Un-erase SDII files? Biggest "oops" ever....

firth5 · Post by **firth5** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 12:40 pm

Long, idiotic story short: I recorded a live show last night to 20 tracks on a Mac using DP, then accidently deleted it, then hit "empty trash".

I have not touched the hard drive in any way since, so the data is theoretically there.

I downloaded an excellent program called "File Salvage," which recovers this kind of lost data, but unfortunately does not recover SDII files. (It can find and reassemble .wav, .aif, .mp3, etc., but not SDII.)

So, PLEASE HELP.

Any guru out there have any thoughts on my next step? Do you know of a program that "un-erases" SDII files? Is there a different way to go about this? rebuild the HD or something?

Thanks,
eric

tommymandel · Post by **tommymandel** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 1:13 pm

There is one other program that I use that can suck files off of a disc put in Target Disk Mode (start up holding only the T key)... It's called Data Rescue.
http://www.prosofteng.com/index.php?datarescue
It's under $100, and i think you can do some free stuff with it first.
It's supposed to be used for recovering files off of a crashed disk, but since yours has been untouched since the 'oopppps' it might just work.
Good luck.
Incidentally, I bought File Salvage too, and didn't realize it can't find SDII files.

Here's another crazy idea: if there's nothing else on your HD that isn't backed up, maybe you should boot into classic and try old Nortons Unerase? Probably a very bad idea, but if you are desperate?
I wonder if OS9 sees the disk so differently than OSX, that it might be easier to recover them that way. A long shot.

firth5 · Post by **firth5** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 1:49 pm

I'll check it out. thanks. Can you confirm that it DOES recognize SDII files?

Eric

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:37 pm

Eric, first of all my heart sank when I read your post. I hope this all works out for you.

I wonder if this is something MOTU might want to persue for the sake of those who use DP. It would be of great help if there were information more specific to recovering DP data than generic disk utilities could address specifically.

I haven't had time to browse the entire site, but the Data Rescue support pages are very well laid out. An initial search for SDII came up with nothing, but I'm sure that some document must be buried in there somewhere that lists the recognized file formats.

http://www.prosoftengineering.com/produ ... rescue.php

davedempsey · Post by **davedempsey** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:53 pm

In the past I have been able to recover DP files from a crashed hard drive with Data Rescue so it might help in your situation.
Good luck.
Dave

firth5 · Post by **firth5** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 5:19 pm

Thanks for the well wishes, Mr. Frodo.

Data rescue, sadly, does not support SDII file recovery.

Even though the software does not actively support SDII, I ran the test on my drive anyway, hoping against hope. But nothing....

I might have to try a recovery house. According to a guy who does this for a living, I need "block level" recovery vs. "file level" recovery.

We'll see. Still open to suggestions.

... this whole thing particularly hurts because last night's show (The Mike Keneally Band -- ex Zappa alums -- incredible rock/jazz/insanity) was one of the best shows the band has done in a while, and they were all particularly thrilled that they got a recording. ACK. Also it was a labor of love, so there's no money involved....

Thanks again, please keep any thoughts coming....

Anyone know a good recovery house in LA?

Eric

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:28 pm

Never had to use one, but here areafew from Google:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=da ... gle+Search

Note: I used Burbank as the central point, but you can change that to something closer if that doesn't work.

Good luck.

blue · Post by **blue** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:36 pm

Not to hijack the thread, but this is yet another reason for MOTU to ditch SDII and support other formats.

All the best to you Eric.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:53 pm

blue wrote:Not to hijack the thread, but this is yet another reason for MOTU to ditch SDII and support other formats.

All the best to you Eric.

Your words are "true, blue"! I was thinking the same thing, but held my tongue with great difficulty.

firth5 wrote:Data rescue, sadly, does not support SDII file recovery.

Never give up-- never surrender!

Try this one-- still not sure about SDII, but it does support Mac OS 3.0 (!) and above. I think there is a free trial, too.

Stellar Phoenix Software
http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-data-recovery.htm

Data Recovery Houses in LA:

ADR Los Angeles Regional Lab
ADR Data Recovery, Inc
400 Continental Boulevard, 6th Floor
El Segundo, California 90245
Phone: 310-426-2132
Toll Free: 800-450-9282
www.adrdatarecovery.com

Los Angeles Data Recovery: Data Recovery in California, Hollywood, & Worldwide Since 1999
Expert Data Recovery On Any Disk, RAID, SAN,
NAS, Laptop, Macintosh, Server, & Email
800-422-7111
310-393-7190
HollywoodDataRecovery.com

Drive Solutions
10030 Remmet Ave.
Chatsworth, California 91311
818-718-6900
http://www.drivesolutions.com/datarecov ... ving.shtml

may the force be with you.

tommymandel · Post by **tommymandel** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:00 pm

This isn't what you want to hear, but my philosophy after years and years of thinking i was recording a first take, usually very inspired, and then finding out that it wasn't recorded, is this:

The first take, the one that doesn't get 'captured' is on its way to higher places.

But hopefully, you'll recover the Zappa guys' performances.
I didn't know that Data Rescue only recovered certain types of files.
And I thought it _was_ a root level, directory-independant tool.

firth5 · Post by **firth5** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:21 pm

I think Data Rescue might be a root level file recovery program for re-builidng an entire harddrive that has been damaged. But the "file un-erase" function does not support SDII.

eric

Babz · Post by **Babz** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 5:43 am

Yet another reason why MOTU needs to abandon this long-obsolete Digi-dinosaur format!

Sorry to hijack your topic, but come on, enough already, MOTU. Please euthanize SDII today!

Sorry I don't have a suggestion regarding the immediate problem at hand. Best of luck...

BabzKat

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 1:14 pm

Babz wrote:
Sorry to hijack your topic, but come on, enough already, MOTU. Please euthanize SDII today!

The 21st century awaits you, MOTU.

96khz · Post by **96khz** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:28 pm

Hi. The problem lies with the Mac OS X way of doing things. In Classic Mac OS, it was much easier to recover accidentally deleted files. Now, OS X deletes the files in such a way that becomes very hard for these applications to recover them.

I've tried to recover files that I've manually deleted in OS X, and never been able to... I've tried it with Data Rescue, Disk Warrior, File Salvage, etc.

So my advice to you is: ask a professional recover center to do it (if it's worth it, because it can get expensive $$$)...

firth5 · Post by **firth5** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:31 pm

96khz wrote:Hi. The problem lies with the Mac OS X way of doing things. In Classic Mac OS, it was much easier to recover accidentally deleted files. Now, OS X deletes the files in such a way that becomes very hard for these applications to recover them.

Would it be possible to start up an OS9 mac, and run Norton or something on my (OSX-formatted) drive from that?

eric