Sonar 8.5 Producer: Is This File Broken?

[Annabelle]

I want to make sure this file is not broken. The one that was modified on 3/5/2015 at 7:17 PM is one that I recovered from a formatted partition of a hard drive. Compare this with the one modified on 8/19 2013 at 10:10 PM. I think the one modified on 3/5/2015 is missing some headers. Is there a way to fix that?

My Lonely Heart Cries For You.cwp My Lonely Heart Cries For You.cwp

[Noel Borthwick]

Sorry but your file is completely corrupted - likely due to HD corruption.
Here is a screenshot of the bad file vs good file in a hex editor. You can see that the data is random in the first file.
It's not just the header the entire file has garbage data in it.

 

[Xoo]

It's not encrypted/bitlockered is it?

[bitflipper]

1 hour ago, Kevin Perry said:

It's not encrypted/bitlockered is it?

That was my first thought, too. It looks like an encrypted file. Although in my experience ransomware targets files with specific file extensions, e.g. .docx, .xlsx, .mdb.

[Annabelle]

3 hours ago, Kevin Perry said:

It's not encrypted/bitlockered is it?

No, I didn't encrypt it with Bitlocker.

[Annabelle]

2 hours ago, bitflipper said:

That was my first thought, too. It looks like an encrypted file. Although in my experience ransomware targets files with specific file extensions, e.g. .docx, .xlsx, .mdb.

I did have a virus on my music machine in 2016. I wonder if that's what may have happened. Though it seems interesting, as I did format the hard drive that my projects were on, quite by accident in 2015, when I meant to repartition the C:\ Drive which was a Seagate ST3500413AS. That was before I had the virus. My computer got the virus when I downloaded and tried to install what I thought was a legitimate version of Visual Studio Community.

[msmcleod]

File recovery programs do the best they can. They can usually identify where the blocks of a file were on your hard drive and rebuild the file. If you're lucky, the file will come back intact but there's always the danger that something else has written data to that part of the disk. 

For text files this means you may get back at least some useable information, but for binary files like .cwp files the file will be useless.

[Annabelle]

13 hours ago, msmcleod said:

File recovery programs do the best they can. They can usually identify where the blocks of a file were on your hard drive and rebuild the file. If you're lucky, the file will come back intact but there's always the danger that something else has written data to that part of the disk. 

For text files this means you may get back at least some useable information, but for binary files like .cwp files the file will be useless.

How about .wav files like this one? I don't think I can attach the file because it's a big one. Is there a way I could send it in an email?

[scook]

Wav files are binary files and have the same recovery challenges as other binary files.

 

Whenever needing to post a large file (or any file really) consider uploading the file to a hosting service such as OnceDrive, GoogleDrive, DropBox.... and add a link to the file in a post here. 

[Annabelle]

3 hours ago, scook said:

Wav files are binary files and have the same recovery challenges as other binary files.

 

Whenever needing to post a large file (or any file really) consider uploading the file to a hosting service such as OnceDrive, GoogleDrive, DropBox.... and add a link to the file in a post here. 

I'm not sure if this will work, but here's a link. Download When You Wish Upon a Star 02, Vocals, Rec (33).wav from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

[bitflipper]

There is no link in your last post, Annabelle. 

A wav file would be much easier to restore than a Cakewalk project file, even if the file header is gone. Adobe Audition, for example, can treat a file as raw data with no file header, open it, and re-save it as a RIFF WAV. I'd be happy to try that if you like.

[Annabelle]

1 hour ago, bitflipper said:

There is no link in your last post, Annabelle. 

A wav file would be much easier to restore than a Cakewalk project file, even if the file header is gone. Adobe Audition, for example, can treat a file as raw data with no file header, open it, and re-save it as a RIFF WAV. I'd be happy to try that if you like.

May I send it to you in an Email?

[bitflipper]

Give it a try. I think you may already have my email address, but I'll send it to you via PM if not.

[Annabelle]

What if I was to recover a raw file with information in it? One that lost its file name, then try to piece this back together. Would that bring it back to life? Or would I have to do what I wasn't expecting and start all over again? That would be very disheartening if it's the latter!

[bitflipper]

If you've got a file that you think may contain audio data, send it to me. I'll tell you if it does, and if it does I can probably recover it.