Blank Disc Message Received After Recording Mini Disc

[Randy MD]

Hello All,

I recently made a live music recording using my Sony Net MD MZ-NF810. Upon completion of the recording, I pressed the stop button, and observed the "Data Save" message flashing in the display. I did not continue to observe the display for any other messages, and instead placed the unit aside in order to allow time for data to be written to the disc.

During recording, I monitored the display a few times, and everything appeared to be functioning normally. I could see the recording time and sound level indicators functioning normally. Also, during recording the unit did not lose power or suffer any type of physical shock.

However, to my surprise I later inserted the recorded disc into the same unit for playback, and after several minutes of searching, it returned a "Blank Disc" message.

Does this mean that the recording did not actually take place?

Does this mean that the recording is actually on the disc but cannot be read?

I've tried playing some other recorded discs and they work fine.

What should be my next step in finding out if there is a recoverable recording on the disc?

If there is a recoverable recording on the disc, how do I access it?

This is the first time that I have ever encountered this problem.

Any and all insight is greatly appreciated.

[sfbp]

Overwrite head connections are gone. Unless you can find the break in the ribbon cable and fix it (it's doable but very fiddly) the proper market price of that cable/head assembly exceeds the market value of the NF810.

One thing you can do is to make it so that you don't try to record. This involves glueing the record button, and the track mark button so they cannot be pressed. Of course you'd have to vow to yourself not to hook up to USB, but at least the player would continue to work.

As it's not Hi-MD you may be able to get this one recording off using TOC cloning via another unit (specifics we can discuss). However it's bye-bye to the 810 at least as a recorder.

[Odyssey]

I recently made a live music recording using my Sony Net MD MZ-NF810. --< SNIP >-- I pressed the stop button, and observed the "Data Save" message flashing in the display. --< SNIP >-- I later inserted the recorded disc into the same unit for playback, and after several minutes of searching, it returned a "Blank Disc" message.

Does this mean that the recording did not actually take place?

----------- No, The recording could have been completed, the TOC did not complete successfully.-------

Does this mean that the recording is actually on the disc but cannot be read?

----- YES, the recording can be on the disc but if it cannot find or read the TOC, it cannot be found ------

I've tried playing some other recorded discs and they work fine.

What should be my next step in finding out if there is a recoverable recording on the disc?

------- If you know someone with a TasCam 801R MKII , that machine can find the data recorded and create a TOC so you can play it. I think the TasCam 301R MKII can do this also, I need to read the instructions, but if the data is there, and the TOC is missing or damaged, These TasCam MD recorders can make it so you can play again. -----

------- One thought though, if the concert filled the entire disc, this might cause a problem for the TOC, I have had that happen once before... just a thought --------

If there is a recoverable recording on the disc, how do I access it?

------- Yes, the complete recording should be on the disc, see above comments.-------

This is the first time that I have ever encountered this problem.

Any and all insight is greatly appreciated.

------- This is an very very intermittant problem unless you filled the disc completely. If the bettery gets low, if the MD recorder is bumped when the toc tries to write, various reasons, the unit will have a " Brain Fart " and may not be able to read the TOC, thats when this happens ---------

[jmsla]

Randy MD,

I often clone a new TOC to discs that I have recorded w/ digital input or mistakenly erased. As an experiment recently, I deliberately interrupted the power to a recorder as it was in System File Writing or Data Save mode to see if TOC cloning would recover the recording. It did recover the recording.

And just now, after reading your post, I cloned a TOC to a completely blank disc to see if the cloned TOC would be accepted. It was and produced the expected single track of silence, which I believe is what you would want to see happen. If something had been recorded on that disc, it would have reappeared instead of the silence track.

If you want to take a shot at recovering your concert disc, I would be glad to put a TOC on the disc for you. I don't use a Tascam for the purpose. I have two Sony machines that do the task, a deck and a portable. All I need to know is what ATRAC mode you recorded in: SP, LP2 or LP4. PM me if you are interested in pursuing.

-James

[Jimma]

If you're still having trouble with your 810 and want to get it fixed cheaply, see my post linked below.

I hope this helps.

[lordnordeth]

I have been having this problem with my trusty old G750 for the past year, so last night I dug out an old 510 that had a cracked display, took the 510 apart and transferred the magnetic head and cable from the 510 to the 750 (figured what the hell, if it doesn't work, it's not like both arent already broken).

Sure enough, I was able to desolder the ribbon cable from the 510 board, VERY CAREFULLY peel up the ribbon cable, detatch the magentic head from the 510, and simply transfer the whole unit to the G750. It works like a dream!

Just out of curiosity, it then tore apart an old 410 unit I had gotten for $10 at a yard sale, and sure enough, the head, and ribbon cable are the same, so this might be a saving grace for those who are having the issue. look around for an old "junker" netMD unit, and see if the part is harvestable!

Good Luck, and a HUGE!!!!!!! THANK YOU to everyone here who has posted on the subject, the cause of it, posted pics, and detailed instructions.

You guys ROCK! And prove to me why I stick with MD's...us users are just a different class of cool!

[sfbp]

Well done, indeed.

The longevity of MD units is probably at least in part due to the simplicity of their engineering. Many of the components are quite re-usable across models. Whereas the :official: fix needed would have been 10x what I paid, an :unofficial: fix for a similar problem (actually the main laser, not the overwrite head) I had was easily made. I am waiting for my drive to come back from the guy whose Ebay listing got a plug in post #5 - his charges are most reasonable and a very nice fellow to deal with.

Stephen