Recording error--how to recover files?
 

The good news it the images from the XF are breathtaking. The bad news is that I have been getting recording errors with Transcend cards and one batch of files is missing the index file--and FCP will not read the file structure!
Does any one have any idea how to import/recover these files? I was using two Transcend 64gb cards and the weird thing was that early on I was not getting errors--now it happens every time I use them. Switched to a 32gb Sandisk Extreme no problems at all yet, but need the longer record times.
And now after a shoot in which the dreaded "recover data?" message came up repeatedly (the Transcend was my overflow card for a two hour shoot) the all important file structure seemed to have gotten messed up and I wonder if there is a work around.

Jeff,

Have you tried using the Finder to drill down into the contents of the card and then dragging and dropping one of the MXF files directly into an FCP sequence? I've done that before just to see if it would work and it did. It would be time-consuming if you have a lot of clips, but at least you might recover the footage.

64 GB cards, huh? That's a lot of eggs in one basket. I prefer to use 16GB cards.

Actually I already took the data off the cards and to a hard drive and only discovered the missing index file when I went to import. Card is already reformatted. The little index file has never been missing before. Weird. I am often on the road shooting for a week at a time and don't have the time to both move the files to a hard drive and transcode them.
Your right smaller cards might work better. It was fine on my 5d.

Well, even if you've already moved the clips off of the card, that shouldn't make any difference.
Just find the MXF files on your hard drive and try my suggestion from there instead of from the card.
Whether the clips are on the card or a hard drive shouldn't matter.

Thanks Doug, no the Final Cut timeline didn't accept the MXF file; I tried it from a batch that FCP already read just fine and that didn't work so maybe I am doing something wrong.
When I drag the folder that contains the MXF file into the FCP media window it asks me to find the "translation document" and opens a finder window. When I cannot find any such thing (not sure what it is) and click cancel it gives an error message that says the "translation template" is missing.
Other than this one batch with the missing "index" file I have successfully load all the XF footage I have shot.

Jeff,
I'm not sure if I can follow exactly what you are doing, but here's what I am able to do with FCP 7.0.3

1) Use the Finder to go to: Hard Drive > XF Backup Files > Contents > Clips001 > AA0001 > AA001.mxf

2) AA0001.mxf is a 1920x1080 50Mbps 30P clip.

3) I drag AA0001.mxf directly onto a new (empty) sequence in FCP.

4) FCP asks if I want to conform the sequence to match the clip.

5) I say yes, and the clip plays back perfectly on the time line.


That doesn't work for you?
What about clips that are not invovled in this problem? Do they work?