missing files...??

After a day of great recording, before shutting down, I made myself a backup from my firewire drive to the HD drive.. when I went in this morning and turned it on several of my audio files were missing.. only on the tunes I had worked on that day... it's showing the regions on some of the tracks but no waves... just greyed out area's.. a box comes up saying "missing files".. I clicked on 'Automatically Find and Relink' but it still can't find the missing files.. I talked with Digi and of course they can't spend enough time with me to really help.. I guess I'm panicked because I hope these files are not 'gone', just misplaced.. how can I get this back in place... of course I save everything constantly during a session.. this was a disaster today.. I had clients here and had to cancel the session. Thanks for any help. tim

Yeah i had the same problem. I saved reguarly, but the wave files werent there when I opened the session again. I did a search of the computer and found the same folder on my system drive which contained the wave files. This never happened until recently. I called Digi about it and they said it could be because of my fire wire drive - a maxtor (dont know how compatible it is with PT). I also checked the drive with utility disk and it said that there was a problem, and repaired it. But I still get the same problem now. Tell me if you fix it, cause Im thinking of selling the maxtor and just getting an internal drive.

tim carter did you fix the problem?

I am having the same problem. It looks like files are there (in the folders on the hard disk) but when I try to open it says that they are not recognized Pro Tools files. I searched the answerbase and all I could come up with was a fix for 5.1. I have a feeling that it has something to do with when I saved a copy of the files and also after I managed to bounce a couple songs to disk. Will these problems go away if I up grade to Panther and 6.2? G4 Powerbook 1.25 OSX 10.2.8 ProTools 6.1.2 Mbox LaCie 120 Reason, Live a bunch of real instruments that I would rather be playing right now...

Hey guys, I have not found these audio files yet.... I have been doing other sessions with no problems. This one client is the one I'm having a problem with... it happened only with the tunes I was working on that day.. and not only with tracks I had overdubbed on. Tracks that were there day's before were effected.. They have to be in there somewhere.. I did a search on the computer and found the session files but they still could'nt find the audio files... I need to know how to get these back in place.. thanks and keep me informed. tim

You should double check your disk allocation each time you open a session transferred from another drive. If a track remains allocated to the drive you transfer from you might erase it with the following backup.

I agree. You most likely saved them to another place. The link automatically works spotty sometimes. Example If you do a session and then backup to an external back dive you may have move the actual audio files there. now when you load the session if you do not have the drive set up you will be missing the files. Also check that that day you were not saving things to a different place, round robin etc If you use the disk allocation you should be able to see where they are

Disk Allocation is saying they are on the Mac HD, however I still can't find where... I see the track name and that's it.. how do retrieve the audio file from it. thanks guys.. this is tough. tim

Tim If it says they are on the HD it should say where on the HD they are. Idenify where they are on the HD by using disk allocation or do a search on the hd and find them. Search for all .wav sdII or whatever you have to find them. Then import them. If they are there you can do it. The good thing about PT is it saves almost everything you do. Even if you think it is not saved in the traditional way if you recorded it it may be somewhere and just not linking. I have brought back stuff from the dead many times before on my machine as well as others. Do not give up. The time spent figuring this out will be a great value down the road.

Go to your region's list menu (where it says AUDIO) and select 'show full pathnames'. This will give you a volume and folder by folder address to where the regions were initially stored. For what it's worth, losing files is something that happens to beginners. Use this as a lesson and always pay close attention to your file management. File management may not be as much fun as other things, but that's what seperates the pros from the amateurs. It takes time to learn, so be patient. Good luck.