Topic: H120 Recording disappeard, recovered, but flat waveform - help!

[Diamond_D]

I recorded 2 sets at a show this week. I am positive that my iRiver h120 was recording for each set (optical-in), I saw the timer going, and saw the red buffer light going on ever few minutes. I pressed stop after the first set, and then turned the unit off. I turned it back on for the 2nd set, and repeated the same procedure.

When I got home, there was only 1 file in my recordings directory. It is the full 2nd set, and sounds normal. I was shocked! Especially since the 1st band was the reason I was at the show.

So I downloaded PhotoRec which I saw recommended here. I ran it on the full h120 disk, and it found a wav file of the appropriate size! 595 MB and 50 minutes. However, when I opened it in my audio software, there's about 3 minutes of audio, and the rest of the file is just a flat line, no sound. Is it possible that during my recording of the second set, I lost the ability to recover the 1st set?

I'm assuming since the file is so large, the audio must be in there somewhere... what can I do?? Any suggestions? Thank you!

PS - This is the 2nd time something like this has happened. Last time the file was intact when I recovered it. Does this sound like an HD problem that an upgrade to Compact Flash could help fix?

[Diamond_D]

Update - after doing some more reading on here, I did a CheckDisk on the H120, with error correction checked. Then I redid the PhotoRec recovery program, and got a lot more files.

I can now listen to shows I recording years ago, despite having made dozens of recordings since I deleted them. I even found files that were never even mine (leading me to believe that I got a refurbished unit, how about that for an unexpected result)

But now I no longer recover that 595MB file that I suspect is the set from this past week.

I tried running the "Homegrown WAV Utility" on the original file I recovered (the one with 2 minutes of audio, then flatline) and it recognized the header, 0 offset, and I went through the steps, and that didn't change anything.

So I'm still stuck with the file with no waveform for all but the first 2 minutes. I was monitoring the sound through the H120 so I know for sure that the optical in feed was working properly. Any feedback? Thanks