REALLY STRANGE RARE THING: MPG video CHANGED after file transfer or copy

[xboxsold]

This happened to me 2 times so far on 2 different computers. I copied several GB of MPG video files from one drive to another when I was cleaning up and organizing my files. After some time a went back to play the files and found that the titles and files sizes were all OK but ALL the video was the same, So no matter what the title of the video file was or the file size was , the video played choppy and the video and audio where magically changed to the same video file.

For example:

America's Funniest Home Videos--ABCw-10-24-10.ty.mpg 847,554 KB
Bewitched--TVLD-10-20-10.mpg 498,254 KB
Billy & Mandy- Wrath of the Spider Queen--CNe-10-24-10.mpg 922,819 KB
after I copied these video files to another drive , the viewed video is all the same movie Toy Story shows up video is choppy but viewable and video not in sync.

Technically HOW is this possible. Is there any explanation.

I thought it was the player cache or something but i tried 2 different computers ,

So in short:

The video files were healthy and fine before the copy but after the copy they have all magically changed.

If it matters i use VLC player to play all my video. But its not the player as all my other MPG files on other drives are fine, just the movies that i copied on this one drive.

Thanks

[lordsmurf]

What you suggest is impossible.
You've simply missed a more logical reason for what you observe.

[filmboss80]

The video files were healthy and fine before the copy but after the copy they have all magically changed.

Well, there's your answer: magic!

[xboxsold]

I cant imagine technically how the video changed.. That like's like if it were a word document or text file and it changing what is in the document to say something entirely different after its copied from one drive to another. If somebody has had this issue please post here and if this happened to you please post your findings. Please point me in the right directions I have researched this and dont find any info or posts about this topic

[aedipuss]

a corrupted/dying drive might do it. try right clicking on the drives properties/tools/error checking. not that they will be recoverable.

[ckdexterhn]

Did both sets of files originate from the same computer? How are you transferring the files, using a clone program, Windows copy folder, cut and paste? Eliminating problems in your transfer methods, you may have a virus. There have been viruses that have upset programs designed to rename/copy files by planting a hidden file in a temporary folder. The hidden file would replace any file run thru the program, so if 100 files were copied or renamed, they would all be the same one file, just named differently.

[xboxsold]

That would explain what happened to me if it were true , but if that were the case then it would have happened more often i would think, Please keep the ideas coming I dont want to leave anything out.

Did both sets of files originate from the same computer?
a: Not sure about that , last time this happened i had a bunch of different video on a drive with different titles, after the transfer NOT ALL of them but most of them are now filled with some random cartoon when played , the titles are correct and the file sizes are all different but every one of them plays some random cartoon, all the same cartoon. it just starts off from different locations.
Answer:
its not the drive as i do this often, ( transfer video files ) . It may be the program I use to keep track of my copying its called TeraCopy Pro 2.12 , Im no checking my files randomly after the copy process. I have kept about 200gb of files ( the mpg video that are messed up ) that were destroyed last time in hopes of finding a solution or fixing them. I just wanted a idea so I can make sure this dont happen again, if only I knew where to look.

[deadrats]

What you suggest is impossible.

what are you talking about? it happened to me right after i sniffed some glue while popping some acid.

[aedipuss]

sounds like your "alternative - hive five best file copier" has screwed the pooch and destroyed the file allocation table.

[DB83]

There was a similar thread a few weeks ago where the OP had his videos in his camera but they all played the same one. As far as I know that topic remains unresolved.

Now, just a thought, although it does seem to me that your HDD is going bad - corruption of the FAT - do you actually have a file on that drive named 'Toy Story' ? Have you tried moving that and then deleting it from the drive where these problems arise ? What happens then ?

I would suggest you tale a look at file recovery programs such as ZAR that will scan the drive and copy the files to another one.

[lordsmurf]

It may be the program I use to keep track of my copying its called TeraCopy Pro 2.12 ,

Yes.
Use ycopy, or use Windows' own copy process.
Not Teracopy.

[Nelson37]

Important to specify whether the appearing video is part of file that you already have on the drive, but this is a near-certainty.

Possible virus activity.

Have seen somewhat similar issues with a single defective drive, but never replicated on seperate systems, with seperate drives, within a short period of time. Possible you have TWO drives with corrupted FAT tables. Or more.

Now lookee here, a non-standard file copy program, used instead of the built-in OS-provided copying utility, has been used in ALL cases wherein the problem has reared its silly head. Imagine that.

Test all drives thoroughly, virus scan with at least two or three different programs, and start using a Built-into-the-OS standard file copy utility that almost NEVER screws up, and ditch that piece of crap probably written by somebody that shouldn't be writing screen-savers.

[ron spencer]

It may be the program I use to keep track of my copying its called TeraCopy Pro 2.12 ,

Yes.
Use ycopy, or use Windows' own copy process.
Not Teracopy.

what is wrong with teracopy

[xboxsold]

I agree with your findings in theory , it could be Teracopy but i will also hold out for another possibility. Teracopy is one of my favorite programs , i install it on all my computers . Its superior in performance and give you complete file control, u should try it .. will see if anyone can come up with another theory. Thanks

[hech54]

Teracopy is one of my favorite programs , i install it on all my computers . Its superior in performance and give you complete file control, u should try it .. will see if anyone can come up with another theory.

