Please help me restore this file

[MAY3VP]

I hope this is not a lost cause. I recently shot my first long event using the p2 workflow and everything seemed to work fine. I had two HVX200's recording wide and tight. After a segment of performances were complete I would change out both 64G P2's from each camera and copy the P2's to an external hard drive off a macbook pro. I would then format the P2 cards in camera and be ready for the next segment. It was an 8 hour shoot with alot of footage and everything seems fine except one performance at the end of a segment shows up as a corrupted file. I think the camera op ejected the card while the camera was still recording as the performance was the last one recorded on that P2. My question now is can that file be saved even though it is no longer on a P2? I have a copy of that P2 on my external HD. I have been trying to just drag the contents folder and text file onto a P2 card so that I can try a restore on it, but I can't drag any files onto the P2. Is that even possible? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[MAY3VP]

Sure could use some help. Is it even possible to copy files off my macbook pro to a P2 via a P2store?

[David Jimerson]

If the P2 card isn't write-protected, you should be able to put the Contents folder and LastClip.txt file back on it, sure -- you copy the folder to the card like you would copy files to any other drive.

Assuming, of course, that you haven't combined all the Contents folders into one and have a folder that's too big for the card.

[MAY3VP]

David, Thanks so much for the quick response, but I can't copy to the P2. When I do a get info it shows that I have read only permissions and I can't seem to change that. I know I must be doing something wrong, but I don't know what.

[wgzn]

Assuming, of course, that you haven't combined all the Contents folders into one another example of why you should ALWAYS create a new folder on your target drive for each transferred P2 card

[MAY3VP]

Each P2 got it's own folder and all the data copied to said folder. My problem is not being able to get that folder back onto a P2 so that I can try and restore it from within the camera. I'm not even sure if that will fix the corrupted file.

[wgzn]

is your card write protected?

i have had damaged P2 clips before and went through the playback menu and repaired the clip and all was fine. never had to copy the volume BACK to a P2 card though...

[MAY3VP]

Card is not write protected. Are you talking about the playback menu within P2CMS? Is there an option to repair the footage there?

[wgzn]

no. well there MAY be but i dont use p2cms. im talking about the camera menu.

have you tried reformatting the card in camera yet?

[MAY3VP]

Yes, the card is able to be formatted in camera but it shows up on my desktop as read only.

[Barry_Green]

The Mac prevents you from copying files back to the P2 card. I believe you can get past that by using P2CMS to export the files from the Mac's drive back to a card.

[MAY3VP]

Thanks Barry, I read that in one of your other posts but I haven't been able to. However, I may be using an older version of P2CMS. Will try again tomorrow. Thanks.

[MAY3VP]

well I seem to king of all idiot's because I can't do something that seems so simple to do. Downloaded the latest version of P2CMS and I still cant erase and copy to a P2.

[Barry_Green]

Y'know, if more Mac users would come on and help folks like you, I wouldn't have to try to struggle through it and thus show my complete disdain for the Mac's limitations when it comes to P2. :)

You should be able to format through P2CMS, or through the Mac P2 Format Station. Maybe P2CMS can't format the cards on the Mac, I don't remember, but I think they made a P2 Format Station program available which can.

As for copying back to the card, I believe you're supposed to go to the source directory on your hard disk, select the contents, and then "export" them and choose the P2 card as the destination. I know I've done this, and it was through P2CMS, but I don't recall the exact workflow. But it's there and it will work.

It's a limitation of Mac OS that it can't write back to the card directly; this is not a problem whatsoever with Windows, and I've gotten sick of the limitations on P2 workflow that the Mac presents so I've pretty much purged what I even used to know about it. Which is why I say -- if Mac users don't like me saying this stuff, then please log on here first and answer these people's questions so I'm not the guy trying to.

Until then, I'll offer you some advice that will work 100% of the time: If you want to be able to copy files back to the cards, repair files, format cards, and everything else -- get a Windows box or run Bootcamp on your Mac and run Windows in it. All that stuff works just fine under Windows. You can pick up a Lenovo S10e for around $200, and an ExpressCard->P2 adapter for about $40, and have a field offloading station and an emergency "oh crap my Mac's pooched me how can I fix this immediately" Windows backup box too.

