About corrupted or damaged BRAW files.

Hi everyone!

Recently I have an issue with my BRAW files - BRAW Player showed black screen without any sound, and DaVinci couldn't import them.

Now I'll try to discribe step by step what happend and how I managed to recover my BRAW files.

So. First of all my setup is BMPC4K and SSD Samsung T5 500Gb.

There was two days in a row of shooting. After first day all files was copied to PC in folder 1. They was fine and worked well. On the next day, before shooting, SSD was formated by BMPC4K, in exFAT. While shooting I could work as usually, rewatch what was shot on my camera without any troubles.

After shooting I've copied all BRAW files on PC in folder 2 and there is where all began. All files from folder 2 had black screen in BRAW Player and DaVinci couldn't import them. I've try to play those files directly from SSD and got the same issue (black screen and no import). Then I disconnect SSD from PC and try to read files with BMPC4K. Camera saw SSD but could only format it, so I couldn't watch what was shot. I've disconnect SSD form BMPC4k and again connect to PC. Now PC couldn't read SSD and offers to format it. After micro-infarct I've start to search for solution. Read all thread here where people had same issue, but there was no solution. The only light in dark was post in this thread viewtopic.php?f=21&t=80805#p577978 about a company called AeroQuartet. I've tried one file from folder 2 and there was correct preview of what I've shot on second day.

And there what I've done. I've install R-Studio, soft for recover deleted files. In R-Studio I found files from both days of shooting and I've noticed that from the first day files name started A038_*** and from the second day - A039_*** BUT in my folder 1 and folder 2 on PC ALL files was A038_***.

Actually that was the SAME files as in folder 1! So, once again:

Day 1 - format SSD, shooting, copied to PC, folder 1
Day 2 - format SSD, shooting, copied to PC, folder 2

How, after format SSD, all day shooting and normal work with camera, SSD still has files from day 1 - I have no idea. Also how does AeroQuartet read it as correct (from day 2) file?

Thanks to R-Studio I managed to recover all my files from second day of shooting.

I post it here for all who run into same issue, but first of all for BMD. That issue happened to me second time (first time I've give it to another person to solve it). And I dont know the cause of it. Is it bad format process on BMPC4K and it is better to format SSD by PC, or issue is in SSD? I guess there something wrong with metadata, but I'm not an expert.

Hope someone find it useful and someone from BMD notice this and could to shed light on what is going on.

This sounds vaguely like symptoms I remember reading that people were having with a certain model of card reader (Lexar?) being used with memory cards at some point...

do you have also a SD card in your pocket?

Sounds like a bad USB-C cable.

do you have also a SD card in your pocket?

Yes I do.

in the beginning it was a problem to have a SD card and a SSD in/on the camera at the same time.
but now i don't know if this was fixed with any firmware version

otherwise, a CFast card and SSD was never a problem

That issue happened to me second time (first time I've give it to another person to solve it). And I dont know the cause of it. Is it bad format process on BMPC4K and it is better to format SSD by PC, or issue is in SSD? I guess there something wrong with metadata, but I'm not an expert.
Hope someone find it useful and someone from BMD notice this and could to shed light on what is going on.

No you EVER should format from camera and NEVER from pc or mac, this avoid you addition of hidden folder of Os, every producer of supports wrote that on their instruction.
Every day start with fresh formatted ssd, to avoid problems caused from connection to a computer.

Second time could happened be cause after connecting ssd to computer windows want and write on ssd his files, or during copying do some error.

Everytime you copy shooting you should use Resolve, it had a function to backup with parity check to be sure that you copy exactly all files, and later double check every files with media browser, you can use cut module with tape mode, few work and you are sure that all work fine.


Camera format ssd, record and allow you to see correctly - when you connect with pc that start problems.
Computer are the fault, not camera.

Computer are the fault, not camera.

As I said in first post - on second day SSD was formatted by camera before shooting and work normal the whole day and issue appears when it was connected to PC after shooting for coping material.

Problem is that PC somehow saw files from shooting that was a day before. And only them. And I dont understand how this even possible if SSD was formatted by camera. Now I can only guess what could see Resolve in that situation.

Thanks to R-Studio I managed to recover all my files from second day of shooting.

How did you recover your files through R-Studio?

Computer are the fault, not camera.

As I said in first post - on second day SSD was formatted by camera before shooting and work normal the whole day and issue appears when it was connected to PC after shooting for coping material.

Problem is that PC somehow saw files from shooting that was a day before. And only them. And I dont understand how this even possible if SSD was formatted by camera. Now I can only guess what could see Resolve in that situation.

i not understood how can pc see the old files, often windows 7/8/10 try to waste my files with chkdsk process, where see (for it) wrong structure and damage during its restoring process.
i disable years ago chkdsk from every windows machine on my studio and on my notbook and solve tons of problems.
you can see here how to do
https://www.wintips.org/how-to-disable- ... s-startup/

Thanks to R-Studio I managed to recover all my files from second day of shooting.

How did you recover your files through R-Studio?

r-studio, stellar phoenix, work fine only if you damage MBR (master boot record) or you format support, if support had some part damaged.
all are recovery software, often you can have a demo mode to test if you can recover datas, but with raw datas, and big files the chance are few than smaller files. ironically old CDNGs of blackmagic give you more chance to recover missing shooting than actual single shooting files.

master boot record is a very old partitionmap

I do not understand why BMD does not switch to the modern and current GUID?

.

master boot record is a very old partitionmap

I do not understand why BMD does not switch to the modern and current GUID?

.

if you use Exfat you should deal with old microsoft file sistem tool like MBR, other file system like ntfs is MS property and they not release the use for third part, various external driver to write NTFS from MacOs and Linux are reverce engeneering tool, not approved from micorsoft.

BMD use also a better file system like HFS+, i use a simple 12$ driver paragon to read it from various windows machine.

EXFAT (Fat 64) is an old and limited file system born in 2006 for winCE to go over win32 limits (4gb per file), but had a lots of problems.