Possible to Restore lastclip.txt?

[meta-lingo]

OK, this was inevitable...

Is there any way to restore an archive of a P2 volume if the lastclip.txt file has been deleted?

ARGH! Don't know how it happened, but it was bound to eventually. :badputer:

 

[meta-lingo]

Looks like it's in the archives, hopefully this will work:

Quote:

"This procedure was posted on the Cinematographer's Mailing List by Randy Wedick. Seems like it should work...

If you are dragging the actual contents of the P2 card to your computer and not doing a "File:Importanasonic P2" capture then make sure that you create a folder for each P2 card. Day 1 Card 1, Day 1 Card 2, or some other organization scheme of your own choice.

Each of these folders can then be imported as separate P2 cards.

If you neglected to copy the "lastclip.txt" file all is not lost. Much like the six million dollar man, we can rebuild him.

Lastclip.txt can be generated by any text editor. If you are using a mac then open up textedit.

Create a new txt file. It will have 3 lines to it.

The first line is the name of the last clip that was recorded.

Back to the finder. Open up your CONTENTS folder. In there, open up your VIDEO folder. Organize the folder by Date Last Modified. Find the name of the last file in this folder. If you have 16 clips in the folder is will be 0016ag.mxf or something like that. Four numbers and two letters followed by .mxf.

Take this name and place in the first line of your text file. On the next line of the text file type in "1.0" (don't include the quotes).

The third line is the number of clips in the folder +1. If you have 16 clips then the third line should read "17" (again no quotes).

I'm not 100% sure if the number on the third line is the number of clips left in the folder (after any on-set deletions) or if it is the total number of clips generated during this session with the card. Try both. Remember to add 1 to that number.

Your txt file should like something like this:

0016ab.mxf
1.0
17

That's it. You should be good to go. Put your CONTENTS folders in separate folders with separate LASTCLIP.txt folders and import them as separate P2 cards.

The annoying thing is that all of the various .mxf files in these 6 folders are locked items and they must all be unlocked manually to erase them.

It's much easier to import direct into FCP 5.0.4 or higher. It does so without leaving all of these locked files on your computer.

Hope this helps. Also, if you ever run across corrupted thumbnail images on your P2 card, they can be generated in photoshop. They are 80x60 8-bit BMP files, and can be filled with whatever image you want them to be.

All the best,

Randy Wedick
DP/LA"