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Any computer geniuses that can help?


Garage Rodeo

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I had the great idea to create a symbolic link to my cakewalk folder. That way I could move it to "D drive".

Somehow in the process, I erased all my projects, and can't get em back. 

1. I need to find out how to maybe erase that symbolic link, nothing has worked.

2. System restore doesn't affect personal files. So no luck there

Please help, thanx

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Just a warning: anything you do on your PC increases the chance you won't be able to recover your files...

Windows system restore is made to protect and repair the computer software. System Restore takes a "snapshot" of the some system files and the Windows registry and saves them as Restore Points. When an install failure or data corruption occurs, System Restore can return a system to working condition without you having to reinstall the operating system. It repairs the Windows environment by reverting back to the files and settings that were saved in the restore point. See: what is system restore

So, that doesn't work for files that you need to backup. There is also Windows Backup and Restore, which lets you backup files, but you will always need another drive to backup your files safely... I prefer to use Acronis true image (there are several others free and paid) to do this instead of Windows and make a complete drive image of my C drive which also contains my CbB projects (for speed, since it is a fast SSD).

You can also set things up to automatically backup files that have just changed. I use GoodSync for this, any file I change is immediately backed up to another HD (not the one where I backup my C-drive image, so I always have at least two backups, except that the drive image is set to once a week). For the backup drive you can use a standard HD (cheaper and more space). Once every 6 months I also make backups of the backup drives on other HDs, but that's just me being overly cautious...

Assuming you haven't done this and have been using the PC there's a big chance that files have been irrecoverably overwritten. If you are lucky there might still be some files left that can be recovered. You can try to do that with this free program:  Recuva . Here's a list with several other options + explanations: free data recovery software tools (updated 2022)

Hope you can get something back! 

Edited by Teegarden
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12 minutes ago, tony1979 said:

I had the great idea to create a symbolic link to my cakewalk folder. That way I could move it to "D drive".

Somehow in the process, I erased all my projects, and can't get em back. 

1. I need to find out how to maybe erase that symbolic link, nothing has worked.

2. System restore doesn't affect personal files. So no luck there

Please help, thanx

Treat it like you would any other directory or file. Which commands have you used to create it? 

Edited by Will_Kaydo
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9 hours ago, tony1979 said:

I had the great idea to create a symbolic link to my cakewalk folder. That way I could move it to "D drive".

Please help, thanx

Exactly what command did you enter in your attempt to create your symbolic link?

It would have started with you opening the command line, with Start+ Run > CMD

You may have used the CD \.... something  command to navigate to a folder.

Then you would have entered "mklink > something

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Got this from an old Cakewalk forum

 

The Command Center will move it but I prefer to use the command line mklink utility to perform the task. This way everything still appears to be on C:. For example, to move the "Cakewalk Content" folder to the root of D:

move "C:\Cakewalk Content" to "D:\Cakewalk Content" using Windows Explorer then,

Open a Command Prompt as administrator and type mklink /j "C:\Cakewalk Content" "D:\Cakewalk Content"

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4 hours ago, tony1979 said:

to move the "Cakewalk Content" folder to the root of ?

move "C:\Cakewalk Content" to "D:\Cakewalk Content" using Windows Explorer then,

Open a Command Prompt as administrator and type mklink /j "C:\Cakewalk Content" "D:\Cakewalk Content"

Like how you would treat any other directory. ?? Glad you're sorted. 

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2 hours ago, tony1979 said:

I didn't. That's what I did originally tho, which is how I got here

The commands you entered appear to be correct

I did a test and the destination and the link worked correctly.

Does the folder D:\Cakewalk Content" actually exist and does it contain the files that were in C:\Cakewalk Content"?

Also, does the folder C:\Cakewalk Content" exist and does it point to the contents of D:\Cakewalk Content"?

If you open both "D:\Cakewalk Content" and "D:\Cakewalk Content" (side by Side) and rename a file in D:\Cakewalk Content", does the change also get mirrored in "C:\Cakewalk Content"?

 

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12 minutes ago, tony1979 said:

Is there a system restore that also affects files?

Yes.  It's called a restore from a full backup - preferably a back that was taken daily.     It could also mean restore from an image of your system disk - preferably an image that was taken regularly.

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I have no idea what your backups look like.

That said, it is pretty easy to get the factory "Cakewalk Content" using a full Cakewalk installer.

Here is a post I made to a user that inadvertently deleting part of the Cakewalk core installer (Cakewalk Content is part of this too). It explains how to use rollback and update to get everything back

Should you choose to attempt directory junctions again (this is the first time in my memory someone has actually lost data) instead of moving "C:\Cakewalk Content" to another drive, copy it to the other drive then rename "C:\Cakewalk Content" something else then create the directory junction. This way if you mess up, the original Cakewalk Content folder is still there albeit under a different name. Once the directory junction is verified as working (IOW, the DAW loads and can access Cakewalk Content), the renamed Cakewalk Content on the system driver may be deleted, backed up off the drive or whatever.

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Ill try that. Will deleting a symbolic link also help? And if so, I would have to copy and paste it exact off here , this is out of my realm. Thanks again.

 

Also, Ive tried uninstalling and reinstalling CBB a few times, no luck

Edited by tony1979
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There can only be one entry on the disk for "C:\Cakewalk Content"

if it is a regular directory or a directory junction and it can be written to, the installer will write to it.

If "C:\Cakewalk Content" currently is a directory junction, you should be able to

  • enter the folder and end up wherever the junction points
  • copy files into "C:\Cakewalk Content" and the files should be wherever the junction points
  • add files to the physical location where the junction points and see those files in "C:\Cakewalk Content"

IOW,

  • a directory junction works just like a regular directory except the data is physically located somewhere else and
  • data may be added to the physical location and that data will appear where the directory junction was defined.

If all of that works, the install should be able to work with the directory junction.

If any of that does not work, delete the directory junction and either

  • try to create a working directory junction or
  • forget about it for now, delete the directory junction and create a regular "C:\Cakewalk Content" directory 
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The last one.

With "recuva" I recovered files from both C &D, so at least now I can see CWP files, which is a good start.  But CW wont open them.  Is this where I need to create a junction? Thanks

 

I should also add, I cant uninstall CW  in Control Panel anymore either. Says uninstaller is missing. Somehow I messed that up too

Edited by tony1979
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