mysterymadman Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 (edited) Hi all,Firstly, I'm a newbie here, so I hope I'm not flogging any dead horses here, or otherwise acting against written or unwritten rules. Then: I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really (can I stress that enough?!?), hope that someone can help me out with this one:For those of you who do not have the time to read long items: the actual question (posed in more detail towards the end of this post) is if someone has a way of reading out Minidiscs with a probably corrupted TOC.Then, to give the full picture (which may help explaining the issue), I have written down what happened in more detail down below:The situation: for the better part of this year I've been testing my taping rig (a Sony MZ-R50 Minidisc with the ECM-717 mic), all in preparation for an (to me) extremely important recording, which took place yesterday.I had properly set up the gear, I found an excellent 'sweet spot', and I had previously familiarised myself enough with all controls in order to make the recording process go as smoothly as possible.But then, of course, the one thing I couldn't prepare for happened: mayhem broke loose in the recorder: All year long the recorder has had no issues, but exactly at the moment when it matters most, it messed up. I'm not certain what exactly happened, but as far as I could tell, the recorder taped the first of 4 parts I tried to tape just fine, after which I stopped the recorder and waited for the second part. However, when trying to tape it, it gave me a 'Disc err' message, and I could not get that reset no matter what I did, so I fear that disc is broken and didn't record properly (or perhaps more likely: the TOC may be corrupt). Unfortunately, I had accidentally left the emergency spare disc in the car stereo, instead of in the recorder. Hence, with no discs to spare, I could not fall back to another disc for the final two parts (being the largest of them all), and totally missed out on recording the second part.One disc down, two to go.... Then, on to the main part of the recording; parts 3 and 4.Part 3 recorded just grand. 80 minutes without issues, and the disc swapping moment between part 3 and 4 worked out just fine too, and I had it running again at the beginning of part 4. It proceeded to record everything just fine (yes, I double checked that about 5 times or so), and when turning it off, the 'data save' pass went fine too, but the recorder somehow got stuck on the 'TOC edit' part. It just wouldn't respond to anything anymore, and I had to remove the battery in order to alleviate the issue. I'm not certain what happened, as I haven't seen this happen before...Now.... I write protected all discs anyway, and I tried them in the car stereo. Both discs that gave issues were spat out by the stereo. Upon coming home, I put them in the recorder to see what would happen, and the one with part 1 still says 'Disc err' (and doesn't want to play anything any way), and the one with part 4 just says 'Blank disc'. Not good.However...I am hoping that perhaps the data of part 1 and of part 4 is still present on the discs in raw format. It seems that the recorder properly performed the 'data save' pass, and perhaps only the TOC is corrupt...I'm not certain how bad that is, but it would seem to me that it is very well possible that the raw data is still there, and that perhaps it can be extracted with a proper Minidisc deck (or some other pro Minidisc equipment?) or so... ??? I *REALLY* hope someone can help me out with this...If so, apart from my eternal gratitude, I'd love to do something in return (dunno what yet)...Help!!! Please.....Tnx heaps in advance for any suggestion or help, and cheers,MM Edited November 29, 2006 by Mystery Madman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raintheory Posted November 29, 2006 Report Share Posted November 29, 2006 (edited) Try not to do anything with the disc(s) for the time being. Search the forums for "TOC Cloning" and feel free to PM me if you want some help...EDIT: It does sound like a TOC issue, so the audio data is most likely there and able to be retrieved. Where are you located? Edited November 29, 2006 by raintheory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mysterymadman Posted November 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2006 Hi,Tnx for the tip, and I'm very glad to hear that the data may indeed be there! Yesterday (after I had posted the initial item) a friend of mine came across the TOC cloning tutorial of this site, and indeed that sounds very promising!Also, on www.taperssection.com, someone mentioned having a Tascam MD-301 deck, which apparently does wonders in reading faulty discs too. He offered his help too in giving it a try, but unfortunately (for me), just like you, he's living in the USA, whereas I live in The Netherlands.No real problem of course, but if I can come across someone over here, it would safe me some restless nights, not having to worry if my master tapes (well, discs ) made it over there....In order to try this, yesterday I called a pro studio equipment reseller, and he has an MD deck (though not as fancy one as the Tascam, I think), and he said I could stop by today to see if he can read the discs. In a bit I'll do just that. I'll make very sure to leave the discs write protected, and I shall not try any TOC rewriting or so (if the deck has possibilities for doing so, that is).I'll certainly go with care about this one, as I do not want to risk accidentally wiping away any data that may still be there...Cheers!MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mysterymadman Posted December 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2006 Hi,An update...Yesterday I went to a local store that sells and rents pro studio equipment (shameless plug: The Sample Temple, http://www.sampletemple.com/). I had previously called them and asked if they had some Minidisc decks. They told me they had a consumer version, being the Sony MDS-JE520, and that I was free to use it for a while over there.What luck: the very type that is used in the TOC cloning tutorial. I performed the procedure (with the only difference that I had to dirty the TOC on the machine itself, as they didn't have the control (handy) anymore). The procedure seems to have worked fine on both discs, but the deck kept giving errors on both discs afterwards (C13 and C14, and more severe ones, with one of the discs). The owner told me this happened more often, and using Google I found out that this deck at times becomes flaky and then starts giving these errors time and time again, until it's fixed, or temporarily relieved with a 'test MD'.We did the latter several times, but still both discs were not read correctly. However... When putting the most important of the two in my MZ-R50 at home, it read it just grand! Needlessly to say (but I'll do it anyway), I directly sampled that disc into the computer (using two different volume settings), and hurrah: the most important disc has been recovered!!! My eternal gratitude befalls you guys over here (particularly of course to those who invented and published the TOC cloning procedure). So: THANKS GUYS!!! Then, I fear the other disc may be a (near?) total loss, as it still gives the dreaded 'Disc err' message when putting it into the MZ-R50 recorder....This Monday I'll have access to a Sony MXD-D1 deck, so perhaps that one does read it. If not, I'll try sending it to someone who has a Tascam deck...Meanwhile: if someone has experience with recovering such erroneous discs and/or with the Sony MXD-D1 deck, I hope they can contact me...To be continued...Cheers!MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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