Recovering Corrupted BRAW?

I did a week of shooting with the BMPCC 4k and I came away from it with a few files that are un-openable.

I believe the happened when the camera ran out of battery and so the proper write sequence wasn't able to finish to make it a valid file.

They do have a camera named name ie A010_03311203_C011.braw
They do have a file size of significance ie not 4 kb
They do display a generic BRAW icon in the MacOS. Properly written files have a thumbnail (https://cl.ly/a4ed6fdcc7b3)


I've experienced this with DJI drone clips and a gentleman wrote a little Terminal program that either wraps the clip or finishes the write file sequence so the clips/files become recoverable.
live555 com

It's a handy little utility.

Is there something similar here in the BlackMagic community so I can recover this footage?

I just ran into the same problem.
One corrupted file out of 100. Recorded on BMPCC 4K on a Samsung T5.

Is there a repair tool which can fix the header or something?

I did a week of shooting with the BMPCC 4k and I came away from it with a few files that are un-openable.

I believe the happened when the camera ran out of battery and so the proper write sequence wasn't able to finish to make it a valid file.

They do have a camera named name ie A010_03311203_C011.braw
They do have a file size of significance ie not 4 kb
They do display a generic BRAW icon in the MacOS. Properly written files have a thumbnail (https://cl.ly/a4ed6fdcc7b3)


I've experienced this with DJI drone clips and a gentleman wrote a little Terminal program that either wraps the clip or finishes the write file sequence so the clips/files become recoverable.
live555 com

It's a handy little utility.

Is there something similar here in the BlackMagic community so I can recover this footage?

Is it FOR SURE that a clip is missing ?

When this has happened to me, it's been a clip that cuts a second after rolling usually for a battery failing or a double push of the rec button.

Have you got a clip that's MINS long that is ACTUALLY missing ? Or are they false starts ? I only ask because I went though the same thing and then learned none of the clips were missing or corrupted.

Are you trying to recover the same as I did, some non-existing clips, or KNOWN missing takes ?

JB

I used this software to successfully recover a full Cfast card, on two different occasions.

https://www.r-studio.com/

The card was used fine for a full day shoot but then when we went to put it in the computer, it just would show an empty card.Pretty easy to use, and they also allow you to download the trial and make sure itll work before you buy it.

Is it FOR SURE that a clip is missing ?

Thank you John,
the clip is not missing. It is present and 8GB large but can not be opened. Meanwhile i looked into the file with a hexeditor and saw that only zeros are written.
So no way to repair.

I used this software to successfully recover a full Cfast card, on two different occasions.

Thank you Jeremy but the file is not missing. It´s corrupt and can't be opened.
I looked into it and the file is written with only zeros.
So no way to repair or recover.

Is it FOR SURE that a clip is missing ?

Thank you John,
the clip is not missing. It is present and 8GB large but can not be opened. Meanwhile i looked into the file with a hexeditor and saw that only zeros are written.
So no way to repair.

I would quarantine the card and get in touch with BMD support.

It’s very unusual to have a clip corrupt like this.

JB

Did you ever solve your problem?

Something similar has happened to me, some solution, in support they do not give it to me. My files are there but I can't open them.

I've been using BMD cameras since the very first BMCC—never had a problem with corruption until after the update that introduced gyro stabilization (not sure if this was coincidence but I noticed an increase in public posts about this after the update).

I always use approved Cfast cards and have avoided SSDs, but when one of my Cfasts became corrupted on a client shoot, the only company that was able to recover it was Aero Quartet (BMD was not able to help). It was about $200 to recover a single 30 minute file, but it was worth it as it was a paying gig. It was also fortunately a C-camera (BMPCC4K) on the shoot, never had an issue with our 12K or 6K Pro.

Since then, I always record a backup (HD ProRes LT) onto a BMD Video Assist for critical shoots. It's a no-brainer and one of the best features in the video assists. The only downside is that I can't seem to get timecode to match the camera's timecode (jammed with Tentacles). No matter what, the monitors are always off. Hopefully BMD can figure out a way to fix that as it would add instantaneous proxy generation to our workflow.

Good luck,

Fabián

I posted about the recording delay on the Video Assist (BMVA12G7) months ago. I believe it’s fairly predictable and it really doesn’t take long to right the ship since sync by Timecode initially gets you in the ballpark and then sync by waveform might be all it takes to get good sync. Unfortunate but not impossible to correct when the alternative is lost footage.

As for recording LT because it’s just for backup shouldn’t be necessary. Consider recording a higher quality version since the BMVA12G7 has no difficulty recording ProRes 422 HQ if you want it. Yes it’s more data to manage, but good if you ever need to rely on it.

Is there a new solution? I have one file (8GB, contains data in HxD), but I can't open it. Maybe it's just closed wrong.

Edit:
I found this page: https://aeroquartet.com/treasured/black ... aw.en.html
and it works. So the file is just wrongly closed.

It looks that this solution is just for me:
https://www.disktuna.com/recover-braw-b ... sing-dmde/

Do you have better solution to close the file? Some simple script / utility etc.

I’ve used Disk Drill media recovery in the past. You only pay if it works.

But if your first option Aeroquartet works, why not use that? Aeroquartet seems to have a good knowledge of Blackmagic raw.

There seems to be increasing reports about this issue. I opened a similar thread a month ago here https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=169515&p=960296#p893471

I believe the happened when the camera ran out of battery and so the proper write sequence wasn't able to finish to make it a valid file.

Yes, that is also when the issue is occurring for me. While of course running out of battery during a take is not exactly best practice, it does happen, especially on longer doc-shoots and I never had the issue of the corrupted files after a battery shutdown in the past.

I've been using BMD cameras since the very first BMCC—never had a problem with corruption until after the update that introduced gyro stabilization (not sure if this was coincidence but I noticed an increase in public posts about this after the update).

Same for me. Are there any other solutions out there except for downgrading? Would rather avoid downgrading, as it would mean missing out on quite a few features.

I found this page: https://aeroquartet.com/treasured/black ... aw.en.html
and it works. So the file is just wrongly closed.

It looks that this solution is just for me:
https://www.disktuna.com/recover-braw-b ... sing-dmde/

Do you have better solution to close the file? Some simple script / utility etc.

Čeněk can you expand on your solution? I followed your links but one of them seems to be a paid service and the other one quite heavy coding thats only windows-based. If anyone has discovered an easier workflow to close those files correctly I would be extremely grateful!

Just bumping this in case anyone has any updates! Would really appreciate it!

Čeněk can you expand on your solution? I followed your links but one of them seems to be a paid service and the other one quite heavy coding thats only windows-based. If anyone has discovered an easier workflow to close those files correctly I would be extremely grateful!

Yes, it is paid service. I didn't use it. I only uploaded the corrupted file through their tool and got a preview of the video I shot. The video wasn't important so I didn't have to pay for it. But if it happens to me in the future for important footage, I'll pay. Because it seems to work.

You can try Error Checker on Windows aka CHKDSK.