URGENT | AUP file completely missing, still have data folder

[dokool]

So I’m in the situation as stated in the subject. Saved my project to the harddrive, data folder was there, shut down my laptop, went home, popped my harddrive onto my desktop, copied the folder over…

…and the AUP file was nowhere to be found.

Opened my notebook, checked there, checked the harddrive again, nothing.

So I have the data folder with the e00 subfolder and d00, d01, and d02 sub-subfolders. And nothing else.

Notebook is on Windows 7, desktop is an iMac w/ the latest OSX. How can I recover this audio?

[kozikowski]

Which Audacity version?

The AUP project manager file is not inside the _DATA folder. Is that what you were expecting?

Was this after a straight capture session, or after hours of editing?

What did you call the show? Did you put punctuation marks in the name? Dates are a favorite mistake.

You might start considering what to do if the show doesn’t come back.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/recovery.html

Koz

[dokool]

Using the latest version, 2.whatever.

@kozikowski

The AUP project manager file is not inside the _DATA folder. Is that what you were expecting?

No, I saved the project to my HDD as I usually did, and thought that both the _data folder and the .aup file were on there.

@kozikowski

Was this after a straight capture session, or after hours of editing?

Straight capture.

@kozikowski

What did you call the show? Did you put punctuation marks in the name? Dates are a favorite mistake.

Folder name is “saporepo episode 4_data”

@kozikowski

You might start considering what to do if the show doesn’t come back.

I’ve been trying to get the recovery tool to work and it refuses to budge, even after I managed to sort and re-name all of the .au files. So I’m at a loss as to what I can do next.

[Gale_Andrews]

@dokool

Using the latest version, 2.whatever.

Please answer the question. All three numbers from Help > About Audacity.

@dokool

@kozikowski

The AUP project manager file is not inside the _DATA folder. Is that what you were expecting?

No, I saved the project to my HDD as I usually did, and thought that both the _data folder and the .aup file were on there.

Just to be clear, is this HDD an external USB hard drive, or something else?

@dokool

@kozikowski

What did you call the show? Did you put punctuation marks in the name? Dates are a favorite mistake.

Folder name is “saporepo episode 4_data”

Then please search for “saporepo episode 4.AUP”.

@dokool

@kozikowski

You might start considering what to do if the show doesn’t come back.

I’ve been trying to get the recovery tool to work and it refuses to budge, even after I managed to sort and re-name all of the .au files. So I’m at a loss as to what I can do next.

You should find and use the AUP file if at all possible.

“Refuses to budge” tells us nothing useful about what you are trying to do.

The steps to follow in the case that you have a recording and no AUP file are at Missing features - Audacity Support . In other words, you must sort the AU files into timestamp order, rename them into a consecutive sequence then use the 1.2 Recovery Tool.

This is easier done on Windows, but on Mac you can use Automator or you may be able to use the “Linux command-line alternatives for time stamp sorting” in the Mac terminal (see the “automatic recovery tools” link above). The 1.2 Recovery Tool you need for Intel Macs is gaclrecords.org.uk .


Gale

[dokool]

@Gale Andrews

Please answer the question. All three numbers from Help > About Audacity.

2.0.5

@Gale Andrews

Just to be clear, is this HDD an external USB hard drive, or something else?

Yes.

@Gale Andrews

Then please search for “saporepo episode 4.AUP”.

I have - with Show Hidden Files enabled. It simply doesn’t exist. Have checked every temp folder, have scoured the external HDD, even checked the recycle bin. Nothing.

@Gale Andrews

“Refuses to budge” tells us nothing useful about what you are trying to do.

The steps to follow in the case that you have a recording and no AUP file are at Missing features - Audacity Support . In other words, you must sort the AU files into timestamp order, rename them into a consecutive sequence then use the 1.2 Recovery Tool.

This is easier done on Windows, but on Mac you can use Automator or you may be able to use the “Linux command-line alternatives for time stamp sorting” in the Mac terminal (see the “automatic recovery tools” link above). The 1.2 Recovery Tool you need for Intel Macs is gaclrecords.org.uk .

I followed those steps with Automator and got the following error with the Recovery Tool (which claims it is 1.1, not 1.2):

The given path “/Volumes/PHOTOS/saporepo4recovery” does not contain any audio files that could be recovered.

Now it’s 2:30AM, my vision is blurring, and despite clearly being able to hear 6-second fragments of our recording I’ve proven incapable of piecing them back together. So I’ve zipped up the contents of the data folder and uploaded it here: saporepo episode 4_data

If any kind soul out there with more experience than me would like to give it a shot, they’re more than welcome. There should be 3 audio recordings in total that combined are about 37 minutes. Stereo, 44100Hz, 32-bit float.

[Gale_Andrews]

@dokool

If any kind soul out there with more experience than me would like to give it a shot, they’re more than welcome. There should be 3 audio recordings in total that combined are about 37 minutes. Stereo, 44100Hz, 32-bit float.

I am downloading your zip file. It will be at least another 10 minutes before it completes.

If you fix it yourself in the meantime, please post.


Gale

[dokool]

And of course just after posting that I get the recovery tool to work because sr001.au was not short enough, it had to be s001.au.

It can’t be that hard to include a tool to recover an orphaned data folder within Audacity, can it…?

[Gale_Andrews]

I’m glad you got your recording back.

@dokool

And of course just after posting that I get the recovery tool to work because sr001.au was not short enough, it had to be s001.au.

Nowhere do the instructions say to to use two letters as the numerical prefix. They suggest using letter “e”.

@dokool

It can’t be that hard to include a tool to recover an orphaned data folder within Audacity, can it…?

The tool has to be cross-platform to begin with. And shipped with Audacity or not, instructions to use it have to be followed or it won’t work.

Did you wait before the project was saved before disconnecting the drive, and did you Safely remove the drive ?

If you have enabled write caching in the drive’s properties you must use the Safely Remove Hardware method to avoid data loss. See http://www.howtogeek.com/118546/htg-explains-do-you-really-need-to-safely-remove-usb-sticks/ .


Gale