Anyway to recover deleted audio files?

[redddog]

Hey guys. 

Hoping someone can help. Somehow, I managed to delete some files in a project I was working on. I honestly have no idea how, but when I open the project, there are no audio files in the tracks. 

I have a recovery software but it's only finding a couple of the 8-10 wav files and when I restore them back into the project folder, it just gives me an "invalid format" type message. 

Is there some way to restore the project back or am I screwed?

Thanks in advance.

[redddog]

No one's ever accidentally deleted anything?!

[JayBob]

Hi Redddog,

I've had some success in the past with "Wise data recovery". You can grab a free copy here: https://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-data-recovery.html

My best advice is to stop working immediately on the drive from which you deleted the files. Besides, make sure you're not installing the recovery utility on that drive. A portable version of this recovery utility run from an USB drive would be ideal.

Good luck!

[redddog]

Thanks so much, JayBob!

So do I just find the deleted files (not just wavs) and put them in the already created Samp Project folder on my audio drive? That's what I tried and I just got a bunch of "can't load skip/skip all" type messages.

 

Thanks again for all your help!

[JayBob]

Actually, your best try would be to save all the WAV files (and/or maybe VIP files) that appear as recoverable. The other files (HDP, H2 and similar) can probably be ignored as they will be automatically recreated later on.

Be aware that it is not advisable to recover any file on the drive they originate from. Save them first on another drive, and *when you're sure you've recovered all the recoverable files you need* move or copy them back to their original folder.

Recovering files is really tricky, especially because many files are constantly written and erased at the system level (especially on the C: drive). So, the space which is freed when you delete a file can very soon be overwritten by a new file, in which case no further recovery is possible.

Hope this helps!

Feel free to post back here  

 

 

[TerryBritton]

JayBob's warnings not to write anything at all to the original drive where the deleted files are is accurate. 

For background, when you delete a file, it is not actually erased yet - the first initial of the file name is changed to an underscore, and the file space is marked as writable, but it is not written over yet. If you attempt to recover to the same drive, the possibility exists that you will write over other deleted (or "marked as writable drive space") items that you will want to restore as well.

Terry