I got an Octatrack Mk. ii in September, I used it daily and had started to finally form something of an album, maybe a months work away from completion. One day I boot it up about to record the 8 minute jungle epic I had been brewing, all of a sudden disaster strikes, my CF Card had formatted. As long as the CF Card was inserted the machine wouldn’t work. Elektron being the saints that they are have agreed to replace the CF Card but the songs and every other file on it is gone for eternity. Learn from my mistake, backup your files.
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Crushing
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Also, record everything good right there and then, so at least you’ll have some music from your work.
(Sorry for your loss, btw)
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Feel your pain. For me it was a lightning strike that fried my HDD many years ago.
Your next album will be even better I’m sure. Sorry to hear this happened to you.
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Have you tried any recovery software? A lot of Sandisk CF cards, for example, come with a download for a recovery program. Might be worth a shot.
In the meantime, don’t save anything else over it.
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Started up my OP-Z the other week and it had self-deleted all patterns. I usually have an automatic backup that copies the entire OP-Z “drive” every time I connect it that’s practical for the OP-Z as the drive is so small. It was off.
Fortunately I had already recorded lots of the best loops into Ableton.
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Thanks for the reminder and sorry for your misfortune!
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this thread turned into a support group, thank you all <3
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I’ll have to look into this, thank you.
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Just curious, how do you back up the Octatrack?
Is it as easy as just dragging everything in the OT folder over to the desktop in a computer?
I’ve been using my OT exclusively and it would really suck losing it all.
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this.
Not to make anyone gassy, but I just recently picked up the RME UCX II, which features DuRec. For those who aren’t acquainted, it lets me plug-in a USB drive directly into the audio interface and record any or all inputs or outputs into separate files, standalone or not. I just stared using it as such while I sound design, compose, jam etc. It’s been pretty great!
The files are named after whatever you’ve named the tracks in TotalMix FX (RME’s software mixer). I suppose it can get kind of messy if careless, but having some recordings can be preferable to having nothing after all.
Edit: since I have Expert Sleepers ES-8 connected via ADAT, I suppose I could even make recordings of the CV from my Eurorack. I haven’t tried that yet though.
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yep, just as simple as copying and pasting to your computer.
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This 
Then hopefully there is still a chance to recover some of the projects…. 
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Another one, save your parts and projects often. I wasted a whole night by accidentally slightly slipping off the FUNC button and onto the Cue button (which then reloaded the part back to the beginning of the project) 
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Are parts saved when the project is saved, or do you have to save them separately?
I’m really not sure. Save both to be on the safe side
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https://bvckup2.com/ is a great software for automatic backups with regular computer drives, if you’ve got a lot of them.
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Yes, if the file tables have just been overwritten it is potentially possible to recover using off the shelf software.
I’ve used R-Studio in the past for recovery and bought a license, seems that their FAT32 restoration may be free!
Edit: May be obvious but ensure you’re not copying the recovered files to the same drive 
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wise werds I learned MANY MANY moons ago using 3DSMax 2.0 [buggy as fuck]…
“SAVE SMART, SAVE OFTEN”
max had the uncanny ability to corrupt files, AND ten of the files in your recently opened cue. it was truly amazing, thanks to a conflict with autosave and the license dongle. [yes dongle]
its extra easy when you can do it via USB as well. SO DO IT! 
[re: OT]
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