Where Are Files Originally Written??? Error -43

[neveguru]

Not to be misleading with the subject, but really, that is the base of the question. Here's the situation:

I was tracking a concert the other night at FOH. I'm using a Mac Pro 8-Core with a ton of ram and at least 4TB of storage, running 10.7.xx, the latest version of DP, tracking 30 channels of lightpipe from a Yamaha DM-2000 to a 2408 MK3 and 2408 MKII and all clocked from a DTP. I understand that I should have had my computer plugged in to a UPS, but it wasn't at the time... (this detail needs no discussion...)

About 17 minutes into the concert, due to a faulty power outlet at the venue, the mains plug wiggled and we lost power for just long enough to shut everything down. My computer rebooted and launched DP and loaded the file. I started recording again, and managed to capture another 17 seconds of the show before it happened again. We switched outlets and powered everything up. I loaded the file in DP, and already I knew there was a problem. I use a custom version of the Carbon Red skin and the default came up. I realized that I had lost my Preferences. When I loaded the file, it said it couldn't locate the audio that was recorded. I clicked Cancel, jumped to one hour on the timeline and started recording again. The counter was moving, the playhead was moving, input levels were bouncing, the tracks were coming across the screen in red showing the waveforms that were being recorded. I thought everything was fine. At the end of the concert when I pressed Stop, it came up with a dialog box that said "Mac OS X Error -43. File Not Found." I tried clicking OK about a hundred times but it wouldn't go away. I finally had to Force Quit DP.

The original files were there, the 17 seconds that were missing were found in the trash with random names and recovered, but I can't find the end files. (40 min. files at 48/24 should be large enough to stand out.)

So here is the meat and potatoes of my question:

When DP records, it writes files to "Somewhere" on the hard drive. When you press Stop, it names the files and updates the directory to show a path to be in the Audio Files folder. (i.e. "moves" the file into the Audio Folder) Where is that "Somewhere"? These files have to be on my computer hidden and not named somewhere. I can't imagine DP running in record for so long and not actually writing anything anywhere. Is there a hidden folder or directory somewhere that DP writes the files to before naming and moving them to the Audio Folder?

I have run Data Rescue and searched for deleted files. Nothing.
I'm running it again and including RAW data. 7 hours for a result.

Since the files were never moved, or essentially updated in the directory, I can't think that any of the DiskWarrior, or Data Rescue type programs are going to be able to see it. It's just a bunch of 1's and 0's floating around somewhere on the drive.

Doing a lot of searching, I seem to be the only one that's ever had this problem, or that's posted it online. If and when I find a solution, I will actually update this thread to include it.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to recover those files besides "Forget it" or "They're gone"??? I really don't want to have to tell the client that the concert wasn't tracked, and lose a lot of time, effort and $$ on this...


Thanks in advance!

[mikehalloran]

Since the header might not have been written, your best bet is to ask this question at MOTU.com in a support techlink.

Then tell us what you find out.

[neveguru]

Thanks Mike!!! I will do that and update when I have something definitive!

[neveguru]

So... The short story is they're gone. Here's the explanation and some tips if someone else runs into this problem.

In my case, when the power glitched and came back on, my computer started and loaded DP. The computer itself, and more specifically the OS, didn't boot properly. (Why I lost my Preferences file for DP) I should have restarted again ensuring the OS loads properly.

To find the recorded files before they are put into the Audio folder, I created a new session, armed a track, started recording, then Force Quit DP. When you launch DP again, the "Rescued Takefiles" dialog comes up and alerts you that there are unused audio files somewhere. If you look at the list, it will have the location listed on the right as well. Usually they are in hidden folders so you'll have to Show Hidden Files***.

In my case, when the program started recording, the OS glitch didn't write the file headers, as Mike suggested. Since the file header contains the file type, length and other valuable information, finding a file without it is just not possible. Why? Without the header, the file is not written into the directory, archive or any other pointing source. There is absolutely no record anywhere of hard drive activity at that time. Furthermore, since the hard drive writes all over and doesn't have the same write patterns always, it's just among the mass of 1's and 0's on my 1.3Tb drive...


I'm going to assume that this is a very rare issue and shouldn't necessarily be something that you would have to worry about, as long as you have a properly working outlet and/or a UPS...


Hopefully this will help someone else understand a little more about DP files though.

***Show Hidden Files-
In Terminal type:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
 (enter)
killall Finder (enter)

To hide them again-
In Terminal
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE (enter)

killall Finder (enter)

[mikehalloran]

***Show Hidden Files-
In Terminal type:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
 (enter)
killall Finder (enter)

To hide them again-
In Terminal
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE (enter)

killall Finder (enter)

Even better is to keep a Text file in Documents that you can easily find. Bring it up so that you can copy and paste the commands into Terminal - spelling, syntax and capitalization are exact or it doesn't work.

I call mine Terminal Commands OS X and there's a copy in the Documents folder of every computer that I maintain. Here are the most popular:

Re-launch Finder: This is way cool. It relaunches the Finder in a few seconds without the time or issues caused by Force Quit. Allows certain tasks to take effect without rebooting. It leaves App windows open and doesn't interrupt most tasks including Time Machine backups and file downloading.

killall Finder <enter>


Show Hidden Files: This is basic to many of the other tasks including finding hidden old Authorization files in DP.

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE <enter>

killall Finder <enter>


Re-hide hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE <enter>

killall Finder <enter>


Show User Library: OS 10.7, 10.8, 10.9 hide the User Library by default. It is often important with Audio applications to know what is where especially if a plugin is causing problems.

chflags nohidden ~/Library <enter>


Hide User Library: Re-sets the default if you want.

chflags hidden ~/Library <enter>



There are others I use but every DP user should have these stored somewhere.