Urgent : ps file missing!

[nikolopaido]

i have recorded a shot with a ml in mark iii in a 64gb 160mb/sec sandisk cf card. When i tried to download the files on my mac, in the beginning i could see the ps file among the shot files, but when i tried to transfer it, it read "one or more files are corrupted". Next time i tried the same, i could not even see the ps file. They must be still on the cf card, since i didn't erase the card. During the shot the recording stopped because there was not enough space.
Is there any way i can save this shot? it is extremely urgent and important!

[Midphase]

"extremely urgent and important" doesn't go particularly well with "experimental firmware hack" so if this doesn't work out, chuck it to experience and next time have a more fool proof way of shooting critical footage.

As far as the data, first of all, they're not Photoshop (PS) files, they're .raw so don't try to open them up with Photoshop because it won't work. Since your footage appeared, then disappeared, I wonder if this is a case where your CF card reader might have messed up the card? What reader are you using? There have been reports of some readers messing up the card data.

Can you playback the takes in camera? That should tell you if the files are still on there somewhere. Make sure the appropriate modules for file browsing and playback are loaded in ML.

If the files are still on the card, and you can play them back in camera, then you probably need to find yourself a different CF card reader and see if that allows you to transfer the files to the hard drive.

[nikolopaido]

Tried a different cf card reader. All the .R files are there intact. But the .RAW files register as 0KB. Although the card seems to be full, the . R files account for 55,88GB and the the .RAW files account for what seems to be missing.

Is there a way to recreate the shots by reading somehow the .R files?

As a side note a "BACKUP. RAW" file has appeared and it's size is 524kb.

Should i explore the option of taking the card to a recovery specialist?

Thanks very much in advance.

p.s i tried to post a screenshot in the message but failed.

[Satis]

If you want to attach an image you should just upload it to say tinypic, then post the link here.

I personally don't exactly know how the files are being indexed,hopefully someone will be able to help you.
One - harmless -  experiment you can try and might work is copying the 55 gigs .r file into a separate folder (copy, don't mess around it on your CF!) and change its extension to .raw, then see if raw2cdng (or whatever method you are using) can handle the file.

[nikolopaido]

[nikolopaido]

 this is the screenshot!

[Satis]

Try what I told you, copy everyting on your mac, then run raw2cdng on every single file. Have you extracted dng's before, by the way?

[nikolopaido]

yes i have, but i used RAW magic Elite. I just used raw2cdng. Unfortunately it doesn't work... after the conversion i have the dng files but in a badly corrupted version.

thanx a lot anyway...

[Africashot]

From what I can see on your screenshot you have to takes on your card, both very long therefore split in 4 gb junks, you need to merge those files before dropping them into a converter, are you missing anything other then the 1824 and 1831 shot?

[Midphase]

No...there's no need to merge before conversion.

All your data is there, these are simply segmented files because your camera/card was not set up as an ExFAT format which would have allowed you longer than 4Gb takes.

First of all, in the future please go back and learn how to use new tools instead of diving into it head first without knowing some of the very basics of using ML raw (and yes, this is a pretty basic thing).

Secondly, since you're on the Mac, get yourself RAWMagic from the App store and use that to convert everything to CDNG. All you need to do is drag and drop all your files into the RAWMagic window and the app will know exactly what to do from  there on out. It will convert all your segmented files into continuous CDNG files that you can use in your favorite app to either edit with or convert to other formats like ProRes.

[Africashot]

No...there's no need to merge before conversion.

Just to clarify for my own interests as I am on 5d2 and exfat is not an option; does the use (and necessary purchase) of RAWMagic prevent you from having to merge in order to convert or is there any other secret sauce unknown to me?

[nikolopaido]

I have other shots from the same day as well and i have already converted them to cdng files using RAW magic lite! if you take a closer look at the screenshot you will see that the .RAW files are 0KBs. So when i drag and drop them to the RAW magic it doesn't recognize any of the files...
Any other ideas? 

[Midphase]

Just to clarify for my own interests as I am on 5d2 and exfat is not an option; does the use (and necessary purchase) of RAWMagic prevent you from having to merge in order to convert or is there any other secret sauce unknown to me?

RAWMagic understands segmented files and deals with them automatically without any need to pre-merge into a single file. I don't know how other ML post processing files deal with segmented files, but since I've used RAWMagic (over a year now) I've never once had to pre-merge segments.

[Midphase]

I have other shots from the same day as well and i have already converted them to cdng files using RAW magic lite! if you take a closer look at the screenshot you will see that the .RAW files are 0KBs. So when i drag and drop them to the RAW magic it doesn't recognize any of the files...
Any other ideas?

Good question. Not sure. Either you should contact the main ML guys directly, or else try contacting Thomas who created the RAWMagic app to see if he might have a solution.

[Africashot]

I am sure there will have to be a way of at least rescuing the data from the other decided files by replacing the header information from the first files, wouldn't know how to achieve this technically though but I am sure there are other people in this forum who'd know...

[nikolopaido]

i want to thank all of you for your concern and inform you that i tried to download the cf card in a pc (after attempting in 4 different mac and it worked!!!) All the data were downloaded! The second shot which was on the same card doesn't work, and i think, the reason is that the recording stopped because the card was full... all the data are there but i cannot either view or convert them...
thank you all once more