Audio files missing from sessions and I don't know why HELP!

[HipHopHead]

I am losing audio files from my Pro Tools sessions and I don't know why. I saved them with no problems, but now the sessions are empty and the bounced .wav files are completely gone. Even the back up files are empty. I get a screen that says "missing audio files with the options to skip, manually find and relink, or automatically find and relink" but none ever recover the files. What can I do to get the audio files back or are they gone for good?? I recently discovered that I have the HTML/Framer and JS/Downloader viruses so are they the reason my songs are disappearing?? Luckily I have the .wav and .mp3 files of the songs and I did back up all of my tracks, but I'm scared to start a new project if my files are going to keep disappearing. Any advice or knowledge out there???

[spkguitar]

Which version of Pro Tools? (exact numeric version, please)

Where exactly are you storing the sessions? (external drive? second internal?)

The Virus is definitely a problem. It's not necessarily the cause of your missing audio problem, but you should definitely correct it before doing anything important.

[joeydego]

I recently discovered that I have the HTML/Framer and JS/Downloader viruses so are they the reason my songs are disappearing?? Luckily I have the .wav and .mp3 files of the songs and I did back up all of my tracks, but I'm scared to start a new project if my files are going to keep disappearing. Any advice or knowledge out there???

Your song is now in a bank account somewhere in vietnam. Just a joke. sorry, I got nuthin. When this happens to me, its almost always pilot error.

[HipHopHead]

I use M Powered 7.1 and I've been saving the files to a separate folder on the main C hard drive of my computer (with Windows XP Pro). Is there any way to recover the files??? I am positive that I didn't erase them by accident. Thanks for your feedback I really appreciate it.

[spkguitar]

OK, first things first, you shouldn't be using the system drive for sessions. While it may work at times, it is not supported or recommended. You need to be using a separate physical disk for Pro Tools sessions.

Next, the virus issue is still an issue. It may be that your files are gone for good, unfortunately. You can try a disk recovery program (Get Data Back, etc), but the system has been tainted and honestly even if you could recover them, I wouldn't trust them.

Once you get your virus issue sorted out (my recommendation is to wipe the drive and start from scratch, honestly), make sure you are using the
latest CS version of your Pro Tools version. the CS releases contain important bug fixes.


My last piece of advice; start a backup routine. RW media is not very expensive these days, and you can backup your sessions to them very easily. I recommend backing up any session that you have changed immediately after saving it/working on it, and backing it up in tow places. There's an old adage in the computer world; "If it doesn't exist in 3 places, then it doesn't exist". I also recommend backing up the system drive and the audio drive using disk imaging software (such as True Image by Acronis) for making drive backups. Not only would it save your session data, but you could alsoo have a backup of your working system (pre-virus) that you could restore in about 20 minutes or less.