Are you freaking serious?

[Ozzyjim]

Were theese from a STB / PVR / TIVO device?? I had a similar thing happen when I used a USB port to transfer a movie recorded on a PVR to the computer - filename / size etc was all correct but 1/2 through the movie it played part of a different program (no longer on the HDD as was deleted) but it played fine on the PVR....

James

[xboxsold]

Yes, I have several Hacked Tivos Satellite tivos, from ( dvdcenter.org ) I get all my shows using TYTOOLS, Been doing it for years.. Its weird that this even happened , The first time i couldent make anything of it but when it happened the 2nd time i really wanted to know the HOW to make sure it wouldent happen again. Im sure it happened after i copied the files from one drive to another and nothing todo with the process of extracting the files from a tivo or with TY Tools. The difference with your situation from mine is almoste EVERY file has part of the same movie, Its like a virus has invaded the video file in the form of the same movie repeating over and over.

[DarrellS]

It may be the program I use to keep track of my copying its called TeraCopy Pro 2.12 ,

Yes.
Use ycopy, or use Windows' own copy process.
Not Teracopy.

what is wrong with teracopy

Teracopy is my favorite file manager. I've used it on all my computers (and friends computers) and have never had a problem with it. It is way superior to Windows Explorer copy. I've never used the pro version though. Just the free version.

When moving files from one drive to another, Teracopy will copy the files, not cut and paste unless that is the process that you choose. I always copy the files first and then delete afterwards because years ago, I transferred one drive to another using Window Explorer and almost all of the files were corrupted. Some had zero bytes of data and some had pieces of data like unfinished downloads. I think my problem may have been loose memory. I opened the PC and the clips that hold the memory down on my old MSI board had fallen off and the memory had popped up on one end. That board fried about a year later and I haven't bought MSI since.

[lordsmurf]

It is way superior to Windows Explorer copy

There's several to choose from out there. This person needs to remove Teracopy and try again without it. Remove variables. If any of us has ever learned anything about computers, it's that no two systems are necessarily going to react the same to software.

Are you freaking serious?

Translation: Or continue to ignore good advice and go head-in-sand, believing it's magic. At the end of the day, the rest of us truly don't care that much.

Again: Remove Teracopy and try again without it. Remove variables.

[DarrellS]

Yes, I have several Hacked Tivos Satellite tivos, from ( dvdcenter.org ) I get all my shows using TYTOOLS, Been doing it for years.. Its weird that this even happened , The first time i couldent make anything of it but when it happened the 2nd time i really wanted to know the HOW to make sure it wouldent happen again. Im sure it happened after i copied the files from one drive to another and nothing todo with the process of extracting the files from a tivo or with TY Tools. The difference with your situation from mine is almoste EVERY file has part of the same movie, Its like a virus has invaded the video file in the form of the same movie repeating over and over.

I could see this being the problem rather than teracopy but to eliminate Teracopy as the cause, you might as well remove it.

I could see where maybe using USB might be a problem also but I have an external hard drive enclosure with USB, firewire and e-SATA and have no problems transferring files with this device. Both my brother and a friend had problems with ASUS boards where they lost USB function and also had problems with SATA and IDE controllers.

I did have a problem with a WD My Book where I disconnected the drive without shutting down (not sure why I had a problem since the system is hot plug-able but). Windows told me there was a write problem to the drive since I disconnected without shutting down or not using the "safely remove hardware" function and all the files on the My Book were screwed. Not a big deal since all the files were still on my PC. I just had to recopy them.

Every time I've had a problem, it has been hardware associated. Bad drives, unseated memory or user error.

Also, when using Teracopy (or any file copy software), don't try moving large amounts of data at a time. Try moving a folder at a time, not a whole drive at a time. You are much more likely to have have problems moving large amounts of data no matter what copy program you use. At least with Teracopy, you know when, where and why a problem occurred if you're paying attention since it shows you exactly what it's doing and which file gives you trouble if any, unlike Windows.

For moving the contents of a drive, you're better off using a program like Acronis True Image and creating an image of that drive. Not trying to move the whole drive at once with a file copy program like Teracopy.

[xboxsold]

Thanks to ALL for your suggestions. I will assume its Teracopy, in a freakish reaction to something hardware related.

Can anyone that is technical explain how a .mpg file that has a shows on it, after copied they still have the same name and file size when copied and after copied, transform itself to a different movie. Usually its the like a different movie .. well call it "A" can replicate it across many movies call them "B" and "C" and "D" ect.. , its like a infection.

Thanks

[Nelson37]

The basic file information is stored in a table, identifying which clusters of hard drive contain the file. If the table is incorrect, or more likely a program incorrectly reads or stores this info, as is common with software attempting to add "hi-performance" or non-standard features, then you can get the results you received.

If you have not run a chkdsk on this drive, and a defrag, I would do so right away. Now there are some non-standard and high-performance progs you could get to do this, or you could use the ones built-in to the OS.