Old Dell Desktop Running Windows Xp--Roxio Videowave

[kris66]

I'm capturing video from an old Sony handycam directly into the computer using a firewire cable, and saving the 5 to 10GB files on an external hard drive, which I then connect to another computer to download and edit. Most of the time the captured files are on the hard drive, but sometimes they aren't there. I can see where they were captured by Roxio, but they're neither on the old computer's HD (where they shouldn't be anyway, because they should go to the external hard drive) or on the external drive.

Are they actually on the external drive but I can't see them because of some error?

Roxio captures, or at least files them in 1.9GB sections, and the last batch that went missing consists of 4 sections (I can see them in the library pane).

Anyone know what might be going on?

[CHWS2]

I've never captured by firewire, but in XP I have had times where large multi-part files disappeared or failed to appear.

 

If you suspect you might have files on the external drive that aren't showing, try this. It can't hurt your drive, but it does make my orphaned files reappear and puts them in the right directory. It might find yours for you.

 

Run a CMD window, and input the command CHKDSK X: /F (where x: is the drive letter of your external drive)

[Jim_Hardin]

If your files are only 2GB it sounds as though your file system on the external is FAT16???

(FAT32 = 4GB limits - NTSF = no limit)

 

CHWS2's suggestion is a sound one and you should try that.

 

I would also try doing a capture to the local HDD on that PC, then copy them to the external hdd.

 

Keep us up to date with this

[kris66]

Took me awhile to figure out that I needed to close my browser windows to use the cmd window. I could get the cmd window with the browser window open but it wouldn't accept any input, nor close. So I shut down my puter to get rid of it, and then the browser windows were closed and the cmd window worked.

Entered CHKDSK G: /F and and got: "chkdsk can't run because volume in use by another process, would you like to force a dismount" (Y). Then "convert lost chain to files?" (Y). Then something about files being okay, which disappeared before I could write it down.

So I went and checked volume G again, but the missing files weren't there so I guess they're gone.

The external HD (volume G) is FAT32.

I am going to try the same thing on the computer I captured them on too, but it's the same external HD so they're probably no longer there even though they were there, because I can see their ghosts in Roxio's library pane.

[CHWS2]

Strange, my CMD window will operate fine with a browser window open. Perhaps you didn't get Windows' attention by clicking on the CMD window before typing?

My drive was FAT-32 also.

 

If Chkdsk is recovering a lost file, it will say "Recovering orphaned file . . .", and tell you where the file is. But if it's just cleaning up fragments it will give you that "convert lost chain to files?" message and then write a bunch of "File000x.chk" files to a hidden directory on your main drive.

If you run it against your main C: drive it will only work during the boot-up process.

 

Looks like it didn't recover things for you, but I think it was worth trying.

[kris66]

There may have been something else other than the browser windows going on, and restarting the puter took care of that. Thanks to you and Jim_Harden for your help.

[kris66]

Interesting. I originally had this problem back in Nov. and ultimately decided that I probably removed the external hd before it was finished saving, so have been careful to make sure the computer shuts down first (it can take some time) and haven't had any trouble since.

But then yesterday I couldn't find my files on the ext hd. So today, I made sure the ones I captured today were on there (checked the ext hd while it was still plugged into the computer I captured them on), but then when I took the hd to the house and connected it to my puter w/windows 10, which I've been doing for years, no files.

And what's even odder, there were 2 small files yesterday that were just the first few minutes and last few minutes of what should have been 40 minutes of footage. And I didn't touch the camera after I started it until I stopped it, so it should have all been there (or maybe the first few minutes and then no more...?)

Never did find the middle of yesterday's file, but came back here and found this thread and tried CHKDSK: L/F and while the command prompt window wouldn't stay open for long enough for me to read all of it, my files from today did reappear on my external hd.

Very odd, but hey, it worked and I have my files now. So thank you for posting this info. Kris

[CHWS2]

Never did find the middle of yesterday's file, but came back here and found this thread and tried CHKDSK: L/F and while the command prompt window wouldn't stay open for long enough for me to read all of it, my files from today did reappear on my external hd.

 

Very odd, but hey, it worked and I have my files now. So thank you for posting this info. Kris

You're welcome, Kris.

 

If you just run the CHKDSK command from your RUN box [Windows button+R] it will open its own CMD window, do its thing, and then close the CMD window immediately before you can read much.

 

To see the results of CHKDSK you should run the command prompt first, and then execute CHKDSK inside the command prompt window. When you've finished reading the results, close the command prompt.