Managing audio files. HELP!!!

[pfd4]

Hi all:
I got PT LE w/Mac G4 a few years ago when I first set up my studio. I also purchased a 60gig external storage drive. I now only have a few gigs left on the drive, so I decided to start opening up old sessions & deleting unused audio regions, etc.-to make more space. Well, it turns out that I must have had some wierd disk allocation setting on for the first 2 years of my using the software, because I can't open any of the sessions! The screen immediately pops up and asks me to locate this and that audio file. And when it can't find a particular file by name, I tell it to search by unique ID #, which takes like 30 minutes for EACH file. It's ridiculous! the software managed to rename every audio file from all the sessions I did over 2 years and randomly place them in different folders. I don't know what I had set up during that period-I was just starting to learn DAW stuff- but it sure messed everything up. So even if I wanted to clean these sessions up, I can't even get to them, unless I spend multiple hours for each session trying to search out each file by unique ID! Does anyone know if there's any other way to just put audio files back where they belong when there's such a mess as this? Like some automatic audio file organization function or something? This is my last plea. If there's no other way, I'm just gonna have to wipe the drive and lose 2 years of hard work. I'd appreciate any feedback before I go ahead and do that. Thanks.
Peter

[CLanger]

Peter,

First, go out and buy yourself a nice, big Firewire drive. Initialize it using the Mac's Drive Setup.

Open your first session. When the search dialog comes up, select the drive that the files are on and in the bottom left select "search selected drive." If the file is anywhere on that drive (and still named the same as it was the last time the session was saved) it will find it.

Then, after the session is open, do a Save. Then, do a "Save Session Copy In..." to the new drive and make sure that you select to save the audio files as well. This way, the session, fade files, et cetera and all the audio files for that session will be saved to a new session folder on the new drive. Repeat for all the sessions.

I can't believe that you have gone two years without backing up any of the data on your drive! Always backup your data daily (i.e. any sessions that you have changed or added information), and always archive your finished sessions to a format such as CD, DVD, or tape backup.

Remember, your data is not safe unless it exists in at least two different locations on at least two different types of media. For other ideas on backing up and archiving, see the October 2002 issue of EQ magazine.

[pfd4]

Thanks Chris. I was going to get another firewire drive anyway, but my main problem is the fact that none of my early audio files have the same name as they did when they were saved in their respective sessions. I don't know why this is. So the problem is that, even if I do get another drive for backup, trying to locate the audio files by searching the volume for their original names won't work. Only searching for unique ID #'s would work, but it would take years; searching for just one audio file from one session in this manner takes forever. So it looks like all these sessions are useless unless I can dedicate that much time to relocating all of their files by unique ID; Unfortunately, I don't have the time for that. You're right about my not backing stuff up in the first place-that's definitely my mess up; but I'm just looking to see if there's any quicker way to locate everything, whether I get more storage space or not. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

[b mcgibney]

Your problem is one I am also having, except that sometimes even searcing for unique file id does not work either. Parttly its my own damm fault for not being more specific with parent file names. Also as I ran out of space on my dedicated audio drive I put stuff on the temp drive which is a partitioned part of the system drive.

One thing that has helped is to open up windows of you audio drive and any other drive that may have either session or audio files and match them by dated created.

Slow, but has helped me unite a few protools sessions with the audio files.

BTW what kinkd of firewire drive are you considering. My local guy raves about the 120 gb glyph. about 700 can. Not cheap but hey I rember shelling out 200 bucks forf a roll of 2 inch ampex 456 20 years ago for 30 mins @15 ips!

peace

Brian

[Mr. Kelly]

I'm taking a shot in the dark here, and I'm not at my workstation to verify, but this may shorten the time to find your files...somwhat:

Open the region list at the right of the edit window, and change the settings for the appearance of the list to include complete file path names. This command, I think, is found in the drop down box at the top of the list.

These names will direct you to the correct path and drive that the files can be found on. Then, you can more quickly find the others, which are likely nearby.

Hope this works. Forgive me if it doesn't. Just trying to help!

[pfd4]

Thanks for your help, guys. I'm gonna check out all these techniques. BRIAN: I would hold off on that glyph 120 - 700 buckaroos?!?! CHECK THIS OUT: I've done a lot of research on HD's and this is by far the best deal on the best 120 gig drive I could find. It's a 120GB, 7200RPM, 8mb cache 'Jumbo' version OWC Mercury Elite Pro ( has the awesome oxford 911 chipset). Guess how much? $300 at macsales! Here it is, you can check out the specs: http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_It...OWCMEFW120GBJB

Hope it's helpful. Whatever you end up getting, good luck and thanks for your input for my dilemma. Thanks to you too, Mr.K.
Peter