sure if market pressure makes tech companies release to market before they're fully finished, or problems like the one we're talking about in this thread simply don't crop up until after there is already a mass distribution of the product with a diverse user base.

[kindms]

I was unaware of this. I upgraded my beater laptop to W10 last week for shits and giggles. Next day I see the privacy warnings and now this.

I transferred my ARU show Saturday night to it and then USB Stick > to my main PC and haven't heard anything. I did M/S decoding so if it did anything to it should be pretty easily detected.

I have to say it was the easiest windows upgrade i have ever done. So on that side they seem to do a good job. Windows 7 Pro > W10 and all my programs seemed to work.

[Ozpeter]

There are ongoing developments reported directly by MS in that thread at https://www.gearslutz.com/board/remote-possibilities-acoustic-music-location-recording/1024804-windows-10-corrupting-audio-files.html worth keeping an eye on.  This is starting to look like and exclusively Sound Devices related problem.

[flipp]

Cause has been found (at least the main cause*) and it seems to be a combination of a change MS made when they implemented EFS (encrypted file system) in W10 and the way Sound Devices products write files that interferes with that change MS made. Latest word from the MS engineer posting in both the gearslutz and MS threads is that a patch is being worked on and will be introduced "as quickly as possible".

* so far the only reports of file inaccessability and/or corruption are from Sound Devices products so if you have encountered the problem on a file written by a different device please let the MS engineer know - his contact info is in both threads

note the MS thread linked in the OP seems to have more, and more current, info on the issue

[John Willett]

Cause has been found (at least the main cause*) and it seems to be a combination of a change MS made when they implemented EFS (encrypted file system) in W10 and the way Sound Devices products write files that interferes with that change MS made. Latest word from the MS engineer posting in both the gearslutz and MS threads is that a patch is being worked on and will be introduced "as quickly as possible".

* so far the only reports of file inaccessability and/or corruption are from Sound Devices products so if you have encountered the problem on a file written by a different device please let the MS engineer know - his contact info is in both threads

note the MS thread linked in the OP seems to have more, and more current, info on the issue

Yes, it seems that Sound Devices was writing a Microsoft exclusive bit as "1", when it should have been "0".

Microsoft never used this bit in the past, so there was no problem - in W10, they use the bit as "1" to denote an encrypted file - which is where all the problems started.

Sound devices now have all the info, so they can correct the problem at their end.

Microsoft is working on a fix at their end and there should be a W10 update shortly.

They are also working on a fix that - after the W10 update comes out - will enable people with corrupted files to correct them.

Hats off to both SD and MS for getting to the bottom of this so quickly.

[voltronic]

Cause has been found (at least the main cause*) and it seems to be a combination of a change MS made when they implemented EFS (encrypted file system) in W10 and the way Sound Devices products write files that interferes with that change MS made. Latest word from the MS engineer posting in both the gearslutz and MS threads is that a patch is being worked on and will be introduced "as quickly as possible".

* so far the only reports of file inaccessability and/or corruption are from Sound Devices products so if you have encountered the problem on a file written by a different device please let the MS engineer know - his contact info is in both threads

note the MS thread linked in the OP seems to have more, and more current, info on the issue

Yes, it seems that Sound Devices was writing a Microsoft exclusive bit as "1", when it should have been "0".

Microsoft never used this bit in the past, so there was no problem - in W10, they use the bit as "1" to denote an eccrypted file - which is where all the problems started.

Sound devices now have all the info, so they can correct the problem at their end.

Microsoft is working on a fix at their end and there should be a W10 update shortly.

They are also working on a fix that - after the W10 update comes out - will enable people with corrupted files to correct them.

Hats off to both SD and MS for getting to the bottom of this so quickly.

I've been following the GS thread, and it's very encouraging that both companies solved this in the way they did.

[Ozpeter]

Indeed, good to see a fix in the works, but there's nothing that attracts attention so quickly as multiple people losing user data!

[DSatz]

Ozpeter, HUGE thanks for posting this, and thanks as well to other folks who've filled in other essential information.

[voltronic]

Update: There is now a fix out to repair files corrupted by this issue:
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/remote-possibilities-acoustic-music-location-recording/1024804-windows-10-corrupting-audio-files-2.html#post11371260

[dactylus]

Update: There is now a fix out to repair files corrupted by this issue:
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/remote-possibilities-acoustic-music-location-recording/1024804-windows-10-corrupting-audio-files-2.html#post11371260

^
Thank you!