unknown file error when trying to open project from external hd

[Jon Oleksiuk]

regarding the last post,
it is an ‘unknown volume’ file error
any help?

[Debe]

I’m not sure I have an answer that will help you with this problem, but I will tell you that if you are using this drive for FCP media, it should be formatted HFS+, which would not be readable by a PC. Since you’ve obviously used it with a PC, it’s not formatted HFS+. This could be the source of your problem, and if it is, I’ve not heard of any way to recover from it. There may be, I just haven’t heard of one. I will freely admit that I don’t know everything!

However, if I found myself in this situation, this is what I’d do: Before you get too far, try running Disk Warrior or TechTool to see if there are problems with the drive or the b-tree. Do you have the AutoSave Vault backed up anywhere else but the drive? If you have an AutoSave Vault anywhere else, try going back a few versions and see if you can get one to open. This may be your best bet. If there’s no other AutoSave Vault, or there are no other files anywhere else but on this external drive, try copying the files to your internal drive, reformat the drive HFS+, and copy them back. It’s possilbe the files are corrupted, however, and you may not get them back.

When you moved the drive from one computer to another, do you eject, or unmount it first, wait for the drives to spin down, before you pull the cable or turn it off? That also is a frequent cause of fried B-trees which can look like corrupion at times.

I am more “paranoid” about corruption than most. I copy project files to a completely separate drive when I make my backups, which can be two or three times a day. I have a backup on a flash drive, a backup on a FW drive, and my AutoSave Vault on a different drive from my project files. I don’t like to keep all the files in one place, and what you’re experiencing is the reason!

Hope something in here helps!!

debe

[Jon Oleksiuk]

thanks for the reply,
i ended up copying the autosaved file onto the desktop of the mac,
from there i could open it and then i resaved it onto the external harddrive

[Tom Matthies]

I had a bit of a similar problem the other night. After working on a project for a few hours, I went to save it and got the “unknown volume” error and I wasn’t able to save my project. As far as I know, nothing out of the ordinary happened while I was editing. No crashes or flakyness. It simply wouldn’t allow me to “save” or “save as”. I eventually opened the last autosaved version, got it up to date with the last few edits, and saved it. That version worked fine. I also know thqat I was manually saving all along while editing…just out of habit. This problem must have cropped up after the last time I saved manually.

It’s a little alarming, but I’ve had two instances where this has happened. Once where I couldn’t open a project and once where I couldn’t save it. Both times the autosaved projects saved me. I’m wondering if, somehow, these projects are getting corruped in some way? And, mote importantly, how?
This has only happened twice in a string of about twenty projects, but it’s two times to many in my opinion. The new G5 and FCP 5 have generally been behaving OK, but the problems that have popped up are different from the ones I’ve gotten used to and know the work arounds for.

Anyone have any insights or similar problems?

Tom

[Jon Oleksiuk]

situation fixed by copying autosaved files onto desktop harddrive,
then resaving the project once it was opened back onto the external hd.
thanks,
jon,