Sparkyw

**UPDATE** Downloaded minitool partition wizard home free software,ran it on win 8 with suspect hdd attached to IDE,it found unallocated hdd and i was then able to make partition active,set as logical drive,then applied changes and now hdd mounts correctly in all versions of windows and all my video files are intact with dates!!

Hi, Picked up one of these,installed Win 8 64 Bit and everything's looks good,device mgr shows pc as 2.5GHZ eight core system with 4gb ram.(would like to add another 4) I want to use this for hdv and possibly uncompressed (using Bmagic intensity) home/hobby video editing using HV30 What I need help with is; Anyone use these for V-editing currently? Best software? M/B supports Raid but I've also got a XFX 5 Port 64mb cache PCI Raid card,5 x 250gb seagates,all identical.And a few more Sata hdd to use.How to best to set it all up? Worried the Bmagic may not be compatible,no mention of my model on their website. Last off,I currently use an old Dual 1.8 G5 powermac..Am I right to think this pc will encode much faster once setup properly? If so I plan to turn it into a hackintosh so I can run my FCP studio 2 and sell my G5. Any help/guidance appreciated

Sent from my iPadI have recovered my video files successfully and I just wanted to update this thread for the benefit of any others who may have similar issues. I first read this guide; http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step The found this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1611464 And so I ran Testdisk with the drive in a USB enclosure,selected it and then ran 'Analyse' Then it found a partition,I was able to select it and then pressed 'P' to see list of folder and within than my individual video mpeg files. I then pressed 'C' to copy the folder I wanted then used the left/right arrow keys on k/b to browse a separate hdd to dump the files into which in my case I used my main o/s hdd.I had previously also created a 'recovered files using Testdisk' folder in my 'my videos' folder on my windows 8 pc. It then copied all 26GB's of video files and I was able to reboot back into windows 8 to check the video ran correctly. I quickly made a back up of these onto my LaCie Nas. Phew,I must add when you choose 'analyse' Testdisk will ask you if Testdisk wants you to scan for lost partitions created under Vista Y/N?. I first opted for No,the scan didn't find anything.Then rebooted into UBCD For Windows,tried again opting Yes,and it found the partition. The files were saved within a folder I had created 'Sony camcorder files' onto a hdd that I had quick formatted in windows xp. But the partition I found the folder in was labelled 'Airport Drive'! This is because I had been using the hdd in a USB enclosure connected to an AirPort Extreme as an airport drive for us for backing up files form my powermac. So obviously either the format in windows didn't complete properly or I disrupted the Master boot partition by removing it from windows before ejecting it properly,or by plugging it in my sony Bravia home theatre player. Anyway,I don't know what the problem was but I managed with the help of Testdisk to get my files back. Thanks for all your suggestions. P.s. what photorec did is created a massive video file (as it does not recognise individual video file names) but I was able to edit it into individual files by using VLC. What I did was load up the 186GB video file in VLC and play it and then select advanced options,then use record button to create separate video files created from the original file.this worked quite well but in that large file was some black void areas which I presume we're in effect the empty block of data on the hdd,so it meant clicking further along the track to find video. Anyway,was uneccessary after using Testdisk but I did it just so that I had some files back,but least now I have the exact files and their individual file names,the only thing missing is the date metadata has been lost but I can guess at that. Right hope that help someone,I promised myself that if I got these files back I would never skimp on data backup in the future.so I've not only now getting a Raid system setup but I've also bought a unused brand new AIT Sont Tape drive to back up all my valuable files to tape for long term backup with a duplicate set to be kept at relatives.I know there's a long winded debate about merits of tape but quite honestly a potential hdd fail like his scared me and made me wise up. Regards S

I have recovered my video files successfully and I just wanted to update this thread for the benefit of any others who may have similar issues. I first read this guide; http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step The found this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1611464 And so I ran Testdisk with the drive in a USB enclosure,selected it and then ran 'Analyse' Then it found a partition,I was able to select it and then pressed 'P' to see list of folder and within than my individual video mpeg files. I then pressed 'C' to copy the folder I wanted then used the left/right arrow keys on k/b to browse a separate hdd to dump the files into which in my case I used my main o/s hdd.I had previously also created a 'recovered files using Testdisk' folder in my 'my videos' folder on my windows 8 pc. It then copied all 26GB's of video files and I was able to reboot back into windows 8 to check the video ran correctly. I quickly made a back up of these onto my LaCie Nas. Phew,I must add when you choose 'analyse' Testdisk will ask you if Testdisk wants you to scan for lost partitions created under Vista Y/N?. I first opted for No,the scan didn't find anything.Then rebooted into UBCD For Windows,tried again opting Yes,and it found the partition. The files were saved within a folder I had created 'Sony camcorder files' onto a hdd that I had quick formatted in windows xp. But the partition I found the folder in was labelled 'Airport Drive'! This is because I had been using the hdd in a USB enclosure connected to an AirPort Extreme as an airport drive for us for backing up files form my powermac. So obviously either the format in windows didn't complete properly or I disrupted the Master boot partition by removing it from windows before ejecting it properly,or by plugging it in my sony Bravia home theatre player. Anyway,I don't know what the problem was but I managed with the help of Testdisk to get my files back. Thanks for all your suggestions. P.s. what photorec did is created a massive video file (as it does not recognise individual video file names) but I was able to edit it into individual files by using VLC. What I did was load up the 186GB video file in VLC and play it and then select advanced options,then use record button to create separate video files created from the original file.this worked quite well but in that large file was some black void areas which I presume we're in effect the empty block of data on the hdd,so it meant clicking further along the track to find video. Anyway,was uneccessary after using Testdisk but I did it just so that I had some files back,but least now I have the exact files and their individual file names,the only thing missing is the date metadata has been lost but I can guess at that. Right hope that help someone,I promised myself that if I got these files back I would never skimp on data backup in the future.so I've not only now getting a Raid system setup but I've also bought a unused brand new AIT Sont Tape drive to back up all my valuable files to tape for long term backup with a duplicate set to be kept at relatives.I know there's a long winded debate about merits of tape but quite honestly a potential hdd fail like his scared me and made me wise up. Regards S

