LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!

Posted by marybeth 
LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 09:56AM
Hard drive crashed - my entire film project - 500gb WD My Book Studio - OUCH.

Paid to have it recovered...they did get a 1/4 of it back. I can see the critical FCP files I need but I believe they are corrupted as I can not open them in FCP (I have FCP STUDIO 6.0).

Has anyone experienced this problem and discovered a solution to this problem so I can access these critically important project files in FCP???

Side note: Thank you in advance to all those incredible generous people who always respond with helpful information on these boards. You have saved me countless of times and I'm extremely grateful. Hope someone can come through again!
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 10:01AM
This isn't for you. Unfortunately I have no suggestions for you.

This is for anybody else who might read this:

Back up your project files.

You don't have any computer files unless you have them twice. And even then, you just barely have them. Project files are tiny, and trivial to back up. Use Time Machine. Email project files to your Gmail account every few hours. Flash drives are cheap; buy a six-pack and put a copy of your project files on every one. Stash one in your safe deposit box at the bank.

Back up your project files.








(Okay, I lied a little bit. Check your autosave vault. Odds are a recent copy of each of your project files is stashed away there, because Final Cut Pro is more fastidious than any of us.)

Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 10:15AM
Yeah...I am so sorry for your loss...but I am with Jeff...I have no suggestions for you other than if you are in school and this is a Thesis / Film Project, go tell the genius that gave you / recommended you use a 500gb WD My Book Studio to store your work files that it is THEIR FAULT. Worse suggestion for a work drive...EVER. I would be good and mad. Should have been working on a CalDigit VR 2TB in RAID 1 for redundant (Mirrored) backup.

Your data is precious...don't be cheap with storage / work units...EVER. Hopefully lesson learned.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 10:38AM
Not sure if you ever did a search on the LAFCPUG for "Mybook". These (or any store bought drives) were never meant to be used for editing. They don't come with a fan or a good cooling system, which is disastrous when you keep your drives running for long periods of time. The writing was on the wall, and we don't make warnings for no reason. Go cheap and lose your data. It depends on which you'll rather pay for- reshoots or better drives with good back up procedures.

Usually a drive failure doesn't mean so much. I had 3 drives fail in a week- 2 in an aging RAID 5, and a back up drive, and we still carried on editing. You could also check your autosave vault, as Jeff mentioned. And where are the original rushes stored? They gotta be somewhere!

Here are a few things you could try out... But of course, your case is kinda unique, because it's a failed drive that has been through data recovery. You may want to give them a call beforehand.


[aeroquartet.com]

[www.macintosh-data-recovery.com]

[www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com]



www.strypesinpost.com
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 10:52AM
If you weren't taught to backup, file-manage and protect your files, then you weren't taught to edit properly.

I strongly suggest you find a proper FCP teacher who can tell you how and where to put files, how to protect them with multiple redundancies, and how each file pertains to which part of editing. Seriously, I would never have allowed any of my students in the past to even start a project without pounding those rules into their heads first.


www.derekmok.com
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 12:09PM
Boy that hurts. It might be too late but I swear by Data Rescue software. Surprised the company you went to only got 1/4 of the files back. Anyway, this product is always handy should this ever happen again. Generally when you have a hard crash that looses everything, you do not want to do anything until you run this software.

[www.prosofteng.com]

Michael Horton
-------------------
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 01:41PM
The most frustrating part is that the files I need are recovered...it's just that FCP can't open them, so they must corrupted and I just wish there was a program that could analyze them and straighten them out.

Thanks for all the replies... I'm not an editor - I prod/dir a feature length doc that has already been sold and had the data on their for years...all was good. It was a very good drive actually and I had thought some of the files I needed most were backed up but they were not... Yes, alway back up, back up, back up and I agree (although it doesn't apply to the drive I had as it worked well) you get what you pay for in most cases.

Thanks again...
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 01:46PM
>it's just that FCP can't open them, so they must corrupted and I just wish there was a program
>that could analyze them and straighten them out.

I already mentioned it.

[aeroquartet.com]

Give them a call.


>It was a very good drive actually

Ouch! You just made me spurt coffee through my nose. These lemons have a massive design flaw, as I mentioned.



www.strypesinpost.com
bj
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 02:39PM
I had a problem with a WD my book HD disappearing from my computer.
Couldn't get my computer to find it with disk utility.
It had changed names and was not working.
I tried Disk Warrior and ran the program.
It rebuilt the directories and now it works fine.
Using it only as an archieve HD.
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 02:41PM
You peeps are playing Russian Roulette with your data using those WD MyBook units. Hope your data isn't critical (all my ones & zeros are). Good luck with that.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

bj
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 03:18PM
<Russian Roulette with your data using those WD MyBook units>
Agreed
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 03:26PM
Quote

It was a very good drive actually

There are only two kinds of hard drives in this world: totally dependable ones that are astonishing examples of engineering tolerances, and useless hunks of metal and plastic.

The catch is that any hard drive in the first class can become a hard drive in the second class at a moment's notice, with no warning.

Back up your crap. Period.

Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 03:30PM
DO you have the PROJECT file? The thing we all say that you need to have backed up? Or was that on the external only too? All the other things...the MEDIA files...just recapture those from the master tapes. P2? XDCAM EX? AVCHD? Did you keep/archive the card data? Or convert to QT and then erase?

If a media drive dies...which happens...then all you need to do is recapture your source footage...or reimport. The project file has it all logged, so just recapture and your edit is safe. No point trying to spend hundreds of dollars recovering a media drive if you have this.

