Having trouble transferring files back and forth to OT

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi there folks.

The last few months I’ve been having loads of issues moving files onto my Octatrack, to the point where I had pretty much given up.
My Octa kept freezing when certain files would go across, which would occasionally freeze windows too, or crash the file explorer, leading to an ‘error on disk’ message when I reconnected the Octatrack.

I seems as though when i’m transfering files, certain names conventions (or perhaps formats?, not exactly sure what, make the file transfer freeze and no amount of time will resume it, leading me to closing the trasfer window.

I’ve thought maybe a new card might help, but I can’t even back up my projects to move them onto a new card, as evertime I do, the transfer will stop yet again on a single file.

Any one got any suggestions? I have tried an external CF card reader with no luck, and would like to avoid removing the card again if possible.

Thanks in advance!

#2

Haven’t run across your issue before, but I wonder if you have any special characters in your files? I remember reading that it was advised to stay away from special characters when naming files. Meaning to only use the standard alphanumerical set of characters.

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#3

Compact Flash cards are prone to failure of course. I personally barely ever remove the cards; still have the original 4gb ones from 2011 in there, and they have seen some serious use.

Maybe format the card? Copy everything off there first obviously. A CRC error could potentially cause a freeze.

Naming conventions:

This applies to any/all gear; not just the Octatrack

Only use “standard” ASCII characters in file names: a-z, A-Z, 0-9

Do not use “special” characters: accents, umlauts, etc.

4 Likes
#4

Cheers for the response Rusty.

I haven’t removed that card since I inserted it, other than to try the card reader. So that’s why I didn’t think I needed a replacement. I want to format the card but have been working on a liveset and would really hate to lose the progress as I can’t transfer the files over.

I will go through and have a look at the formatting, see if that’s causing the problems.

#5

Cheers! Had no idea about that. Going to have a look through my files tomorrow.

1 Like
#6

Looks like it isn’t a naming issue. The Octa is getting stuck every time on this file
Screenshot 2022-04-20 122109

Leading to this error after 5/10 minutes of trying
Screenshot 2022-04-20 122514

#7

Do you have a CF card reader?

#8

Yep! Problem still occurs.

#9

My guess is that at some point the filesystem on the card got corrupted and at least this file isn’t stored correctly on the card.

When the card is in the CF card reader right-click on the drive and go to properties. Under tab tools you can check the card’s filesystem for errors.

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#10

I would try to copy smaller blocks of files. Maybe a subdirectory at a time. Like was said above its probably only a few files that are corrupted.

#11

I think that’s sound advice to refrain from removing the CF card and just use USB transfer to manage files and directories, maybe with a dedicated external HD.

I got an OTMKII a couple days ago, decided to remove the CF card just to try out the OT in demo mode, and when I slid the CF card back in an hour later, it would still boot to demo mode! Read up about pins possibly being bent, which they were, so I had to open it up and straighten them out. I got it to work, but no way am I going to remove the CF card again!

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#12

getting this exact issue! got tons of nicely sliced samples ready to work with. gone to upload them all and hitting a wall. random files that work perfectly fine on the computer but the transfer speed drops to zero. crashes explorer if I quit it. tried no special characters in file names, even formatted OT card. checked all files and subfolders for errors with ffmpeg, no issues on any files. weird. doesnt work in smaller batches either. need to figure out how to get these files onto this card after all that. my next bet was gonna be buying a CF card reader but it doesnt sound like that works either?

#13

Whats the sample rate of the files? I can’t remember exactly what fixed it for me, but it could have been making sure that I used 16bit WAVs instead.

#14

nah just tried that, bulk set them all to 16 to make sure and it still freezes in exactly the same file. I say file but there are a bunch. Been messing with it all night. The octatrack just really doesn’t like certain random files which seem otherwise fine. Which is kind of a headache when you’re trying to work with bigger quantities of samples. I’m trying to kinda set it and forget it so I can use it as a more standalone unit less dependant on having to plug something in to go.

The really frustrating thing is I moved all my samples off the card to format it in case something was blocking the other files. When I’ve gone to put the original samples back on a ton of those randomly won’t go through in the same way. I’ve ended up worse off by trying to be organised

#15

spent last night filtering the files that didnt work but went and got a cheap card reader today anyway and all files transfer no problem. files load completely fine in octatrack too. glad thats over

#16

Glad to hear it’s over man! Sometimes they just don’t like certain files. I think I deleted lots of mine in the run up to getting it sorted. Who knows what combination of things cause the transfer to totally freeze