How to restores files on and SD card(deatails in post)

[Jason Weiesnbach]

Okay, I plugged in the SD card to Windows, I was simply going to drop a file into the audio depot, but when I went to paste, the file the folder was gone, everything was gone. I ran CHDSK and it found files, lots of files. It restored them to a folder "FOUND.000" which I have backed up twice, all of the files are are labeled as follows "FILE0000.CHK" and numerically increase up to "FILE0635.CHK" for a total of 636 files, but how do I restore these file to a coherent form that either Windows or my DP24 will recognize and read?

 

[Tobermory]

I just access SD cards from a PC by connecting the USB port of my DP-24 to a USB port of the PC and using MENU screen option “USB”. An example SD card from my SD-24 has the three folders off the root directory (AudioDepot, MUSIC, UTILITY) and a file named ‘dp-24.sys’ in it.

If you put the SD card back in to the DP-24 does the recorder recognise the card as formatted? And if it does, are the same recordings present in the tracks as were there before you removed the card from the recorder?

 

[Jason Weiesnbach]

"....does the recorder recognise the card as formatted?"

No it does not. I've been running unCHK for the last hour. It's found a ton of .WAV files, but I don't think it will find the file structure.

This is starting to look like a total loss, 14 songs, only 4 backed up--and those were backed up a few weeks ago and are totally out of date, basic skeletons of what was later added.

Is there any known way to reverse engineer the pointers to the various chunks of files? What file type are those pointers? If I could identify that, then I might be able to convince unCHK to locate them, and if it can, I might be able to fake a folder structure and hope for the best

 

[shredd]

I just access SD cards from a PC by connecting the USB port of my DP-24 to a USB port of the PC and using MENU screen option “USB”

This.

I'm no rocket surgeon or computer jeenyuss...
BUT: it sounds like it's your COMPUTER that's corrupting the SD card.
My brylyunt advice: see above post. Or use a different 'puter.

FWIW: my DP has also "corrupted" a song file that rendered it inaccessable by either the DP OR a computer...and the song was lost...
So daily backup seems like a good plan. As mentioned above, I just enable the DP -> puter USB connection and copy the contents of the MUSIC folder (or even just the song/s I worked on that day) to the puter's backup copy.

 

[Jason Weiesnbach]

I keep my DP in a different physical location than my computer, so it's simpler to just carry the card back and forth, but in the future I'll keep that in mind.

Right now I'm just running unCHK, and it looks like there's hours to go yet. Who knows, maybe it will pull up some folder structure. This is my first time using it.

 

[shredd]

I keep my DP in a different physical location than my computer, so it's simpler to just carry the card back and forth, but in the future I'll keep that in mind.

I have the same issue...
I actually DO have a studio puter...but It stays fully shut down at all times unless performing a specific task. Even in "sleep mode", it emits horrific RF noise that's picked up by various studio gear/cables.
At first, I thought it was no big deal to just pop my SD card outta the DP after shutting down for the day, popping it into the puter, and doing the copy...not sure the wear n tear on my fast, expensive SD card is worth it though.
So I might end up keeping my AirBook in the studio...for that one single purpose...sigh..."Better Living Through Technology", riiiiight???

 

[Mark Richards]

...total of 636 files, but how do I restore these file to a coherent form that either Windows or my DP24 will recognize and read?

Welcome to the forum, Jason.

Unfortunately, unless you can recover the root directory DP-24.sys file; the Music folder; and the individual song folders and the song.sys file and editable.sys file for each of your songs, the portastudio won't be able to reconstruct each song's proprietary zz000_1.wav, zz000_2.wav, etc. files into a complete song.

If you can recover the proprietary "zz" files, you may be able to use a D.A.W. to identify and stitch the .wav files together, but that can be a daunting task, particularly if the songs have many edits and overdubs.

To avoid this in the future, you need to make sure:

• You're up to date with the firmware;
• You're using only TASCAM approved/tested SD cards;
• You format the approved/tested SD cards only using the portastudio;
• You only use the portastudio USB port for file transfer, but if that's not possible, then write protect the SD card before placing it in the computer card reader;
• Depending on extent of use, periodically: backup the SD card; then using the portastudio, reformat the approved/tested SD card to lock out any possible bad sectors, since SD cards can eventually wear out.

There's also a post in the "Equipment Related Tips" sticky thread that describes how to recover an individual song that won't open due to a corrupted file. That may come in handy should you be able to get the file structure restored.

I know that's not easing your pain now; but hopefully will help you avoid future pain.

 

[-mjk-]

My suggestion is to do whatever you can to recover the data on the card. Take another SD card, and format it in the DP machine. Then using the PC with that newly formatted card, make a folder (inside the Song folder) with the exact name that you used when you created the song. Then copy all those files into that song folder.

Then, (not sure from memory where this is) but delete the system file which will be called (something like) "dp42.sys" - at any rate (machine is not in front of me at the moment) the file extension will be ".sys" (dot sys). Put that card in the machine and see if it can rebuild the system file from the zz data files you have in the new song folder.

EDIT: Re-reading your posts to make sure I didn't make any mistakes - I realize you're talking about 14 songs. Obviously you cannot tell what songs go in what folders.

The important thing is that during the recovery process, always maintain an unmodified copy of everything on the PC so you can keep trying new things.

You are doing to have to do that for 14 songs, 1 at a time. See if the DP machine can recover a song and then copy it over to the PC and start over for the next song, etc.. Copy all the recovered data into the song folder because you don't know what files go with what songs.

The DP machines know what files are currently being used based on the system files, so if you are successful (and backup everything before every operation) you should be able to use Delete Unused and get rid of the excess files for each song.

This is the best that I can think of, but I don't want you to get your hopes up. Since you are not sure if you can recover all the data in the first place you're going to have to try and restore each song until you hit on that might work. Hopefully all, buy maybe some. Who knows?

You may end up with extra data that you cannot delete in the machine so you may end up having to work on 1 song at a time and keep the rest on the PC while you work on 1 song. That is not a bad way of working as it does minimize the risk of something bad happening.

 

[Jason Weiesnbach]

I've got large chunks of things recovered but nothing with any actual recognizable names. I'm getting things like FILE_0001.sys, and FILE_0001.wav.

I did get one recovery tool that pulled up the wave files in the correct ZZ naming format, but with no folder structure, and no SYS files at all...

...and yeah I'm working on clones, trial and error until something works right.

I've found many recovery tools that will pull the wave files up just fine, but the names and folder structure are all gone.

I'm starting to think it might be easier to just re-record it all.

 

[-mjk-]

zz files are good. If there are no sys files, that might be better anyway. The machine will rebuild the sys files. There have been cases reported where the sys file got out of sync and once deleted and restarted the operation returned to normal. So before you trash is all, it might be worthwhile to see if letting the machine rebuild the sys file might work in some cases.

I feel your pain.

 

[Jason Weiesnbach]

Thanks, but it's still looking like a total loss. It appears that the only retrieval tool that I've found that pulls up the files with names intact, just drops them all into a single folder, so "zz00_o1" apparently(my best guess) just keeps getting overwritten each time a new file with that name shows up, and as near as I can tell the names don't actually correspond to "track" per se, but just what was laid down first, regardless of what track it's on, so I end up with a mish-mashed combination of various things for various folders that don't really represent anything cohesive.

On the other hand, I have another retrieval program that pulls them up in the correct directory, but changes the file names. Literally recup_dir.1(2, 3, etc.), with file names as "f001***.wav"...

It's like one or the other, never both.