Massive problem with Firestore FS-100

C

CKCorp

New member
Hi,

I've been searching around this forum for ages now, but couldn't really find any solution to my problem, so I'm just gonna explain the issue and hope someone can assist somehow.

I've shot part of a Music Video last week using the Panasonic HVX200 & Firestore FS-100. I recorded about half an hour of footage, so about 35GB. Today I tried to get the footage off the Firestore via a IEEE Express Cardbus. I don't own a Mac and therefore don't have FCP, so I just wanted to get the files off the Firestore directly and then run them through CS3. I connected the Firestore as per instructions (Utilities -> Organize to P2 then HDD Mode -> DD Drive -> Enable). When I did it initially the Firestore showed up on my desktop as FS follwed by some numbers and when I went into the drive it had all them little folders and files (folders named by numbers + lastclip.txt), so happy days. I selected everything to Ctrl+C it to somewhere on my laptop, but then I left the drive and went to My Computer to check the overall size of all the files to know how much space I needed. However when I went back into the Firestore drive I got the message "Folder is empty". I disconnected the drive (per instructions) and re-connected again. The Firestore mounted again, however the name appearing on the desktop was now gone & replaced by simply the drive letter. Going into the folder there was only a file with the extension .dat and that was it. I disconnected the drive again, re-started my laptop and the firestore, but the problem exists. I tried that on my laptop using a IEEE Express Cardbus. I then tried to do the same on another laptop, this time using a IEEE PCMCIA Cardbus but no luck.

When I check Properties on My Computer is states that about 35GB are in use, also when I look at the Firestore screen is states the remaining time as 70min (which it was when I stopped shooting).

This tells me the footage is still there, however seems to be somewhat corrupt. Later today someone tried to import the footage on a Mac into FCP, but no luck either.

Does anyone have an idea what's going on and if there's a chance to the footage off the Firestore? So much work went into the Music Video only to loose everything in the fracture of a second.

Any help / advice is much appreciated.

Best

CK
 
Last edited:
Here's what I'm planning to try out:

I'll try to attempt a recovery using the Windows Active Partition Recovery SOftware, with the Firestore connected to my Laptop (Windows) via the IEEE PCMCIA Cardbus & Firewire (6 Pin). The Software has worked well in the past for general Harddrive Recovery, so I'm hoping it might to the trick.

Further info to the Mac Offloading process:
While the Firestore was connected to the Mac via Firewire it kept unmounting itself and now shows as 0GB in use. Bad news???
 
Thanks Jim. Unfortunately they only offer Support in the US, I'm based in Ireland/Europe.

I ran the Recovery Software as mentioned above and by the looks of it I managed to recover the data (in fact not just my lost data, but stuff from ages ago). Now I have everything in separate folders - AUDIO, CLIP, ICON, PROXY, SOUND, VIDEO. One file however I am missing is LASTCLIP.TXT, which can usually be found in the root folder. Do I need that file to proceed/be able to use the files I've recovered? Any idea what to do next? What do I need/need to do to combine these files (I want to edit them in Adobe Premiere CS3)?

Cheers

CK
 
Just import the video and audio files into a timeline and connect them manually.

Should work - i used to do that before someone told me how to P2 everything and import the whole folder including "lastclip".

Frank
 
Right, so I have managed to recover everything from the Firestore and moved it to an external Harddrive. Trying to view the files I have used Cineform (Prospect HD) to convert the .mxf files into .avi, which lets me view them in Quicktime. It appears now that the Video Files are corrupt - it plays about the first 2 seconds of the video and then nothing but little coloured squares. Any idea if there's something I can do to try fix at least some of the files? I've read about people recommending P2 Log, however that's only for Mac, I am using Windows.

Cheers

CK
 
So I have this exact problem. But this is the totally amazing part...it happened on two FS-100 firestores at the exact same time. We have to cameras, and two FS-100s. At the end of each day we go back to the hotel room and copy all P2 cards and firestores to an external hard drive. This time, when I connected one firestore and opened up my computer, the two partitions of the FS-100 came up, but they both said "Local Disk." Like windows was making up a new name for them. And when I opened either partition, there were no files. So I turned it off, back on, did another P2 organize for good measure, and then put it back it "DD Disk Mode." Same thing happened. Tried the other FS-100 and same thing. At one point, when I opened the root of either FS-100 i got a ".dat" file like the OP mentioned.

All of the best recovery software I have used in the past gets all of the footage in the correct P2 file structure, but like the OP said, they only play for seconds before turning to rainbow snow/squares/noise
 

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