Error: Invalid Token (644) AND corrupted (static) files, export to WAV not available

[alkaline_ice]

Did you read the link I posted that sent you to the wiki? It tells you to go into the .aup and deleting a line in your file.

[jago13]

I did it read it, but I'm no longer getting that error message and when I open in Wordpad++ there aren't any special characters anywhere near the 644 line.
(see attachment)

The only issue I'm having now is exporting/editing the files with missing data, and I did not find anything on the forum where the exporting problem was related to the missing data. All files that are still intact have no problem exporting. Files that have little as 2 seconds of missing data cause Audacity to crash while exporting.

[steve]

I am reluctant to use "save as" on a file that is already saved, because this caused major glitches in either previous version, or the version before that.

A couple of versions ago (2.2.1?) there was a problem using "Save As" to overwrite the current project. It was not a problem to use "Save" to overwrite the current project, or to use "Save As" to save as a new project, only using "Save As" to overwrite the current project. This problem was fixed in the next release and is no longer a problem (though it remains the case that "Save As" is intended for saving as a new project).

The invalid token error actually went away and I was able to open the file after another reboot.

OK, so while you can, open that project and use "Save As" to save it to a different disk / storage medium. At this stage I don't trust the drive that it was on.

I checked both C and external drives for errors and repaired them.

So you're saying that errors were found? Was that on all drives or only one?

[jago13]

Errors were found on the external drive, and were apparently fixed successfully. I agree this drive probably can't be trusted anymore, at least with this project. No errors found on C drive (as this wasn't the computer the drive was disconnected from)

I did go ahead an re-save the file on C drive, but ran into the same exact problems trying to export the damaged files.

I'll mention that I have dealt with missing data in the past after a crash, but I was easily able to fix the damaged files by converting them to mono, and had no problems with export.

[steve]

I accidentally disconnected my device while Windows was updating.

The static is on the already recorded tracks -- there will be some data that is unaffected on a track, then a blast of static that is visible in the waveform as a huge block. It is not on every single track, and it not every project file.

It sounds like you have widespread data corruption on that drive.

If you think of a drive as a sheet of paper that is written on and read, disk checking utilities check that the paper is intact, and that the writing is visible. They don't check that the writing makes sense. So you can have a drive that is physically "fixed", but the data on it may still be garbage.

Audacity saves it's audio data as "block files" in the project's "_data" folder. If any of those block files are damaged, even just one byte, then the entire block is likely to be read as garbage (noise or silence). That "garbage" may be unwriteable, which would account for Audacity choking when trying to export.

This sounds like it's going to be a salvage operation.
Do you have a disk that is known to be good (undamaged and problem free) and has plenty of free space?

[jago13]

Yikes, at least I can easily get another drive if I have to.

But why wouldn't it work after being re-saved to C-drive? The same exact problem? There are no issues that I'm aware of on this drive.

I was able to salvage the non-corrupted tracks as wavs with no problem, so I can move them anywhere if I have to. I also have backups of the corrupted files but I have done quite a bit of work since then and I was hoping to save the effects and envelopes.

Thanks for trying to help, seems a likely solution is to export what I can from the project and use another drive.

[steve]

But why wouldn't it work after being re-saved to C-drive? The same exact problem? There are no issues that I'm aware of on this drive.

Corrupt audio data is often, but not always, visible in the Audacity track, either as noise or as silence.

When copying / re-saving a project to another drive, the data is copied literally. There is no error checking other than ensuring that the data is written.

When exporting from Audacity, the audio data passes through an "exporter library", which formats / encodes the data for whatever the export format is. For example, when exporting as MP3, the raw audio data is passed to the LAME library, which encodes the data and writes the MP3 file to disk. If the data is not valid audio data, then the exporter will fail, and could even crash, taking Audacity down with it.

If a project contains corrupt audio data, it is sometimes possible to export parts of the project using "Export Selected Audio" and recover most of the project - it all depends on how much data is corrupted, and how badly.

[jago13]

Yes, thank you... I was able export and save 90% of the project with "selected audio", and that's great. Now off to buy another Seagate. Sigh!

[steve]

The affected drive is probably recoverable (once you've got the data off it) by reformatting it.