Audacity Forum

I was cutting and pasting when Audacity crashed.

I reopened it useing the "recovered" file and most of the audio is missing.

It has just silence where I had sound and only some sound on some tracks remains.

It also popped up a message about "Orphaned Blockfile(s)", upon which I choose to delete (marked as "safe and recomended").

I didn't save upon seeing most of my audio gone, and reopened it again and chose to not delete. Same result as before.

This file was very important and is an episode from a new radio show called BKradio.

I don't want to start again from scratch, but if I have to I shall.

I hope something can be done.

Unfortunately I think you are looking at starting again.
We strongly recommend that immediately after making an important recording you Export a backup copy as a WAV file.

So even though I had been reguaraly saving, that block file wee deleted when Audacity crashed?

Yes, those orphaned files were your data, but even if you had not deleted them the chances of recovering the data were slim.

Audacity 1.3.x is generally less prone to crashing, and much better at automatically recovering data after a crash than Audacity 1.2.x, but if if it does crash, and is unable to automatically recover, then the chances of being able to recover the project intact are slim. WAV files are considerably more robust than Audacity projects, which is why we recommend this backup method. Audacity projects are made up of a "cloud" of tiny data fragments that are held together by the Audacity Project file (.AUP). This is great for performance and editing purposes, but if the project breaks, then it's like smashing a mirror and you are left with a pile of dust.

You can learn more about how Audacity manages files here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/File_Management_Tips
In this game, knowledge is power, and understanding how Audacity works not only helps you to get the best from it, but helps in avoiding disasters like this.

Exporting as WAV is probably the most effective form of backup, but with large complex projects it can also be useful to periodically Save the project with a new unique name so that you end up with a series of self contained projects for different points during the production. This uses a huge amount of disk space, but the projects may be deleted after your final mixdown is safely exported. When saving a backup project, check for "dependencies" (File menu) to ensure that your backup is self contained (the linked article should explain the logic behind this).

I seem to have all the block files. Does that mean I can recover it all?

How do I check if the blockfiles still contain the data?

I don't see that we ever pointed you to the Crash Recovery Tools (and it may be too late). They may not be applicable, but they're the only game in town. You can't do it manually.

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

If not, that's the show in the dustbin.

Koz

Ok, thanks. I'll see what I can use.

Inside the _data folder looks like this:

_data
^
e00
^
d00 + d01 + d05 + d08 + d09

In each d0x folder there are lots of .au files starting with e00000cd, e00000f2, e00000fa and so on.
The file sizes vary from ~300kB to ~500kB.

Is that normal? It just seems like some files are missing.

Audacity 1.3 doesn't sequentially number the capture and production files, so you can't make any decisions based on the file names. That and in a stereo show, they go Left, Right, Left, Right, not stereo1, stereo2, stereo3, etc.

Once Something Happens and the AUP file gets out of step with the sound and production files, it's normal for the show to be gone or seriously damaged. The Crash Recovery tools were written to keep the carnage from being complete.

We constantly urge people to stop every so often and Export a WAV file of the show. Certainly Export As WAV every time you capture a live performance. Audacity Projects are widely misunderstood, brittle and easily damaged.

Koz

Ok, thanks.

Sound like I will have to start over again. Should be easier this time though.