pro tools 7.3 losing sessions

[DJ FADE]

for some reason, i have been losing some sessions the past couple days. for example: i was working on a mix and got it finalized. i bounced to disk as an mp3 and put it on my ipod to listen in a couple different environments with the band. i came back in to the studio the next day and opened the session in pro tools. as soon as it opened, pro tools experienced an error and had to close. i restarted the computer, tried again, and same thing. so i tried to open a session file backup, same thing. mind you, these are the very sessions i had been working on the previous day with no changes. i created a new session, and went to 'import session data.' i tried to bring in all the previous tracks, one by one, to see which track had an error. i imported all of the tracks from the session to find that over half of the tracks were missing. and the tracks that i DID get did not have any audio with them.

this has not happened with only this session. there have been others. i am usually able to recreate the sessions by bringing importing session data from past sessions, thank goodness. i just don't understand why it's doing this.

i'm on a digi002, pro tools le 7.3 cs2 on windows xp pro, sp2, on a brand new computer dedicated to pro tools.

please help! it's wasteful of time and resources, and i don't ever want to get in a position where i lose info to the point that i can not re-build the sessions.

thank you in advance for your replies.

[spkguitar]

Your hard drive could be failing. have you checked it for errors?

[DJ FADE]

i haven't. would i do that from 'my computer'?

[spkguitar]

There are a number of different ways to check a hard drive.

The most basic way is to right click on the drive in Windows Explorer, select Properties, Tools and Error Checking. Notice I said the "most basic way" as there are more reliable tools available. Most drive manufacturers have their own drive diagnostics software that goes a little bit deeper and checks the drive more thoroughly. You might want to look on your manufacturers website for such a tool.

[DJ FADE]

thanks spk, i'm running the windows version of error checking now.

the drive is a seagate barracuda, if that helps.

[DJ FADE]

no errors with the hard drive. also should mention that pro tools frequently crashes when opening sessions as well, even if it doesn't lose the session. i was working late last night on a session, closed it, and went to bed. the computer was left on. i came back in this morning, opened the session, and it got stuck just before the session loaded. pro tools was in the 'not responding' mode, so i had to force quit and restart the computer. this is happening pretty frequently.

any ideas?

[Obsidian Dragon]

My suggestion is to make a backup of all your data, reformat the harddrive and reinstall Windows XP and Protools. This will ensure a clean system that works like it did originally. I know that does not sound like fun but the frustration you are having right now can't be fun either.

[DJ FADE]

obsidian,

yeah, it's definitely not fun dealing with this. so frustrating. especially after previous pro tools problems got so bad that i had to purchase a whole new computer. now on the new computer, and still seeing problems! the only reason im hesitant to reformat/reinstall is because this is a brand new computer, on a brand new install of windows xp pro. i don't have anything on it except pro tools and my plugins, so i don't know if it would even help..

[Obsidian Dragon]

Reformatting can't hurt either and it might help. I've spent a lot of time trying to troubleshoot some things that eventually turns out to be just something that got into the registry worng and nothing I could do would fix it. The answer was a total reformat and reload. The problem went away after that.

[dnkygirl]

I'm having the exact same issue... and i know for sure it's not hard drive related. I have moved all my data to another drive and opened the session to have it do the same thing. It looks like something to do with it losing the path statement to where the audio files are located. I get the dyn buttons all blue and the error message.. or it will totally lock up then show a screen that will allow you to re-link the audio files. I did that a few times and it worked 1 time... were it did not crash after i re-opened the session. I tried going into the project window and removing the audio it could not re-link then re-recorded the tracks... only to have it do the exact same thing again. I finally gave up on that session and created a new one... I try not to use the save as feature... for some reason... when i save as to a new folder it does not move all the related files over into the new location.... even if you manually move them.. it does not relink to the location inside the folder where the session is saved...



Demi