Begging for help recovering Missing Audio Data Block File(s)

So I am completely gutted right now, I have an audio project due in two days and I just lost three days worth of progress when the program randomly crashed. Now I have an error message saying “warning missing audio data block files” and my two hours of audio are nowhere to be seen.

Is there a guardian angel out there who can show me how to go about trying to recover this project? I am in shambles over this, was just about ready to finish the project and now this is a huge set back.

I am using Audacity 2.4.2 in Windows 10. I attached my .au file and tried to attach the .data files but it wont let me drop the whole folder in there at once. Desperate for advice!
USC_Spring2021_IanBlake_Part3.aup (351 KB)

In versions of Audacity prior to 3.0.0, Audacity projects had two parts.

  1. The “.aup” file (that you attached)
  2. A “_data” folder containing all of the audio data for the project.

In your case, the _data folder would be called: “USC_Spring2021_IanBlake_Part3_data”

My guess is that moved, deleted or renamed the _data folder so Audacity can’t find it, and that’s why Audacity is complaining about missing data.

Since Audacity 3.0.0, and in the current Audacity 3.0.2, Audacity projects are now a single, self contained “.aup3” file. The new project format is intended to avoid these kind of mishaps.

The current version of Audacity is available via the Audacity website: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/