Newbie needs help.

[Graeme]

Hi, I have been using Audacity for several years and it is a wonderful program. I use if for recording, editing and posting sermons as MP3 - However a couple of times recently right at the end of the recording Audacity has closed ( or maybe a Windows issue?). We have recoverd all of the files - or an audacity file folder 491mb -- and an Audacity Project File.
How do I reconneect the two things. When I restore the file I get many little files a few seconds long, good sound and clear etc. but How do I bring them all back
together.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thenk you.

[kozikowski]

Crash Recovery
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... shRecovery

Of course, you need to find out why Audacity crashed. No, that's not normal. People who do this for a long time and then suddenly start having troubles can be suffering from a shrinking hard drive or a drive which hasn't been defragmented forever. Audacity will not work into a drive with no room or one choked by fragmentation -- or both.

Defrag
-- Right Click Start > Explore > Right Click Local Drive C: > Properties (Used, Remaining) > Tools > Error Checking & Defragmentation

In the middle of the largest production and in the face of many effects and UNDO, the free space on your hard drive should never fall below about 15% of the total drive.

It gets big fast. An hour raw show is about 700MB. With production, filters, UNDO and other tools, you could be looking at a 2GB project. Plus room needed for Windows, etc. etc.

Koz

[Graeme]

Thanks Koz,
The computer is not the issue it is a new high powered PC specifically for this use -- I think operater issue may be more to the point.
However I have all of these little files - seems to be hundreds of them and if I "restore" them they each open in a seperate Audacity window - each playing for about 5-6 seconds - but clear and understandable.
My question is how do I bring that all into one MP3

Do appreciate your response though,

Graeme.

[waxcylinder]

My question is how do I bring that all into one MP3

The link that Koz gave you is the article in the wiki that tells all that we know about crash recovery in 1.2.x.

Once you have recovered your project (not always possible BTW, but fingers crossed) it will be an Audacity Project - you will need to Export that to make your MP3.

WC

[Graeme]

Thank you WC,
I have followed all the suggestions -- sadly to no avail.
But thank you all on the forum for your help.
Just have to be more careful in the future.

Graeme

[waxcylinder]

Graeme,

if all you are working on is single track stereo pair projects - then an Export of a safety copy to a WAV file every now and again may keep your data more secure in the future.

Also I would recommend using the Beta version of Audacity - but wait for 1.3.11 to be released which should be any day now.

Although it's Beta it is now a very mature Beta - and is in fact much more stable on many modern platforms that the "officially stable" 1.2.6. Apart from anything else crash recovery is much improved in 1.3 compared with 1.2

WC

[Graeme]

Thanks WC,

I have really appreciated the help and advice I have received through this forum.
After carefully going back step by step I have managed to recover the lost file minus about 1 minute so I am very happy.

I will certainly follow the advice regarding backup to wav and also look for the new Beta.

Thank you again,
Graeme.

[waxcylinder]

New Beta was released yesterday - see: http://audacityteam.org/download/

Glad you got your recording back (mostly) - you are one of the lucky ones ...

WC