Talk:Crash Recovery

Windows Vista / 7
User:Stevethefiddle 13Nov10: This page states However, Audacity 1.2 should not be used with Windows Vista/7 It is my understanding that for Audacity 1.3.12 and later, if auto-recovery fails then it is unlikely that data recovery will be possible. Is that correct? If that is correct there seems to be little point providing information for recovering data for Vista/Win 7.
 * If you had never saved an Audacity project before the crash, Audacity 1.2 will ask upon restart if you want to delete temporary files. Say "No". The temporary files will be in Audacity's temporary folder. Check the Directories tab of Audacity preferences to find out where your temporary folder is, then recover the data from that folder by one of the manual or automatic methods below. On Windows the default Audacity temporary directory is at:
 * Windows 2000/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\ \Local Settings\Temp\audacity_1_2_temp
 * Windows Vista/7: C:\Users\ \AppData\Local\Temp\audacity_1_2_temp

Gale: 1.3.12 is "recommended" for Vista/7, primarily because 1.2 may crash when you stop after recording. If someone asks me "I use Audacity projects heavily, which version should I use for Win 7?" I will say "1.2.6 is slightly safer for projects, but be aware that it may crash on Stop". I still use 1.2.6 for real projects (on Win 7) because I just don't have time to risk if 1.3 messes up. I only use projects in 1.3 to test.

And obviously, thousands of users are still blithely running 1.2.x on Vista/7 without being even aware of 1.3, because they are not on the announcements list, they don't contact us and (I'm repeating myself), there is no update mechanism in Audacity. So it is not as simple as just removing the line about Vista/7. We could add another div to say on Vista/7 we "recommend" 1.3 (I question the wisdom of that as regards projects) but where to we say it? The page is already complex for someone in the stressful position of recovering data. Yes, they may be crashing in 1.2 on Vista/7 when they stop after record, but the vast majority will recover their recording correctly. If 1.3 crashes and manual recovery is required, many will not recover correctly.

I would agree (as tests have recently shown) that should automatic recovery in 1.3 fail, the only case where manual recovery will recover anything that doesn't require further "correction" is that of a mono recording. Any edited project will recover with blockfiles incorrectly positioned. Manual recovery in 1.2 also has limitations which I don't fully recall without checking in my files, but defnitely a stereo recording usually recovers correctly as does a mono one. It's on my list to add these limitations to the Wiki page, but if you have the information to hand feel free to add it yourself.

The real point for me is a) to make automatic recovery in 1.3 more reliable, and b) for where it does fail, either use fully sequential blockfile numbering to improve chances of manual recovery even after editing, or develop some new intelligent manual recovery tool that is capable of working with the numbering and folder structure we now use.

Windows batch file renaming utilities
jklp 30 August 2008: I removed the link to Flexible Renamer as I couldn't figure out how to rename the files in the order required by the recovery tool, or figure out if it was actually possible with Flexible Renamer, hence why I suggested Better File Rename which easily provided the functionality that was required (though at the cost that it was shareware). If you were to leave the link up for Flexible Renamer, it might be a good idea to specify an example of how to set it up to perform the appropriate rename? --


 * Gale 30 Aug 08 07:31 UTC: Unfortunately you provided no summary of your edit, so the reason for your removing the Flexible Renamer link was unknown. I found the link that you deleted was dead, so assumed that to be the reason. On trying that app. I could not figure immediately how to achieve what was required either, so the link has been replaced with specific instructions for another free app (which in any case is a superior file manager to Windows Explorer).

Aud_Recover command-line recovery utility
Steve 5 August 09: An error has been reported in the section "Aud_Recover command-line recovery utility":

'In there, it says "aud_recover will generate one or more files (depending on how many channels of audio you recorded, usually one or two for mono and stereo). You need to import these into Audacity using the Import Raw Data option."

This does not work and creates a noise filled mess. But if you use the import audio option, it works.'

The full message is here: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=12011#p47289