[Al MacLeod]

But, how do you really feel about this?

[MAY3VP]

Thanks for the advice Barry, I think I will head down that path. I appreciate all the info thus far. I feel your pain with the info purge as 3 relatives just brought their windows laptops over on Christmas and wanted me to fix their network problems...I haven't played with a windows box in about 10 years. Thanks again to all that tried to help.

[Barry_Green]

But, how do you really feel about this?
I feel like the damn Mac should just work and do everything that the "lesser" Windows system can do. That should be the minimum level of acceptable functionality, and I think mac users should be screaming holy hell at Apple until they provide that minimum, basic level of functionality.

Hey, you asked...


But until it does, I sure wish Mac users would share answers to their workarounds quickly, so folks like MAY3VP doesn't have to wait a couple of days to get an answer to a simple question.

:P

[Al MacLeod]

Without bashing Apple directly, they have a monolithic arrogance that seems to set precedents.

My daughters Ipod had an intermittent problem with its earphone jack. Apple does not repair,

they replace it for $129 with refurbished (repaired) units. Ipods with any problem, including

batteries get this treatment.

My wifes two year old Samsung (Verizon) cell phone needs a new battery. It is not available

anywhere...no longer manufactured. We will have to throw the phone away.

I read that Apple is coming out with a laptop with an integral non user replaceable battery !!!

C'mon, give me a break !!! See the commercials warning over the air TV may disappear ?

Once these trends start rolling, business sees it as the way things are now done and that's

that. No return to the old days. I could preach activism, try to get folks to say we won't take

it anymore but, I know where that goes...

[wgzn]

I sure wish Mac users would share answers to their workarounds quickly, so folks like MAY3VP doesn't have to wait a couple of days to get an answer to a simple question.barry, i wanna know where you get off calling out mac users here for not answering this guys question? maybe nobody else has had this problem. and maybe a lot of people are on holiday and not checking the forum.

either way, i am one of those as you've said "99% of mac users" whos never had a single P2 issue. but i jumped in and asked a few questions to try to help but at some point you just run out of suggestions.

maybe im lucky, maybe i have good karma - or maybe i just keep things a bit more together on set than others. but im personally up to my eyeballs with you slagging the mac for not being 100% P2 friendly. especially when for many of us - IT IS.

add to that, that id WAY prefer to keep an old mac powerbook around or hold off on snow leopard. IF the flipside is i have to futz about with 3rd party drivers, service packs, and new virus definitions just to keep the damned thing running. i bought a firebreathing HP laptop a couple years back and it came with windows home. i bought windows pro to put on it. then i spent about 2 days going back and forth from HP to microsoft to find out what audio card the build version du jour came with and what driver i needed just to get system sound to work.

i'll respectfully give you that apple is making what i consider to be some bonehead moves at the pro box level lately - the omission of express cards on lower end machines and the new snow leopard/duel adapter shenanigans. but come on. ask yourself, where does apple make most of its money? i dont have specific facts to back up my speculation, but after 20 years in the graphic design business, i can say with relative confidence that its NOT P2 users.

ive bitched enough now. and im sorry if ive offended you. i just think you are taking your anti-mac proselytizing a bit too far lately. so im going to get back to transferring this stack of P2 cards with my old powerbook G4 ; )

[MAY3VP]

Well I sure didn't mean to start up another apple vs. pc debate. I've been using mac's since the introduction of osX and just recently switched over to a P2 workflow. This was an all day cheerleading competition and I thought we had a pretty good workflow. We recorded each division (multiple teams) and at the end of each division there was a 10 minute break before the awards ceremony for that division would begin. Both camera's swapped P2's and gave them to our transfer station. He was using a macbook pro and copying the P2's (CONTENTS and txt file) to 2 external Gtech Hard drives via a P2 store. By the time he was done copying both P2s to 2 external drives the awards ceremony was over and the cameramen were bringing over a new set of P2's and taking back their P2's that just got copied. Cameramen would format the P2's in camera and be ready for a new division of cheerleaders. This process went on all day and we only had one this one problem and I'm assuming it was caused by the cameraman ejecting the P2 before he stopped recording. We've had this gig for 4 years and had been doing it with sony HDV cams in the past. Needless to say, I've never had a problem like this using tape, but then again I never had all my footage all ready to edit at the end of the shoot. I appreciate all the advice that everyone here has given me and hope to be able to recover this footage as I originally thought all was lost.

