Need Help For Destroyed Hi-MD Recording

[jgabor]

In some posts there is a description that there should be a method to extract the music from the big atdata##.hma file on the HIMD (please see below).

I have a really big problem with my HI-MD and according to your posts it seems that there exists a chance for a solution.

1st of all, my problem:

• I recorded 3 hours of music on the MD per microphone. These are divided in ca. 38 pieces whereby the last piece of the most important is and is ca. for 1.5 hours.

• Before the transfer on my computer via sonicstage I have connected the MD recorder per USB to the PC and copied all .hma files (copy paste inc atdataxx.hma) to the harddisk of my computer

• in the subsequent transfer via sonicstage the rechargeable battery unfortunately went empy, and the transfer was interrupted

• the HI MD was not playable any more

• as inexperienced MD user I formatted the HI MD and then copied the complete .hma data from my computer back to the MD via copy/paste

(by usage of windows explorer) but it still doesn't play

• SONY can't help me

But as i am unexperienced and don't know how to really use a hex editor and i have particularly two questions to my quotation below:

- how can create a dummy omg file?

- how can i identify/extract the suitable data of a certain song from the atdataxx.hma (as this in my case has 650 MB)

- how can i identify/stripp of block headers etc.

- in the view modus of a hex editor i have seen that the atdata is divided into blocks each starting with "ATX". how shall i join them?

#1. create dummy OMA file on my PC using SonicStage. Length doesn't appear to be important.

#2. Extract key for desired track on HiMD by method described above. I used track 2 so I got the key from TRKIDXxx.HMA at offset 80D0h.

#3. Using WinHex, I took the 20-byte key and overwrote the key in the dummy OMA file. The key goes into the OMA file at offset 040Ch.

#4. Manually (using WinHex), I identified the data blocks that belonged to track 2 in the ATDATAxx.HMA file. I stripped off the block headers and stuff to get just the raw ATRAC data. I then pasted the raw ATRAC data into my dummy OMA file at offset 0458h. Save the dummy OMA file.

#5. Disconnect HiMD unit from PC.

#6. Click on dummy OMA file to launch SonicStage. Song from HiMD is playing!!

Note that I didn't need the MCLISTxx.HMA file at all.

There ya go. Now I finally know how I can "rescue" my songs off my first HiMD disks that got orphaned when my PC crashed. Of course, it means I still have to create a "dummy" OMA file for each song I want to get off the HiMD first, and I still need SonicStage... so it's not a effort-free endeavor.... but at least I have proven (and repeated consistently) that it can be done.

I'll try to make some more time to write a reader/parser app to process the ATDAT and TRKIDX in a Windows GUI, to make things easier.... unless some sharp programmer beats me to it.

Have a great weekend.... time for me to head home.

[dex Otaku]

There are currently no means for recovering lost data from HiMD, even using backed up HMA files. If you happen to get this working.. a lot of people would appreciate it, I'm sure.

Side-note, though - when connected via USB, HiMDs are powered by USB. The state of your battery should not have any effect on transfers. Or did you mean your computer was battery-powered and its battery died [in which case, disregard this.]

[matrulesok]

Sounds really promising! Great 1st post jgabor

[jgabor]

Unfortunately the computer was battery powered. Let's wait and see. My quotation above was from the user "ksandbergfl".

Thank in advance!

jgabor

[marcnet]

Just a side note:

When uploading recorded tracks to the PC SonicStage does the following:

1) Decrypts the data on the HI-MD disc

2) Creates a brand new set of encryption keys

3) Re-encrypts the decrypted track data using the new keys

4) Stores the new re-encrypted track data in the OMA and sticks these new keys in its DRM database

So when uploading a recorded track, the data on the HIMD disc will be completly different to the resultant OMA file that SonicStage creates. This is due to the re-encryption described above.

[jgabor]

Probably i have to emphasise that i only quoted a post of "ksandbergfl" (the stuff in my first post starting with #1).

But there MUST be a possibility to extract the atracdata from the .hma file??!??!?!?!

[jgabor]

Does really no one know if this method i mentioned in my 1st post does work ?????????????????????????????

Regards,

Jarek

[marcnet]

Just a side note:

When uploading recorded tracks to the PC SonicStage does the following:

1) Decrypts the data on the HI-MD disc

2) Creates a brand new set of encryption keys

3) Re-encrypts the decrypted track data using the new keys

4) Stores the new re-encrypted track data in the OMA and sticks these new keys in its DRM database

So when uploading a recorded track, the data on the HIMD disc will be completly different to the resultant OMA file that SonicStage creates. This is due to the re-encryption described above.

To add to my comment. It will be very difficult to recover the audio data from a .HMA file if the tracks were recorded (ie: not downloaded via SonicStage). This is because the encryption keys that are on your PC are different to the ones the HIMD device used. So even if you did stick the .HMA data into a OMA file, it wont play or convert because the sony directshow drivers wont recognize the DRM keys from the .HMA file.

[jgabor]

So will this be impossible or would it be possible to find out if i have some of the recordings already converted into oma but not the most important one. But all source from one HIMD.

And why did ksandbergfl write this?

Thanks in advance

J.

[jgabor]

"To add to my comment. It will be very difficult to recover the audio data from a .HMA file if the tracks were recorded (ie: not downloaded via SonicStage). This is because the encryption keys that are on your PC are different to the ones the HIMD device used. So even if you did stick the .HMA data into a OMA file, it wont play or convert because the sony directshow drivers wont recognize the DRM keys from the .HMA file."

Just a thought: ksandbergfl found out that the key should be in the TRKIDXxx.HMA file. Do you think this works?

Or what about doing it with the disk back up (disk image per drag and drop) and copying the key in a dummy *.hma file on the HIMD, replacing also the assumed key in the TRKIDXxx.HMA?

Thanks

Kind regards,

J.

[amaleale]

Hi, I don’t know if this is the right place to put this post. I’m totally new to this, but I’m desperately looking for some help. I’ve been using Hi MD to record research related interviews, downloading them to my computer and then baking them up (in omg and oma formats). My computer crashed last week and I had to replace the hard drive. I copied the backed up files to my new hard drive but now I can’t access my own recorded interviews! I’ve spent hours searching this forum and it seems that as of today no one has found a way to access files when the original source is lost, but I was wondering if anyone has any updates on this issue.

[greenmachine]

Try to load them in sonicstage 3.2, remove the copyright tag and 'convert' to the same codec/bitrate. This should make them usable without actual conversion. Don't know for certain if it works, but it might be worth a try.

[atrain]

Try to load them in sonicstage 3.2, remove the copyright tag and 'convert' to the same codec/bitrate. This should make them usable without actual conversion. Don't know for certain if it works, but it might be worth a try.

it's worked for me in the past

[amaleale]

This doesn’t work in my case. After days of searching the web for help I have come to realize that there is no way to play my oma and omg files. The Sony techs say that if my hard drive (the source computer) is gone, the rights information is gone with it and there is no way to access or open the files, even though I created them and have backups of all of them. The problem is that they contain a year worth of very important work! Someone suggested to try to recover my old physically damaged hard drive (paying a lot of money to one of those hard drive recovery companies) and try to restore the lost security codes, or “keys” into my new hard drive, so sonic stage would recognize the rights information. Does anyone know if this might work? I’m willing to pay the high costs of hard drive recovery if there is at least some good chance that I will be able to access my data.