bad file: can't read or copy audio file

[minister]

hi all , i did a search for this and didn't really get an answer....

first: pt HD|2, osx.3.8, pt 6.9.1cs3, mac dual 2.5, atto 128 kit, current drivers, seagate cheetahs (18 & 36 gig) in a glyph rack.

i have a session with a bad file in it. it is a 24/48 bwav file. i cannot copy the file from one drive to another. i first discovered the problem when i hit play in the session and PT tells me "DAE error, it cannot get audio from drives fast enough". well this is a 3 audio track session with 3 aux channels, that's it. 2 cello file and a clarinet. not big. very little audio.

i ran Disk Warrior on all drives. comes up clean. i ran tech tool pro, it found 3 bad sectors on the disk. i take it, that is where the file is or was written to.

i know which file it is. and, of COURSE, it is the clarinet take that we like!

i tried:

to copy the session folder over, i get an error copying one of the files.

"save session copy" and copying all the audio to another drive.

copying what i could to another drive, going into the "project browser" and finding the offending file and doing a "copy & relink"

would a "HEX" editor help? if so, what is a good one? and...how do i use it? ..never done this before. what can i do?

[c-tone]

bummer. So no backup copies of this file? Try to open just that audio file in another program like Peak or Jam, and if that works, you can probably then make a copy of it. I have a feeling though that it just can't be read, and you might be out of luck.

[minister]

hey c-tone,

no. no backup. take was recorded the other day. on a drive that was not in the system for the backup archive. i know, i know.... i do backup regularly, everynight...but on two main drives.... except, the tape drives were full and that extra drive represented formatting another exabyte and ... ... ....

i did try PEAK. no luck. i'll try quicktime.

[Stuart P.]

Have you tried using the consolidate command in PT to generate a new file? (Option-Shift-3) I had something similar to this once, and after consolidating there was a section that was corrupted, and had to be penciled and whatnot, but the majority of the file was all right. Another time it was a permissions thing. It might be worth it to check and see if the permissions have gotten corrupted on that one file too.

Hope you fix it.

S.

[minister]

hi stuart,

thanks for the suggestions and wishes!.

in the meantime, i opened it in QT, and exported to a wav file. file was empty. i exported from QT as an aif. file was empty.

i did actually try to consolidate the file....makes PT crash. some window comes up that says, Verfiy failure "ReWireDLL.cpp(994)". i looked it up in the answerbase. it does not apply to me. here is what it says:

After consolidating more than 60 minutes of audio results in crash to desktop. error message reads: 'VERIFY: ReWireDLL.cpp(994): VERIFY failure. (continue)'

This problem was fixed in Pro Tools v6.2.3.

Description of problem:
Happens either on FireWire or internal drive.

1) Launch Pro Tools LE
2) Create 96k session.
3) Create two audio tracks.
4) Select 120+ minutes worth of timeline. There can be audio on these tracks, but there need not be for this bug to occur.
5) Hold down option+shift+3 to Consolidate selection.
RESULT: gets about halfway through. Then, Pro Tools error dialog with yellow exclaimation inside triangle reads: 'VERIFY: ReWireDLL.cpp(994): VERIFY failure. (continue)'
Hit 'continue'. PT crashes to desktop without further ado or notice.

NOTE: half the time, there is no error message. PT simply crashes to desktop without warning.

i can import it into a track. i can even SEE the wave form. i cannot EXPORT it, PT hangs.

i may be SOL... interesting thing is, some of the file plays on the timeline. i may have to consolidate that and just live with a different take for various parts of the piece...

what i DID NOT do, is try to consolidate a portion of it. ..stay tuned...if you care...

[Stuart P.]

How about this, and this is just an experiment. Try only consolidating parts of the file. Chances are, most of that file is okay. Chop that bad boy up, hit consolidate, and see if you can salvage at least SOME of it. I vaguely remember somebody doing this, maybe. Worth a shot, me thinks.

Tell us how it works out!

[Eric L]

If you try what Stuart proposes, do it like the old extension conflict test in os9. Cut it in half. Consolidate each half. The one that does not work, cut it in half again and consolidate each new half. One should be fine the other not. Continue until you have recovered enough of the file. Good luck Minister. Hope it works out for you.

[minister]

hi stuart.

OK!

i went step by step. i created a new track. save as V2. do something, crash. open, save as v2.1. put "turkish clarinet_03" on timeline, spotting from original time stamp. consolidate. crash. open. do v2.2. chop off first phrase. *** i finally got part of the file to consolidate!! *** just missing the head of the file with the first phrase. try to grab the rest. crash.

thee odd thing here is that sometimes the file would play. so, i routed the track with the bad, but occasionally playable, region/file on it. record it onto the newly created track with the successufl consolidation. SUCCESS!!

hopefully that helps someone in a similar situation!

thanks fellas!

[Stuart P.]

Cool! Now, for the parts that WILL play and you still can't get to consolidate. Re-route to another track and re-record in real time.

That should help on some straggler sections...

S.

[minister]

Cool! Now, for the parts that WILL play and you still can't get to consolidate. Re-route to another track and re-record in real time.

that's what i did, and what i posted above!

thanks for sticking with me stuart!