Curing a failed sd card

[Mark Richards]

My Experiment
I've been intentionally using a Toshiba 16GB SDHC that is not a "tested" card and that has failed in the past on my DP-24. After several weeks of use it finally failed, but was still readable on my Windows laptop.

When I mounted it on the laptop, a Windows pop-up screen told me there was a problem with the card and asked if I'd like to fix it, so I pressed yes.

With the card now accessible on the laptop, I deleted the dp-24.sys file from the SD card; ejected the card; and then re-mounted the card on the laptop.

From my laptop's DP-24 backup folder I copied over the dp-24.sys file to the SD card.

I then ejected the SD card from the laptop; installed it on the DP-24; turned on the DP-24 and...viola...all was right again in the universe. It booted right up with no loss of music files.

It appears that the dp-24.sys card may somehow become corrupted on untested SD cards, making it impossible to boot the DP-24/32. This process may make your card usable again, or at least make it readable on your computer so you can recover the music files.

I thought I'd pass it along as one step in trying to recover a failed card.

 

[Dunny]

Thanks for sharing this information , transfer of knowledge is second to none

 

[David Porter]

Thanks! Good to know.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Thanks for sharing Mark - nice bit of sleuthing!
From what I can gather, that outer level .sys file hold the global settings (as set in Menu, Preference) and maybe some other system-related stuff, so it's independent of the songs themselves. When the machine formats a card, it creates that sys file and the Music, Utilities, AudioDepot folders, and also an empty song as the machine must always have a 'current' song loaded.

There's another .sys file inside each song folder, which I believe holds the song settings - assignments, FX settings, send levels etc. and the tables/links which map the ZZ wave files to the song tracks, so the contents of each song folder are tightly coupled to each other. That's why you can copy the whole song folder for backup/restore purposes as long as you keep the contents intact.

I deleted the outer level .sys file just for interest using a computer and the machine wasn't phased - it just asked if it could re-create the sys file, and all the songs were intact. Then tried deleting all the song folders and it just silently recreated an empty song.

 

[Mark Richards]

Phil, my experiment unfolded like this:
During several prior boots, the unit did not see the DP-24.sys file and asked to create it, after which the unit continued on as you described.

On the last failure, after asking to create the sys file, that too failed and the unit would not read the card at all, as though no card had been loaded in the SD slot. (Maybe the File Allocation Table for the root directory gets scrambled somehow???)

So I guess the real take away is:
If the unit wants to create the sys file on startup, do it, and once the card loads, transfer the contents to another card, and stop using it, because there's a good chance it's on the way to total failure.

 

[BikerDude]

I can't help but wonder if windows isn't somehow messing the files with a .sys extension.
Those have their own meaning in windows and denote system resources.
Everything from drivers to settings.
Old windows version were more open but now it's difficult to say how windows handles these but it's entirely possible that it opens them automatically.
This would explain why when windows "fixed" the card error it had deleted the .sys file.
It was expecting something different in the .sys file and choked on it.
Reporting a corrupt card.

 

[Mark Richards]

Continuing the experiment, adding to possible recovery tips.

The Scenario:
During a recording/overdub/bounce session, your DP-xx freezes, and after pulling the plug and restarting, the screen displays a "File Error" message when trying to load the song that you were working on.

Possible Solution:
The last track(s) you were working on when your DP-xx froze may have been corrupted and is preventing the song from loading.
1. Open the SD card in your computer.
2. Open the song file.
3. Starting with the highest numbered "zz" .wav file and working backwards from that file, test each file by trying to open it with a media player that plays .wav files.

If a file doesn't open in your media player, it's been corrupted. Move the corrupted file from the song folder to another location and repeat until you have identified and moved all the corrupted files (typically it will only be the one or two most current tracks you were working on).

Remove the SD card from the computer, insert it back into your DP-xx, turn your DP-xx back on, and try to load the problem song.

If the planets are in alignment and the gremlins aren't paying attention, you might just get the whole song back less the track(s) you were working on when your DP-xx froze.

 

[David Porter]

Thanks Mark. Good stuff!

 

[Stew71]

Is there an updated card list for the dp24? The one on the Tascam site is quite old.

I'll be recording a 2-3 hour multitrack session in a couple of weeks (single pass, no stop/starts, no retake possible) and am wondering about getting a new card. Have done this before with no problems but wary given a couple of glitches in recent weeks.

Stew

 

[Scott Tribbey]

I can tell you I've really been beating on my Sandisk 32GB Extreme Plus (V30 U3 10) while testing my recently acquired dp24 (not sd version). It has performed flawlessly with many channels going.

 

[-mjk-]

Mark, thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I have my suspicions that the DP machines OS is Linux based.

 

[SamT]

Continuing the experiment, adding to possible recovery tips.

The Scenario:
During a recording/overdub/bounce session, your DP-xx freezes, and after pulling the plug and restarting, the screen displays a "File Error" message when trying to load the song that you were working on.

Possible Solution:
The last track(s) you were working on when your DP-xx froze may have been corrupted and is preventing the song from loading.
1. Open the SD card in your computer.
2. Open the song file.
3. Starting with the highest numbered "zz" .wav file and working backwards from that file, test each file by trying to open it with a media player that plays .wav files.

If a file doesn't open in your media player, it's been corrupted. Move the corrupted file from the song folder to another location and repeat until you have identified and moved all the corrupted files (typically it will only be the one or two most current tracks you were working on).

Remove the SD card from the computer, insert it back into your DP-xx, turn your DP-xx back on, and try to load the problem song.

If the planets are in alignment and the gremlins aren't paying attention, you might just get the whole song back less the track(s) you were working on when your DP-xx froze.

It worked for me, great tip, thanks! Would just like to add that it wasn't the last file or ZZ_ track I was working on.

Sure, the corrupted file was empty and wouldn't play, but it was dated a couple of days earlier. Seeing as I had continuously been working on the same song I hadn't needed to reload the song until it actually crashed, I think trying to master it or edit the name.

If only I'd known this years ago - lost quite a few songs to corrupted files, usually from attempting to do either of those above-mentioned operations. I think renaming a song causes the most fails if it's currently loaded.

 

[Bravohorn1]

Hey,
Regarding your post Mark, or anyone with the knowledge. If all these recovery procedures fail, can you as a last resort use, or open a zz file to recover the data. The card though costly, is disposable. I just want the data. If I can use the zz files, can anyone explain the procedure? Thanks

 

[-mjk-]

Make daily backups. The zz files on their own are absolutely useless. There is no procedure, because they are snippets of audio with no organization to them whatsoever. Every time you finish a session make a back up to the computer.