Topic: MT wav file lost?

[SClassical]

Tonight I was recording a concert.

Refore starting I formated my Lexar 2GB 80X card.

I set my V3 and MT to 24bit/48kHz (digital coax connection). After setting this I checked the time I have in my card and found there was only 1hr !!!! which was strange, as you know from a 2GB card I should get about 2 hrs of recording at 24/48.

I started recording the 1st half of the concert and after the 1st half (which lasted about 45mins) ended I accidentally pressed power off on my MT and when I powered my MT back on I realized I lost my whole wav file!!! So for the 2nd part of the concert (which lasted about 35 mins) I just continued to use my compact flash card. At the end of the 2nd half I press REC to stop recording which saved my 2nd half of the concert as a wav file. Now I only ended up with the 2nd half of the concert and I really don't know what happened to my 1st half - did I loose the first half of the concert because I accidentally pressed power off?

When I returned home I checked my card via windows explorer. Strange things was..when I looked at my compact flash card the file size does not add up.

It shows I have used 1.3GB and only 625MB free. From this info it looks as if I still have my 1st half of the concert in the card but I cannot see the wav file. From windows explorer I can only see an empty temp folder and one wav file. My 34 mins wav file from the 2nd part of the concert is only 570MB. It looks as if somewhere in the card I still have my 45 mins of the 1st part of the concert.

What can I do to get the ~700MB of audio (1st half of the cocert) back which i know is somewhere in my compact flash card?

Why did my MT tell me I only have 1hr straight after formating my card (as you know it should be 2hrs)?

I hope someone can help me by answering these 2 questions...

So angry with my MT 

[udovdh]

What firmware version is in the MT?

[SClassical]

What firmware version is in the MT?

The most recent one.... (1.2.3)   

[gl0bber]

If you have a card reader, try using Windows to check the volume for errors.  That should make the first file visible.  The MT does not shut down gracefully (it hardly does anything gracefully, for that matter  ).  When you forced the shutdown the buffers did not get flushed to the card and so the file allocation tables did not get updated properly.  This is similar to what happens when one lets a 1GB card get completely filled.

Good luck!

[JasonSobel]

I set my V3 and MT to 24bit/48kHz (digital coax connection). After setting this I checked the time I have in my card and found there was only 1hr !!!! which was strange, as you know from a 2GB card I should get about 2 hrs of recording at 24/48.

although my answer won't help you recover your file directly, I just want to chime in and say that what I quoted above is normal operation.  When you set the input to S/PDIF, it will automatically detect the sample rate.  In the "recording settings" menu, if you then choose "recording time available" it will assume a sample rate of 96kHz, which would give you one hour on a 2GB card.  However, when you then feed it a 24/48 S/PDIF signal and start the recording, the proper available time should be seen from the count down.

[SClassical]

If you have a card reader, try using Windows to check the volume for errors.  That should make the first file visible.  The MT does not shut down gracefully (it hardly does anything gracefully, for that matter  ).  When you forced the shutdown the buffers did not get flushed to the card and so the file allocation tables did not get updated properly.  This is similar to what happens when one lets a 1GB card get completely filled.

Good luck!

Thanks, Can you tell me what program to use to check for errors in a compact flash? Do I use windows explorer or something else?

[jcrab66]

if the file shows on the MT just transfer it to your puter and open it with CEP as raw wave, then save as plain old wav, this has happened to myself and several others, that'll fix it. Your file is still there intact, the MT just didnt save it with a file header...

[SClassical]

if the file shows on the MT just transfer it to your puter and open it with CEP as raw wave, then save as plain old wav, this has happened to myself and several others, that'll fix it. Your file is still there intact, the MT just didnt save it with a file header...

The lost file doesn't show up in MT or windows explorer, all I can see is the empty temp folder and the last wav file. It looks as if the 1st wav file is lost somewhere in the memory card because the total space used in the card is equal to the 1st and 2nd part of the concert. I can only see the 2nd half of the concert in my MT

[SClassical]

If you have a card reader, try using Windows to check the volume for errors.  That should make the first file visible.  The MT does not shut down gracefully (it hardly does anything gracefully, for that matter  ).  When you forced the shutdown the buffers did not get flushed to the card and so the file allocation tables did not get updated properly.  This is similar to what happens when one lets a 1GB card get completely filled.

Good luck!

Wow! found the hidden file (first part of the concert) after doing the "check the volume for errors" in windows explorer. Problem is it is called FILE0001.CHK (775,664 KB). Can someone tell me how I can make this CHK file into a wav file?

Thanks for your help!

[Peter]

Try just renameing to xxxx.WAV, you may need to read it as a RAW WAV file, but there is a good chance that your sound is intact.

[SClassical]

Try just renameing to xxxx.WAV, you may need to read it as a RAW WAV file, but there is a good chance that your sound is intact.

Hi thanks for your message. I renamed my CHK to wav and it does not open in any programs because after changing it it says file not recognised. Even though I changed the name to file0012.wav, it does not recognise it as a wav file in any audio programs (sound forge, windows media player etc.). I get an error message when I double click it saying the file format is not properly initialized after just renaming it from CHK to wav. Does anyone know how to initialize a file as wav? Thanks.

[udovdh]

Open as a RAW file, not WAV. WAV requires a header int he file according to the RIFF format.

[gl0bber]

Try just renameing to xxxx.WAV, you may need to read it as a RAW WAV file, but there is a good chance that your sound is intact.

Hi thanks for your message. I renamed my CHK to wav and it does not open in any programs because after changing it it says file not recognised. Even though I changed the name to file0012.wav, it does not recognise it as a wav file in any audio programs (sound forge, windows media player etc.). I get an error message when I double click it saying the file format is not properly initialized after just renaming it from CHK to wav. Does anyone know how to initialize a file as wav? Thanks.

Hey, just sent you a message without checking here first - oops!  Anyway, the suggestions given here should eventually work for you, have patience!

[SClassical]

Thanks for your help. I opened the file as a raw file (24/48) in sound forge 8 and the peaks were EXTREEMLY high. I am sure that I set my V3 levels under clipping levels but the file I just opened shows a lot of VERY high peaks and most part of the track had a lot of clipping and distortion. From the peaks it looks as if I overloaded my preamp. I'm sure I didn't because the second half of the concert was perfect with the same V3 settings. Any ideas now to correct this?

[JasonSobel]

I haven't ever used Sound Forge, but when opening RAW WAV files in Cool Edit, it gives you a choice for offset, 0, +1, or +2.
In my experience, if you chose the wrong offset, you'd see wall to wall clipping, and it would just be noise.  it's a trial and error process, but it's obvious once you choose the correct offset.