Recovering Audacity files

[ozdma]

OK, so a @#$&^ third party sound guy unplugged our Phonic Helix firewire mixer (aka the sound card !!!!!) at the end of a live recording session. He was in a hurry to leave and we were up getting the mics from the stage.

Is there any way of receovering the recording?

Thanks,

Ozdma

[kozikowski]

Let's go with no.

If you restarted Audacity and it didn't volunteer to stitch everything back together again, then it's probably hopeless.

There was one posting of someone who got a software package to collect all the temporary capture files into one performance, but we never heard that it actually worked or not, and he was on a Mac.

This problem pops up periodically and nobody ever writes back about how successful they were.

Search the forum. I can't remember the search terms, but the best we can do is the Mac program.

Koz

[ozdma]

Koz, thanks. I searched and found the notes under "recovery", but the utility didn't work. The software created an error log...

I recovered the deleted files using a third party utility.

Audacity didn't ask me about the files - is the re a setting that will set the system up to prompt me?

ozdma

[kozikowski]

<<<Audacity didn't ask me about the files - is the re a setting that will set the system up to prompt me?>>>

The recovery mode is supposed to be automatic after an Audacity crash. I believe one of the Requested New Features is the ability to force a Recovery event--especially if you know where the show files are.

<<<I recovered the deleted files using a third party utility.>>>

Which was? Remember this is us helping each other. And correct me, they weren't deleted files, they were orphan capture files.

Koz

[ozdma]

Koz,

Sorry about the delayed response!

Regarding the undelete software:

I used a freeware program called Undelete Plus from shareware.com

Try: http://www.download.com/3000-2084-10738319.html

It scans your hard drive for deleted files (took a while). I found 8,000+ audacity files from the date affected, and restored them, but the utility didn't work to stitch them up in to a single file. There was nothing in the folder for the session - no orphaned files - just empty. I also looked at the temp folder (audacity_1_2_temp) and there was nothing there, either.

I haven't had a chance to try other options to stitch them up into a single file (yet.) Most of the files are 12k in size, so I think they may not be what I'm looking for...

Regarding the recovery option:

The system has never asked me to recover anything.

Thanks for your help!

[JeffB]

The Audacity wiki has a section on CrashRecovery. I had Audacity crash on me a few times, especially when I first started. Since then, I've learned to save the file BEFORE I start. It has rarely crashed since then. Before, I think using the temporary files or whatever made it use RAM to save many of the files and it would eventually overload on very long recordings (ie. several hours). If it is named and saved before hand the files are periodically saved and it hasn't crashed for that reason, I don't believe.

Anyway, I somehow figured out to look in the temporary files and found a bunch of files. When I would try and play them, I would get little snippets of sound. I tried putting them together manually and had some minor success but it became obvious pretty quickly that it was waaaaaay too tedious and time consuming for any but the most critical of projects. It also appeared to be less than perfect as some files were likely missing and probably were not in perfect order.

At some later point in time I came across a link to an Audacity Recovery Tool, probably the one listed in that Wiki article. I downloaded it & vaguely remember using it once, though it's been a pretty long time ago. My memory of it may be off somewhat, but it seems to me like it did save some bit of a recording I lost during a crash but not all of it, but it was a major time saver and probably did a better job of it than I could have done on my own anyway. I may not have tried the utility immediately after the crash but hours or maybe even a day or two later, btw, and some of the temporary files may have been overwritten by then.

Koz said something in another thread that some of the files aren't audio files in the Audacity temporary folder or whatever. I think he said the first file or two & the last file or two were text files or something along those lines. If the utility can't handle those, perhaps you could manually delete them or move them to another folder and then see if the software will stitch things together. If it is important enough and you are willing to expend the time and effort, you might try making multiple copies of the files you saved and try to stitch some of the segments together. You may get some pieces that are perfect and others that you might want to re-work a little manually. Then you could stitch segments together after you get them to where you want them, or at least to the point that you can live with them as is.

Good luck.

[kozikowski]

<<<Koz said something in another thread that some of the files aren't audio files in the Audacity temporary folder or whatever. I think he said the first file or two & the last file or two were text files or something along those lines.>>>

At least the first two au files are graphics and the last one will be damaged from the crash. The aup file is an editable XML text file. Normally, this file carries the instructions of what to do with all the au files.

<<<My memory of it may be off somewhat>>>

Like the hazy memory of being run over by a metrobus or poking yourself in the eye with a stick. Nice when you stop and then the memory fades quickly.

As they say in the wiki, not likely to work very well on long shows. Disaster Recovery is not one of Audacity strong points.

Koz