[wgzn]

I sure didn't mean to start up another apple vs. pc debate

and i didnt mean to hijack your thread. i just feel that some people are being a bit less than objective lately ; )


I'm assuming it was caused by the cameraman ejecting the P2 before he stopped recording. yeah, that IS the most logical answer. i used a rental hvx once that once it started recording it wouldnt stop. you had to power it down. so each time i repowered it i had to go into the menu and repair the clip. but it all worked fine in the end.

my next suggestion. if you really have truly exhausted your mac options (p2cms, shotput, whatever) is get a FAT32 formatted portable hard drive or large usb jump drive and take your footage folder over to a pcmcia equipped windows machine. and try to reload it there.

i would like to think that once you get the footage back on the card, a simple repair clip will fix your woes...

[Barry_Green]

i would like to think that once you get the footage back on the card, a simple repair clip will fix your woes...
And that is what he was trying to do. And that's what the Mac doesn't let him do. And that is what I was hoping someone would tell him how to do.

And your suggestion was the same thing I came up with -- you have to use Windows to do it.

And, I appreciate you weighing in and trying to help him. Thanks for doing that. What I don't like is when *nobody* chimes in, so I finally tell him exactly where the problem is (the Mac just won't do certain things) and then I get bitched at for "slagging the Mac". That gets tiring. So yeah, you detected some attitude on my part, because I get loads of attitude every time I try to point out that the problem is that certain hardware/OS combinations simply don't allow some fundamental obvious operations.

Obviously Mac users have workarounds. What are they?

So yeah, here's the deal: I'd love to just be able to tune out any question that arises whenever the words "FCP" or "Mac" are used in a post, and it'd be absolutely fantastic if Mac users would respond quickly and rapidly to serve these users so that I didn't feel I had to. My frustration comes up when people with legitimate questions and legitimate needs are left hanging. So I step in and tell them ways that will absolutely solve their problem... and then get accused of "anti-mac prosletyzing."

So -- my New Year's Resolution for 2010 is to go an entire year without using either the term "Mac" or "FCP" in a post on DVXUser. I just hope that Mac aficionados will step up to the plate and make sure DVXUser members are getting prompt answers to their questions.

[puredrifting]

I can easily write back to my P2 cards with my old PB G4. Are you copying and pasting the files from the Mac back to the PB or are you dragging and dropping? I get the same message that you do if I drag and drop or use the finder but it works fine if I copy the folder and lastclip.txt from the PB and past it into the blank P2 card.

Dan

[MAY3VP]

Thanks Dan I'll try that. I was just dragging and dropping. How do you get the P2 card blank? Even after formatting it shows a CONTENTS and lastclip.txt?

[Noel Evans]

Y'know, if more Mac users would come on and help folks like you, I wouldn't have to try to struggle through it and thus show my complete disdain for the Mac's limitations when it comes to P2. :)


I know this doesnt help the OP. I edit on Mac BUT, offload using shotput pro on a windows laptop. I call it insurance. Shotput Pro lets me offload the footage to the laptop HDD and offload to an external simultaneously. I have had transferred files give me an error, Ive never had to do more than recopy the files on the laptop and drop into mac again.

As I said doesnt help OP, but its a solid workflow that never fails and could help someone down the track.

[Al MacLeod]

Solid workflow? I think not...

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=177391

[wgzn]

ill AGAIN reiterate:

OLD powerbook G4, P2 card to internal drive (or external fw800) drag and drop copy each card to new folder. no write protecting. reformat card in camera.

3 years of repeated process - ZERO PROBLEMS.