Hi! Some vids I saved to an external HD won't play...insight? help?

[supervir2]

Hi all - new to the forum and looking for some guidance.

I transferred a bunch of files to an external drive (says WD on the side, stores 300GB - can find the model if it is important) from my powerbook g4. I recently went back to view some and a few will not play in QT anymore. The files say the proper size (11.3MB, etc) but don't generate a preview and show 0'00 for duration. Are they gone or is there a way to recover them? Thanks!

-Matt

[redwudz]

supervir2, please do not post the same topic in several forums. I've deleted the other topic. If you wish to move a topic to another forum, PM a Mod.

Thanks,

Moderator redwudz

And welcome to our forums.

[supervir2]

Thanks redwudz - I wasn't trying to spam. I posted it here first and noticed there was more traffic elsewhere. If this is than appropriate forum, then that is just fine.

[redwudz]

If you are asking about Mac solutions, it's probably the correct forum. Sorry, I don't have any specific suggestions for your problem, but some of our other Mac users may be able to help you.

[rumplestiltskin]

Might be a format issue; the drive may not have been formatted as MacOS Extended but, instead, FAT32. While this shouldn't have caused a problem, it might be a related issue.

[Antoniola]

What happens if you move one of those files back onto your Mac's drive?

[supervir2]

If I move one of those particular files back, there is the same playback problem. I guess my question is if there is a way to change the duration or if the files are too corrupt as something was clearly lost in the transfer and QT is not reading them as having any duration.

[terryj]

Could be a codec issue, that you no longer have the ability
to propely decode the file because you no longer hafe
the codec that was used to make the file ( DIVX, 3ivx, etc.)

Simple answer: Go get VLC and see if VLC will play the files
on the drive. If it does, then you can get info on the file
that is playing, and the Stream 0 info will tell you the codec
used in the file.
Once you have that info, go into Library/Quicktime, and see
if you have a matching codec in that folder. If not, then you
should go get one of the following:'

for xvid, divx, flv and mkv video: go get Perian and install it.
for wmv and windows media encoded files: get Flip4Mac's WMV player.

[Antoniola]

Terry might be on to something here. What is the file type? .mov, AVI, WMV, etc.?? Don't remember if you said where these came from. If the file info indicates they are the appropriate size, they are probably still valid, but we need to know what they are. VLC plays a lot of stuff...Flip4Mac does WMV, Flash=.flv.....

If I move one of those particular files back, there is the same playback problem. I guess my question is if there is a way to change the duration or if the files are too corrupt as something was clearly lost in the transfer and QT is not reading them as having any duration.

[supervir2]

Thanks for the info - I tried the VLC program and it said that the avi file is broken and seeking will not work. It asks to try to repair it, but every version I've tried crashes at or before that point.

As for codecs, I've taken all of my vids with the same camera and my other videos play (and these used to), so I'm assuming it is an issue with the transfer.

Thanks a lot for the advice so far - does that sound salvageable? Any other ideas? I'll keep trying the program...the last time it gave me some semblance of the original sound before it crashed - no vid yet.