If you don't have the originals, WHY NOT!?!? If you don't, then whoever taught you needs to be drawn and quartered.

God, should I get into teaching? I don't think it pays as much as I am used to getting...


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]
bj
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 03:30PM
Mine is only used to archieve after i have made backup BVAP files to DVD's.
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 08:00PM
So, Marybeth, did you check the auto saves? There's likely a copy in there somewhere that you will be able to open. Might not be the most up to date version, but you can use it to recapture all the footage automatically if you captured it correctly.

Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 10:57PM
You can also get 2 GBs of back up for free at DropBox.
it's awesome
[www.dropbox.com]

------------------------
Dean

"When I see you floating down the gutter I'll give you a bottle of wine."
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 05, 2009 11:05PM
I can see the critical FCP files I need but I believe they are corrupted as I can not open them in FCP

Final Cut Pro project files identify themselves to the system using a filename extension (usually hidden) and by a creator code and file type code which are stored in the files resource fork. This information has very likely been lost in the data recovery process but that does NOT necessarily mean that the project is unusable.

First, try adding a ".fcp" filename extension to the project file and see if it will open up into FCP correctly. If that doesn't jump start it then use a shareware tool like Type and Creator Changer to set the Type to FCPF, and the Creator to KeyG
[alphaomega.software.free.fr]

Or if you like, just email me the project file and I'll see if I can force it to open here (my email is in my profile)

Best
Andy
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 06, 2009 12:02AM
Jude Cotter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So, Marybeth, did you check the auto saves?
> There's likely a copy in there somewhere that you
> will be able to open.

Well done. You may have saved her bacon.
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 06, 2009 08:39AM
A very timely update for Jon Chappell's / Digital Rebellion's FCS Maintenance Pack just reminded me that if the project error is indeed caused by one of those issues I noted above then you can also use Jon's Project Repair app to fix it ...

from the Project Repair app's notes
Quote

Project Repair can attempt to repair Final Cut Pro projects that refuse to open or open with an error message (it cannot, however, repair corrupted data inside the file). It checks the following:
* File permissions
* Locked state
* HFS type
* HFS creator
* Missing file extension
* Default file handler
* Illegal characters in path name

Link for current release app's web page: [www.digitalrebellion.com]
15 day free trial available.

and if you're interested in trying the new public beta version, here are the pertinent release notes
Quote

This is a beta so it is not recommended for use in a production environment. If you want the latest stable version choose version 1.1.6 instead.

Changes in FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2 Beta 1:
* New application - XML Repair. Fixes illegal characters, malformed XML, missing tags and elements not supported by the current XMEML version.
* New application - QT Repair. Repairs various structural problems with damaged QuickTime movie files to allow them to be opened by QuickTime again.
* New application - Path Manager (replaces Content Manager). Allows you to manage your user and content paths from a central location.
* Autosave Cleaner now supports Motion.
* Plugin Manager now allows you to change whether or not a plugin is available to the current user or all users.
* Plugin Manager - added a new tool to validate Audio Units
* Corrupt Clip Finder - now works on movie files without a .mov extension
* Corrupt Clip Finder - improved the accuracy of corrupt clip detection
* Redesigned FCS Housekeeper UI
* FCS Housekeeper now works even if Spotlight is disabled on the scratch drive
* Crash Analyzer now supports all applications in Final Cut Studio
* Crash Analyzer - dramatic improvement in loading speed
* System Toolkit can now restore streamline backups
* File Salvage now supports Apple Intermediate Codec, ProRes and DVCPROHD
* Redesigned File Salvage interface with a focus on batch processing

Download link for public beta: [www.digitalrebellion.com]
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 06, 2009 10:46AM
Even SCII drives can fail.
I don't have redundancy on my drives so what I do
is save the project, data, movies, graphics, sound etc to
the first RAID drive, and every other day I make a copy of
the same items to our second 1.2TB Huge array.

As I have been bitten 3 times with odd drive failures, I always
have critical in-progress projects (all data etc) backed up on
on two independent drives at once.

Once you learn the hard-drive fear factor, you learned to
Back-up, Back-up, Back-up.



Jeff Harrell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It was a very good drive actually
>
> There are only two kinds of hard drives in this
> world: totally dependable ones that are
> astonishing examples of engineering tolerances,
> and useless hunks of metal and plastic.
>
> The catch is that any hard drive in the first
> class can become a hard drive in the second class
> at a moment's notice, with no warning.
>
> Back up your crap. Period.
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 06, 2009 06:28PM
As Shane has pointed out, the important back up while editing is the project file. You need to make at least one duplicate copy of this file on separate media at least at the end of each editing session & preferably periodically during the day. USB flash memory drives are cheep. It's not worth the time money & effort trying to retrieve the files from a dead hard drive. With a uncorrupted project file it's easy enough to get your project up & running again with little loss in time by simply recapturing the offline files. It's also a better idea to have the online project file on a separate drive from the media files. That way the hard drives hopefully don't fail at the same time. If the project file has become corrupted & no backup copies have been made, as has been pointed out by others, all is not lost. You then go to the autosave vault & launch the last uncorrupted version of the project & immediately rename the file & save it to where you normally save your project files, so that you don't accidentally save the project file to the autosave vault. Hopefully your original video media is safely stored somewhere & was not trashed after being captured to the hard drive.

Hope things work out for you.

Dave
Re: LAFCPUG - Don't fail me now!
November 06, 2009 08:35PM
Actually it was Jeff who suggested the autosaves. I just hadn't seen a response that indicated that Marybeth had given that a shot yet, so thought maybe she missed it.

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