Recovering ATRAC files (NWA HDD Series)

[JustAnUnCoolCat]

Well, i'm sure some of us at least have been at the point where we 'accidently' (or someone did for you) wiped out your SS library and the locally stored ATRAC files - and hit the 'oh ferk, i can't recover the copies on my NW deck' prob..??

I have at least, and i know i aint alone..

Well, taking a huge chance (vs the concept of a big rip-fest) i noticed i still had my ATRAC3-132K content copies on the NWA-3000. Well, if i could recover them, that'd save mucho ripping.. as that's the same format/rate combo i'd want the transfer-ready copies in anyway.

Well, provided you ripped and encoded (or transcoded from other formats, or simply encoded straight from WAV) your on-player flies without copy-protection - yes you can painlessly recover them from an NW-A series :oD

1) Plug your NW-A series into your PC.

2) Cancel any instance of SS that may start up.

3) Use the search facility in Windows to find .OMA's on the drive instance that is your NW-A series.

4) Select the files, and cut/paste them to your PC's HDD.

It's that simple :oP

Sure the files have numeric filenames, but if you import the copies into a fresh SS installation, they import with tags intact, and hey hey hey... your inner cat spirit is purring against... and not having to indulge on a catnip-fuelled mega ripfest again to get you outa trouble..

I did this with a fresh SS installation on a fresh Win XP installation, so i guess it's fair to say that if you wipe out your SS install and all associated registry entries relating to.., you'll be in the same situation over avoiding legacy headaches of old bad data causing grief.

Well, it should work for anyone who needs it.. it worked for me, and hopefully it's a last-ditch answer for the desperate.

Hell, it might work for the FP's too - definately a no go to copy the ATP's from a ATRAC-CD though, but it may work for Hi-MD too (have to test that out sometimes).

Keep on purring, and remember - it aint over til the cat spirit within stops purring ;o)

Be Cool Always

'Tom Kat'

[grenert]

Thanks for the information! I did manage to accidentally delete some ATRAC files on my computer that I have on my HD1. While the HD1 still has the files, I have no way to back them up or delete them to make room on the player (without losing the files forever). Now it looks like I have an option! I am out of town and haven't had a chance to try out your idea, but I'll report back once I have.

Cheers.

-J. P.

[JustAnUnCoolCat]

Hi..

Well, you and i will both be interested to see if it works out with the HD1 too. Maybe some others with the E series FP's can also test the method out.

I made a point of posting the find, as it's often believed that the content once written to the device is content-locked during transfer (so you may have ripped copy-protected disabled, but could find the OMA's locked during transfer).

Well, non-CP'd ATRAC files definately aint content locked on the NW-A series.

Just to clarify - it's the OMA files stored on the HDD unit (in folders within the OMGAUDIO folder on the NW-A series, can't recall if the same layout is used on the HD1/3/5 series).

You dont need to recover all those indexing dat files etc, in the case i'm describing, just the OMA's

Good luck, hope it works out for the older HD series decks too, and likewise hopefully someone will test with the E series.

When i get time later, will try this out on the NW-NH1 Hi-MD unit too - i can't recall the storage arrangement on Hi-MD, so it may not go with that. If the Hi-MD setup stores similarly to (which i suspect it does) the seemingly universal method the NW-A uses (seems to be how it's being done on Sony decks now) then content-lock during transfer permitting, it may translate there too.

Claws crossed....

'Tom Kat'

[grenert]

Success with the HD1!

This should be stickied.

One weird thing I noticed was that the re-imported songs have a dark grey "musical note" icon next to the library number (instead of the blue-green icon on the other songs). Anyone know what this means?

Thanks again for the tip!

-J. P.