Does anyone know how to repair an .mxf file? Urgent!

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davetronic

Well-known member
I am getting the following error when trying to copy an .mxf file taken from a card load on a recent job:

"The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "0002OL.MXF" could not be read or written. (Error code -36)."

I'd be forever indebted to anyone that can help me. As footage goes, this is irreplaceable. The first 10 minutes of the last show of one of rocks best bands!!!
 
If everything goes wrong, and the camera can still play the clip in VTR mode, you could capture directly into FCP instead of doing a file transfer.....
 
Thanks Anders. The file has already been copied to the desktop. I've tried copying it back to the card/another location/etc. but get the above mentioned error... is there anything to be done now?
 
It seems that the file is sitting on a portion of the disk that has developed a defect, or there is some file system corruption. I would try a disk repair.
 
mmm. tried burning it to a dvd? I had a 4gb .mov dv ntsc file YEARS ago go corrupt, and i burnt it to a DVD magically and then stored it away, last year i found that DVD and put it in and viola it worked, all my friends were excited, it was something we were very fond of. LOL. hilarious video.

Anyways, maybe see if it can be burnt somehow then try it on a different system.

also, if you get info on the file, is it the correct size, or is it only partial size, if it is partial,i think you are screwed.
 
that's a good idea cynic, if i could just get the file off the laptop it's on. it doesn't have a dvd burner, so my next attempt might be to try and stuff it and email it? though i'm not sure it will make it past the stuffing process.

the file is the correct size (same as all the other full card's file sizes 3.54GB) but always chokes at 2.8GB in the copy process.

do you know of any ap's or diagnostics that can look into the .mxf and identify/correct errors?
 
definatly try stuffing/zipping it, see what happens.

Are you on a mac or a PC? did you already format the P2 card it came from? i think the obvious answer is yes, but just trying to cover any steps in here that maybe got missed.
 
i'm on a mac... the laptop the folder is stuck on is a powerbook g4 running the current OS. and yes, unfortunately the card had already been cleared and re-used before i found the error at the end of the show when trying to transfer the footage to an external drive to hand to the director.

i can copy everything except the .mxf....

thanks for your help cynic.
 
NP. try putting the laptop into target mode. then connect it to your other Mac via firewire cable, and see if you can either A repair the disk permissions and the disk, and then B: transfer the file.

did it zip?
 
Does the file size appear correct for the clips duration?

You might want to try bringing the corrupted file into a hex editor (after making a copy of course) and look to see if the header is corrupted (by comparison to a know good file).

If the data set is gone, your dead, but if it is just the header, then you might be able to repair it.
 
I haven't fully analyzed the header format, but if it is like most other headers, there are often multiple offset pointers for the data blocks. A different application may utilize a different approach (and a different offset pointer) and may have no difficulty reading past a premature EOF point. I would still suggest looking at the headers of the corrupt and a different working file to see if there are obvious differences in their contents. A third working file could be used as a point of reference. Is it safe to assume that this P2 was used until "roll out"? If so, then the devices capacity would be absolute and the resultant pointers could be consistent enough to be used.

This shouldn't be too hard to test out. Once the pointers are identified, just hack the header of one (decreasing the pointer value) and see if you can accomplish a premature EOF. I don't have any .mxf files here or I could give it a quick look to see if the structure can be easily decoded.

I am not a Mac user, but I assume that hex editors are readily available for this platform. Do keep in mind the big versus little endian structure differences.
 
thanks for the detailed note khmuse and for your help cynic. although kh, i'll admit to not understanding much of what you mention. yikes.
i've just come off a job so am still dealing with this issue and hope to have some progress tomorrow morning when i resume and devote myself to it. i'll post more of what's going on - and hit you up for more detail on exact steps with the file verification if can elaborate.

is this the type of hex editor you are talking about?
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6455
 
Double check that the clips are NOT located within a folder that has a # or @$^& in teh folder name.
I had this problem until I removed a number sign # from the folder name.
Doesn't sound like this is your problem, but thought I'd double check!
Cheers,

Brian Broz
 
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