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Missing files


charles kasler

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3 hours ago, charles kasler said:

I just opened up several old projects and the files are missing. There hasn't been any change in my setup or settings or interface. I did a search in one project but nothing showed up. What causes this? Is there any other recourse? Thanks!

Have you removed or moved any files?  (this might be covered in " There hasn't been any change in my setup" but just to be sure....)

 

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Cakewalk doesn't delete audio files, so missing audio would imply you ran a cleanup utility. Write down the name of one of the missing audio files and try searching your entire computer with Windows Explorer for it. If you moved it or changed folder settings that will find it (so you can recover them). If you cannot, did you run any cleanup utility since you opened those projects last?

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2 hours ago, charles kasler said:

I did get a message that some files were corrupted. What causes that?

The combination of missing files and corrupted files suggests some systemic failure or 3rd-party software  involvement. As Mettelus suggested, it's virtually impossible to have Cakewalk lose track of audio or delete it unintentionally without someone or something meddling with the file system directly.

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Does the cleanup utility have a log file that shows you which specific files were deleted?   Do those match the missing files?  If not, then it didn't delete them, and some other process or program or action has done so. 

 

If files have been deleted from the drive, there are recovery utilities that can locate and undelete them, but it's likely that parts of them have been overwritten by other data, a problem that grows worse the longer it has been since they were deleted.   With wave files (audio) it's likely that even with missing chunks you can still use the portions that are still present, but you would have to recreate or rerecord any missing bits. 

 

Just be careful and read up on reviews of any utility software before you download, install, or use it.   I've found over the years that while there are good ones, some of the utilities and "undelete" programs out there are not very good, some are not even real (just scamware to infect your computer with spyware/adware), and some are baitware, where they say they'll do some job but only do a scan to find things to fix but then charges you (more) to actually fix them.   I don't have any lists of which ones are any good these days as I haven't done this sort of thing in a long while. 

 

 

If the files were corrupted originally, you could have some program running that interferes with file operations, or that auto-defragments a drive but poorly and doesn't properly keep track of all the file chunks, or an actual hardware problem with your drive (bad sectors, etc) that is causing data loss. 

Edited by Amberwolf
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5 hours ago, charles kasler said:

Wow thanks for all of the input! I need to sit with this and think about any third party utilities, nothing comes to mind at the moment

Hmmm.  In this post it's implied that you used one...which specific utility did you actually run that is referred to in that post? Knowing what it is might suggest a recovery option.

Being very specific with the info in your replies to us will help us help you better. 

 

Edited by Amberwolf
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