Audacity Forum

I desperately need EXPERT advise on how I might recover them.

It happened like this.... I was dragging a few files from desktop to song data folder. One of the folders was a shortcut to the song data folder itself. After doing this, I realized that I had copied the song data folder into itself and so I deleted it. A message came up saying it was too large for the recycle bin - I clicked delete anyway - and now all my file folders are empty.
I had 30 origianl tunes . After this I tried system restore (didn't work)and after that closed down the system.

Is there any way to get these files back? What about undelete by disk doctor?

Thanks for any help....

GT

<<<undelete by disk doctor?>>>

That may be your only hope, only don't get up too much hope.

Windows Disk Operating System(s) works by breaking up a file into pieces and spraying it around the hard drive. It keeps a listing of what it did. It used to be called the File Allocation Table (FAT). Remember seeing that on new portable hard drives? It's a pretty simple and universal system. When you delete a file, the computer sets fire to the File Allocation Table listing for that file. The file information is still there, sprayed over the disk, but there's no good way to find it. The listing is that pile of ashes over there.

Undelete programs work by trying to figure out which uncharted shards and fragments go with each other and in what order.

Undelete works really well if you're religious about defragmenting your hard drive. You do that, right?

The more files orphaned by the mistake, the less chances of recovery.

Even if everything goes perfectly and the software recovers all your files, they will have no filenames. Remember, the directory vanished and that had the filenames in it.

file0
file1
file2
file3

There will be no extensions (file1.mp3) because they died with the table as well, so no auto launch for you.

So even if everything works, it's not going to work.

Next time you get yourself a nice pile of valuable files, copy them over to an external drive as a backup. When I capture live performances, I Export As WAV immediately and then copy it to a second drive. Do Not save Audacity Projects.

Koz

Ouch - that hurts! But I still want to give it a try. When I clicked on file-open, all the file folders are there from the projects. Will this help in sorting out all those fragements? Can I put them back together manually?

Thanks -

<<<Can I put them back together manually?>>>

I think the record among all the people who tried to recover damaged Projects is two. And both of them had single, really simple Projects.

Do you still have any of the AUP files for your shows? If you open them up in a word processor (they're not audio files) you will see they refer to the contents of the _DATA folder...and back to all the files you damaged.

Koz

Hi Koz - thanks for helping me.....
I did a search for any files with aup in the title, and all (or most) of my project names appeared with uap after each one and a description of its location on the c drive, when last modified etc. Is this what I'm looking for?
Sorry I'm not more computer savy (obviously)

GT

<<<Sorry I'm not more computer savy (obviously)>>>

Tha'ts OK. Nobody here is worried about that.

<<<my project names appeared>>>

If you never exported your show(s) as WAV or MP3 files, then it's really hopeless. Projects are the audio version of an IOU. "I promise to give you a show later by combining all your editing instructions and the original capture files and imported clips." There is no show right now, there's just an illusion of one until you get done editing and Export an actual sound file. That Export is the first time you get a single sound file you can email to your mum. You can't transfer, email, or back up Audacity Projects.

There is no end of people who think they're saving standard sound files. They're not.

Now, if you still have all your original capture WAV files or original imported sound clips, then yes, certainly, you can load them in Audacity and start over editing. Most people capture a live performance and then start editing immediately without an Export step in the middle. That is usually the kiss of death.

Koz

Koz, it is not that bad. Whether it is an old WIndows drive format (FAT, FAT32) or a new one (NTFS) there are file recovery programs that will examine the file allocation table (FAT) and present you with a list of all deleted files. Typically the first letter of each file shows up as a ? because that bit is gone once the file is deleted--but the rest is still there.

And yes, Windows does write data "all over" the hard drive when it can't find contiguous sectors, but each sector also contains the address of the next "jump to" point, and the recovery programs can use that data. Very often providing 100% file recovery IF NO OTHER DATA HAS BEEN WRITTEN TO THE DRIVE.

That means, leave the computer off, and use a different computer to download a file recovery program. Last time I needed to recover files that way was some time ago, Executive Undelete was what I used.

Once it is downloaded, follow the instructions from whatever program you get, to do as little writing as possible (even background OS writes) on the target computer, and most of the time you'll get most of the data back. All of it, if there have been no other writes and you've been patient.

If the data is valuable--like original compositions--then it may be better to just send the drive out to a recovery vendor, who will do the job with professional tools. Costs start around $400 for the estimate and a nominal amount of work. Use a dedicated vendor, not the local computer chain store. The chain stores sometimes wipe drives instead of recovering them.


But Hopeless? Hell no, not at all. Excellent chance.

Thank You sailor! Music to my ears. Unfortunately I recorded and saved one little tune after the accidental delete and so may have lost a corresponding amount (one song worth?) But still, I had 30 or so original compositions in there and if I could recover even 75% I'd be thrilled.

P.S. - If you think eating some hemp protien powder won't give you a buzz - think again! I had taken some to check it out as a protien source and wound up discovering some very interesting guitar passages -to say the least! talk about breaking down walls - but the .5% thc in the supplement was also enough for me to do this foolish erasure. I'm still playing better than before - but want my compositions back!

Thanks again -

GT

Too long for me to read carefully, but, are the files deleted indeed?
.aup: <<and all (or most) of my project names appeared >>
and what about .au?

If you have both, we have all we need.

I would

Start > Run cmd (run command prompt)
cd c:
cd
dir *.aup /s/b
dir *.au /s/b

Takes long time.
If you want to shows us the results (which is the reason using the above instead of your favorit Find)
cd C:
cd
dir *.aup /s/b >D:outputC1.txt
dir *.au /s/b >D:outputC2.txt

(Now you can click D:outputC1.txt or type ' start D:outputC1.txt ' to open the output)

[If you want to undelete deleted files (as covered by another post), I tried to avoid writing to the disk,
therefore, D: stands for a drive where you do not have your sounds, e.g. a flash disk )]

Xiong - your not the one with the problem - I AM. And so far, it has not worked.......

Gthurber: I deleted Xiong's post - it was probably spam - there were 3 or 4 other non-informational postings from Xiong at the same time - I deleted them all.