Junk

Ask something
Question Locked

Lost Cluster Recovery

0 helpful
8 replies

by virgil5

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Recording MP3 with my handy-dandy 1 gig Xonix watch when loss of battery power terminated the operation. My understanding is the audio data still exists but as lost clusters. I have tried to recover the file but cannot since the file length and file name was never written to the jump drive/watch.

Question is: If I start the watch to record again and then stop the recording, writing file name and file length on the drive to the new file, could I then somehow change the file length to include the data previously written and recover the majority of the file in this way?

The file is pretty important and it would be worth paying someone to do this if it could be successfully done.

8 replies

by older mycroft

Where did the MP3 file exist before you attempted to copy it to the Xonix ?

If it didn't exist anywhere - why are you using a watch to create it ?

If it did exist somewhere - why not just transfer it again ?

by jdclyde

If he was really just copying the file, the answer is to re-copy the file.

If the copy process did not finish, it will be corrupt anyways, and not recoverable.

by older mycroft

Mind you, I've had the odd occasion when downloading MP3s online, and the link has died mid-copy.

On examination of the partial file, I've usually found it to be fully functional - just not full length: it played fine until it just cut off before the end. I've certainly never had a 'lost cluster' as a result, in fact I'm not entirely sure that Flash-RAM actually HAS clusters. :D

by jdclyde

It is worse than not having the file at all, to have it cut out during the song.

deletedeletedeletedeletedeletedeletedelete

by older mycroft

Dunno quite why but, almost every time I download the latest edition of RetroGamingRadio I get dropout on the line.

Would've thought Scottish downloads would've got premier service since Shane spent many years in the USNavy, based at Faslane Submarine Base.

Yet, when I complain to him - he never replies!

Can't imagine why! :D

by virgil5

Ok, my fault. I wasn't clear enough. Thanks for the responses though.

The watch is an xonix. It plays MP3 but I believe it records in .WAV (need to check this and watch isn't handy just now).

When you put it in record mode it has a microphone that places the file on the jump drive. It can save around 30 hours of audio but the battery runs out of juice after around 8 hours. The file gets pulled off by USB. When plugged into the USB port the gadget looks like any other drive, complete with FAT16 and everything.

The audio file that was interrupted while in the process of recording was most probably 8 hours long before the watch ran out of battery power however only the first 30-45 minutes is pertinent. Most probably the rest is simply silence. I won't go into details but it is a legal situation in which the recording would be of great assistance.

So back to the original premise:
Since the software of the watch determines where on the disk to place information when a recording is started, might there be a chance that if a new recording is started and since it doesn't recognize the existence of the previous recording by virtue of it never having a file name or length of file recorded the new file will overlay the old file. The new file (say 15 seconds long) gets established when recording is stopped and a new file length is written manually to encompass a couple of hours of the previous file. Just a thought. Any other suggestions?

by seanferd

Can you use a FAT 16 compatible version of Scandisk to scan the watch, with options set in Sacndisk to convert lost clusters to files? Save the recovered clusters to the hard drive?

If it is really important, I might suggest talking to the manufacturers of the device. Perhaps they have a method of extracting raw data, bit for bit, from the device.

This discussion is closed to new replies.