Tell me I didn't lost a year work

Alone_Alive · 2013-11-05T17:50:30.000Z

Today I got my new CF card because the old one was getting full.

I figured, hey maybe this baby needs to be formatted by the OT. So out with the old CF-card, in with the new.
Created a new set, created a new project why not.

Went to my PC where I saved all the content from my old CF card. Loaded it onto the new one. Put it back in the OT and… and all my patterns are there but 3/4th of my static sample slots are empty, no samples assigned. All the 128 slots were assigned in that set/project.

What the… Did I just lose it all. There’s no way for me to figure out which sample belongs in which slot… I think I’m gonna cry

the_dreammer · 2013-11-05T18:07:45.000Z

are you very sure all files got copied?
and are you very sure all files are in the exact same folder-tree?

if it was me… i would reverify this… or just start over (hoping its still on the old one… i dont know if you moved it or copied it).

I copied stuff from one card to another… and it worked fine for me as far as i remember.
but in all honesty, at that time i didnt have complicated stuff on my card… just easy breasy projects filled with a few files

Alone_Alive · 2013-11-05T18:15:39.000Z

Everything is on it. I tried inserting the old CF card which still had all the “old” files on it, but it had the same problem.

Do I need to save the project when changing? I thought this was automatic, like patterns

sicijk · 2013-11-06T07:06:29.000Z

No man!

Projects need to be saved prior to eject the card!

There is a specific command in the Project menu: Save ; Sync to Card.

At least you should perform the syncing to card before ejecting it.

This is coming from the manual (pag.30):

SAVE saves the project. As all changes to a project are automatically cached on card, sav- ing a project and then reloading it is the only way to return to a specific project state. In general you should save a project once you are satisfied with it. When performing a SAVE command the project will be synced to card as well.

SYNC TO CARD is a recommended operation before ejecting the Compact Flash card as it will sync the cache to the card. Removing the card without first card syncing the project might result in data losses. If a project has been saved using the project SAVE command, information about the saved state will be written to the card as well.

Im sorry if you really lost something…really sorry! =(

Alone_Alive · 2013-11-06T07:31:16.000Z

thanks Sicijk for the insight.

So it seems I really lost everything I made for more then a year. I just had it all ready to record my album.

A very hard lesson learned. Damn you Elektron and your strange storage-architecture!!!

Move on and produce some more I guess :s

sicijk · 2013-11-06T07:57:52.000Z

Shit…!

maybe just try to fill slots again not following memories…maybe something will emerge back…or something new and pleasently unexpected could happen too!

NRain · 2013-11-06T08:45:12.000Z

I don’t get it… The Octatrack auto saves everything as you do it. If you pop out the card without saving or syncing, perhaps you would lose a small buffer of data but that should be all as far as I know. Perhaps in this case it is possible to corrupt a small part of the project and not have it load correctly but I’ve never encountered any such problem, and if so it ought be recoverable. I’ve lost power while working and had hard crashes while working and never lost any work.

In any case, I would suggest the best choice of acion is to always keep a current backup!!!
Failing that, if you ever have a project fail to load properly, immediately go into usb mode and do a backup before fiddling with anything and making it more likely that the data is lost! Oh… and use the “SAVE” function lots so that you always have a safe return point in case your cat decides to take a nap on your OT while record mode is activated or you spill milk on the OT and it decides to write a bunch of rubbish to the CF whilst it tries to figure out how to autosave spilt milk!

Alone_Alive · 2013-11-06T13:08:33.000Z

I did make backups to my PC every 2 months or so. I ejected the CF card, placed it in my PC, copied the whole card to my hd and placed the CF back into the OT.
The thing that corrupted it is that I never “saved” the project. And when inserting my new CF (because I thought it might had to be formatted) the OT asked to make a new set and a new project. Why not I guessed. So once that was done, even when I inserted the old CF with all my songs, poosh all is gone.

I hope I"m not correct and there’s a way around this but I’m afraid it’s so.

Loading/guessing samples back in the slots is an impossible task. I have so many samples on my CF and I need to fill in about 80 slots. There’s no way I ever gonna get it right.

And I think all the slices and sample manipulation done isn’t saved to the core sample on the CF so I would have to get that right too

NRain · 2013-11-06T17:05:53.000Z

All a “set” is on the OT is a named folder on the CF with a sub folder named “AUDIO”. As long as you have this, any project folders that you place in the set folder should load fine assuming your directories are unchanged in the AUDIO folder. Any project backed up to the computer should load fine regardless of whether it weas explicitly saved or not.

eg:
CF Card
v
MY OTSET >AUDIO
v
MY PROJECT 1
MY PROJECT 2
etc.

Anyways, maybe I’m not getting exactly what the problem is but if you have made backups, you ought be able to retreive your work. Doesn’t make sense for it just to be all gone.

Try opening the project.work and project.strd files in a text editor. Scroll a little ways down and you’ll see entries like this where PATH=location of sample. If this is there, all is not for sure lost.

[SAMPLE]
TYPE=FLEX
SLOT=129
PATH=
TRIM_BARSx100=800
TSMODE=2
LOOPMODE=1
GAIN=2048
[/SAMPLE]

Alone_Alive · 2013-11-06T18:40:10.000Z

I opened the project file in a text editor like you suggested and it contains links to sampleslots for the first 58 slots, just like it loads on my OT now. But before I had them all 128 filled up. I guess I once saved the project when I had 58 slots but never thought about saving the project afterwards. I just copied the CF to my hd thinking that it would backup everything.

Rael · 2013-11-06T19:01:09.000Z

Hi, have you tried using some of your earlier backups?
maybe something went wrong prior to your last backup, and thats where the problem lyes
i may be wrong, but i think save project didnt exist when i first got the OT
and i never had any problem reloading stuff from my backups
good luck

Alone_Alive · 2013-11-08T09:20:36.000Z

Yes I have tried earlier backups without success.

Like Sicijk said in this thread, projects need to be saved or synced to card. I didn’t do this, I thought it was saved automaticly. The only thing I saved were the kits.
So it’s gone.
So let’s make a new album

orenhag · 2015-04-09T13:34:29.000Z

Dude.

If i get the problem right then all you need is to copy your backed up projects IN the MAIN SET directory on your memory card.

If you dont have a main set just create one and then move all the project directories to it.

wascal · 2015-04-09T15:14:40.000Z

I think he may have moved on with his life since 2013

Martinukai · 2015-04-09T17:12:49.000Z

""wascal"":

I think he may have moved on with his life since 2013

Ha… Hopefully;)

JULIANLLOUVE · 2016-10-27T04:58:11.707Z

Help …

I have a corrupted project, and I have no idea on how to retrieve the files .

Theres gotta be a way…
thanks …
Julian

Rusty · 2016-10-27T06:19:01.818Z

JULIANLLOUVE:

Theres gotta be a way…

Theres always a way…

anon64972012 · 2016-10-27T07:23:41.774Z

Atleast someone else might use that reply in the future