Yes thanks,ive also tried to use mpeg streamclip with the QuickTime alternative plugin to open but it just freezes an fails to respond which may because of the file size or because I'm running win 8 on a pentium 4 with 1GB so I'm asking a lot of it really,but I'm getting more ram and then if it opens it it can sort out time break codes and I can export it out as different clips. I guess I'm going to have to have a try with Testdisk and I shall post the opening screen showing the partitions it's found for those that can help me. Thanks for your individual help thou.

I've just upgraded from XP to Win 8 and I like it. I missed vista/win 7 as I transferred to mac's for last few years and I find win 8 to be a nice clean looking environment and I don't know what all the fuss is about in the media about start button,swiping on the desktop etc ...after 10 mins I found using search feature quick and so far intuitive. I would like to add some experience about installation for those who may be tempted to upgrade. I purchased the upgrade DVD which came with a key serial inside from a major elec retailer for 49.99.When I booted from it from an old xp pc to run install it gives you two options:1-upgrade or 2:clean install and also gives you option to format hdd prior to install. I did the latter and a clean install which wiped my old XP install (which I earlier installed fresh) and then when Win 8 booted I ran updates,all ok. The applied my free media centre serial number,installed added features,reboot and them system says windows not activated,buy key etc....damn. I then reinstalled XP all over again using my old XP key then chose upgrade with 'keep nothing' (only choose this if you have no personal files to keep!) and then did the above again to find everything all ok. A quick google search find similar encountance of this silly option to clean install and no option to re-enter your old XP key so be carefull on this one if you the kind to want to do a clean install like I prefer to do.

Hi I'm hoping someone out there can help me with a lost data problem. Excuse the very long explanation. I took a hd that had been used connected to a mac extreme router as a shared wireless drive and put it in a USB enclosure,quick formatted on a XP laptop,copied a stack of mpg's across from a Sony hard drive based camcorder (30GB),checked they opened ok,stupidly deleted originals,then when I came to use the USB hdd again it would not mount in xp,i.e no notification that it had been plugged into xp,no sign of it in explorer,but shows up as an unallocated hdd in storage management window and wants me to initialise etc ( which in fact I may have accidentally done before reading it could damage file table). Anyway,much swearing and self kicking later I immediately copied the offending hard drive to another exact same hdd another using a raw copy app in WinUBCD. Now using Photorec (set to search for mpg's/mov's/mp4's) I managed to recover about 30 mins of the beginning of the camcorders files which is one large 7gb file which opens in VLC ok and also videos which I think came from the mac partition originally on the hdd.And also 26GB mpg that QuickTime tried to open but is black.(I suspect this may be all the Sony camcorders collection of videos). Right so still not all files I wanted in their original shape and titles. So last of I used Photorec and I just asked it to scan whole drive and it's outputted a massive 186Gb file which surprisingly once loaded up using VLC and left to buffer I can watch the first 7gb's worth of video I mentioned earlier and I can click a bit further along the time line to particular time points where I know other video's are,and they play fine.So I know I have a file that at the very least has all my videos from my 30GB camcorder which I can view in VLC but I want to either split this massive mpg up into manageable clips and trim them cos there's lots of time when theres just a black screen until it then finds new data. Or do I run Photorec again using a different method or use Testdisk and try and do a proper job of it. All I want is my original individually titled mpg's back and not one huge 186GB file. I've read that Photorec doesn't recognise individual MPG titles and that sounds right as my MPG is titled something like "f1787870.mpg. Can anyone give me some ideas what I should do? I didn't use Testdisk first off because I thought Photorec would work easily but I'm willing to try Testdisk. I feel my problem is either one of these things: I didn't format the previously used mac hdd properly in windows and yet windows could see it. I've pulled the USB enclosure out before dismounting it the proper way via 'safely remove media' near the clock. I did plug the enclosure into a home cinema USB port to see if I could play the videos (it didnt work and since found out it was for ipod music playing only) and that may have upset the hdd. I can do screen dumps of the partition tables found and post them on here if anyone could help me. Kind regards to all and hoping someone can help.theres a PayPal gift definitely in it for someone willing lol! Mark