Lost Files HELP!!!

theoptimist · Post by **theoptimist** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:16 pm

Hi people,

I am running Ableton 7.14 on a Mac Pro through an Alesis io/26. I use Time Machine to back up everything on my system but today i was using the Collect All and Save function in Live to gather up a few projects to transfer to another computer. One of my files (the most important one ironically!) disappeared when i did this. I think what happened was the Project folder that the file was saved in must have been created and deleted during a ten day period when i did not have Time Machine on. When i went to Collect All and Save Ableton must have saved the contents of the file to nowhere(deleting it effectively) because the Project folder (directory) no longer existed. I thought that if the file did not have a Project folder the system would prompt me to create one for it or choose another one to put the file in? Also if i was able to open the file up today before it disappeared surely theres a way of retrieving it? There is no trace of it on Time Machine because of the ten day gap and in Ableton (Open Recent Files) the file name is in grey. Even tried rebooting Leapord with a Time Machine backup, no joy : ( This file is incredibly important to me, if theres any advice anyone can give me it would be greatly appreciated.

theoptimist · Post by **theoptimist** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:39 pm

Anyone?

solacerodgers · Post by **solacerodgers** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:46 pm

I could tell you 10 ways to do this on pc but man i dont know of anyway to do it on a osx system man.

theoptimist · Post by **theoptimist** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:50 pm

Ill throw my Mac out da window if i dont get this one back and rejoin the PC army, ha ha! Thanks anyway£

melikoff · Post by **melikoff** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:53 pm

you can try diskwarrior http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html

or

filesalvage http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/inde ... ducts_id=1

digitalgeist · Post by **digitalgeist** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:02 pm

If the file is really important and you're sure it's gone you should try a professional data recovery service. When a Mac deletes files it is usually very thorough; if you chose "Secure Empty Trash" then the file may be gone permanently as it overwrites the deleted space 3x. Why did you turn Time Machine off if you were working with a file that was so vital?

Even using Time Machine is not enough, for files of this nature you need to have a tertiary place for disaster recovery (say, a pipe breaking in your studio). We've all had these awful data losses happen, no one is immune; backing stuff up is a pain in the ass but it feels so good to look at that dated DVD and replace your lost stuff if an accident happens...

doc holiday · Post by **doc holiday** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:09 pm

it's also a great feeling when you have to reinstall your os from your back ups, and when you boot that baby it's like it never left.

backup often.

did you search for that file?

is your sets folder in your library as that causes havoc with collect and save.

did you loose the .als file or the audio files?

theoptimist · Post by **theoptimist** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:14 pm

Thanks for your replies! To be honest i reckon the biggest mistake i made was rebooting from my backup disc (Time Machine) to see if i could get back to a stage where the system at least recognised that the session existed. Probably wrote over any chances of recovery when i did that

should have had a 2nd backup and definitley should not have had Time Machine turned off at any stage! Will try various recovery methods and see what Customer Help has to say. Cheers!

theoptimist · Post by **theoptimist** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:18 pm

doc holiday wrote:
is your sets folder in your library as that causes havoc with collect and save.

did you loose the .als file or the audio files?

No i keep my sets seperated from the Library. I lost the .als file, its appearing in the dreaded light grey in Open Recent Files now. The strange thing is it opened today and only disappeared when it was Collect All and Saved, i reckon if i had just saved it i would have been prompted to make a new Project Folder for it.

doc holiday · Post by **doc holiday** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:00 pm

maybe it just got moved and live no longer knows where it is.

have you searched for the file?

in the terminal enter this command:

sudo find / -name "name of file.als"

replace "name of file.als" with the name of the file, hit enter then your password and wait.

you could change it up a little and find all the .als files on your system:

sudo find / -name *.als

Lost Files HELP!!!

Lost Files HELP!!!

Lost Files HELP!

Re: LOSING YOUR MOST IMPORTANT WORK FFFUUUCCCKKK!!!!

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