Restoring Backup of HMA Files?

[martinu]

Hello,

it seems that I lost 6 hours of interviews I made with my MZ-NH900. I dont have to mention that

these are unrepeatable things and 10 days of work lost (

What happend? The player had suddenly problems reading the TOC of the HI-MD and displayed "CANNOT RECORD OR PLAY". Unfortunately I pressed ">." which reformatted the disk!!!!

Luckyly (??) some days ago I made a backup by just zipping the HMA files from the USB drive

and copying them to my computer.

Now I have the whole HMDHIFI directory on my computer. When copying it back, the

Player does not accept it and asks me if I want to reformat the disc.

Is there any way to read these files, convert them to any audio format - or copy them back to

the HI-MD?

thanks for your help,

martin.

[raintheory]

Currently there is nothing that can be done with those files. I would recommend holding onto them though, just in case something comes up in the near future that would allow you to convert them.

[sebastianbf]

do a search. this has been discussed a pair of times.

[smilesalot2u]

do a search. this has been discussed a pair of times.

I just did this as a test I moved the directory off my RH10 to my xp prodesktop I then disconnected it from my pc and did a format of the disk. I then moved the whole folder back onto the RH10 and was able to play it.

Why did mine work. It was 300 megs of data.

smilesalot2u

[The Low Volta]

@ smilesalot... data or audio files (atrac/mp3/PCM) and what do you mean by "was able to play it"? as audio through the headphones without the PC connection?

[smilesalot2u]

@ smilesalot... data or audio files (atrac/mp3/PCM) and what do you mean by "was able to play it"? as audio through the headphones without the PC connection?

Sorry I was out of town, so couldn't reply, It was audio.

But, it appears that I did not format it. I tried my test again these are my results.

The following is what I did exactly(Sorry for the long reply you can skip and go straight to the questions at the end.)

PROCEDURE:

I went and turned on my Stereo and recorded 5 minutes of WMA Audio using microphones via the line in port(not that it matters). I then took the HI-MD and listened to the music I recorded off my stereo speakers. Heard everything fine.

Next I went to my XPpro sp2 PC and connected my RH10 to it via the USB cable.

I opened "My Computer" and then my HI-MD drive. Then using the right mouse button I drag-n-dropped the HMDHIFI folder and HI-MD.IND file onto my desktop. (using the selection "Move Here" [for the HI-MD.IND file I received the "this is a read only file are you sure you want to move" warning and I clicked yes])

I checked the disk by right clicking on the drive and going to properties it read 1,011,613,696 bytes or 964MB

This gave me a blank HI-MD disk when looking at it via "My Computer" and when I disconected it from the USB cable and pressed the play button on the RH10 it came up with the "error cannot record or play" and about 5 seconds latter it asks "CREATE AUDIO FILE? YES:ENTER NO:CANCEL"

On the disconnected RH10 I selected cancel and went into Menu mode and then File List option which replied with the "NO FILE" answer. From this I concluded that the data was gone

Next I reconnected my USB cable to my RH10 and moved the HMDHIFI folder back onto the HI-MD drive from the desktop (got the read only file for HI-MD.IND file message again)

I could play the audio recorded files again. I could also see the the HMDHIFI folder and all the HMA files when I selected File List option

Im sure many of you have received the same results, next I started tinkering by removeing the HI-MD.IND file and was still able to play my recorded sample music

The next test is where I failed, and where I goofed up in my previous post, I had assumed and you know what that means except I only made an ass of me.

Thank you Low Volta for asking the question

I moved the HMDHIFI folder off the RH10 again and when it asked to create an audio file this time I pressed Yes option. The mindisc recorder responded by displaying a system file writing window and created a new HMDHIFI Folder basiclly the same scenario when formating a disk. I don't know the difference maybe someone else in the group can enlighten me?

When I moved this directory off the HI-MD disk into MY Downloads folder and moved the recorded audio HMDHIFI folder from my desktop back onto the disk it would come up with the infamous "CREATE AUDIO FILE? YES:ENTER NO:CANCEL"

which is the reason that so many of the experienced minidisc users have been saying no you cannot copy the proprietary files off the HI-MD

QUESTIONS:

This does bring up a couple of questions though which could be answered if the right people were inquired.

Of which I am not one.

First why can I move the directory on and off the HI-MD as many times (well I only tried 4 times because I read that sony copy protection lets you copy 3 times) as I want as long as I dont reformat it?

Are there some hidden files on the disk that change everytime one formats?

Is this date and time related?

If one could find the hidden file or switches I would be able to save my data via drag and drop (the millon dollar question everybody wants answered)

I found an interesting blog about Sony and their 3 limit copy protection on audio CDs they have produced, I wonder is this the same copy protection they use on the minidisc? Unfortunately Im not computer savy enough yet to figure this out. But I definately wanted to share this with the minidisc community maybe someone else understands the implications and how we could apply it to our situation

matter of fact I will post that as a question

I remember back in the good old days there was a program called copy2my pc, which would image the whole copyprotected floppy, is there a program out that would do the same thing. I mean we have it for CD's(clonecd) and DVD's why not the minidisc?

Any answers questions or comments are welcome

smilesalot2u