My recording HD crashed (long sad story). Yes, yes, I know....
It looks like I was able to recover my .SGU files but when I open one in BiAB, nothing loads. I'm guessing that the files that make up the .SGU file are missing.
What am I looking for to get back up and running? Are they .mp3 files? Do they go into the same folder as the .SGU file?
Presumably you have re-installed BiaB from the distribution? If you have recovered it somehow, it may be missing critical functionality. I would try a full reinstall of BiaB, then try at least several of your SGU files.
If that fails, perhaps you can upload one of the files to Drop-box or a similar file sharing service, and someone here could try for you.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
I went to do a Windows 10 re-install, and my PC put the files on my Recording SSD. I guess it reformatted the drive. I used recovery software and recovered 771,000 files, but many are corrupted. (I haven't tried them all lol).
My .SGU files show up as .SGU files. Nothing happens when I load one. I did not have frozen tracks.
That is correct. I open BiaB, navigate to the .SGU folder, click "Open".
The file appears to load, but the chord chart only shows the beginning C chord, it does not load the song chords. The header shows the correct file name. The mixer shows instruments, but not the right ones. The style is not correct, either.
As a further check, can you create a new song in BiaB, save that song, shutdown and restart BiaB and reload that new song and check that it plays?
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Could you advise exactly what name/version of recovery software you used? I'm wondering if it recovered the files in a different format.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Your SGU file is unfortunately definitely corrupted
Immediately below is the contents of your SGU file, followed by the contents of a valid SGU file. Note in the second example that the Song Name, the Song Style and other info is included in the file (e.g. Reverb). Your file clearly has none of that information.
What recovery tool did you use?
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
I tried multiple recovery programs, like Disk Drill and AOMEI Recovery. Each recovered a few files, but not many. I finally purchased EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Technician. As I mentioned above, it recovered about 771,000 files. Unfortunately, most of the ones I have tried to open are corrupted. Corrupted MP3s give a "Decoder not found for this format" error. I've tried opening them in WMP and VLC, and tried MP3 repair software but nothing has worked. Happily, a good many of my mixdowns were stored on a backup drive, but my BiaB files and Reaper files were not.
Live and learn, I guess.
Thanks again, everybody, unless someone has another suggestion...
Matt, there are just over 9,000 .SGU that were "recovered". Obviously I have not listened to most of them, but none of the ones that I made will play - they all load the same way - instruments load but not the right ones; only a C chord loads in the chord chart; nothing will play.
Most of the files in the recovered folder are .SGU files that I don't recognize:
SmoothJazzCoolSw16^4-XStHH,SnrHH_075.SGU NashBrushBalDbKEv16.SGU VULP Demo - Vulp New Age Driving 8ths.SGU JazzTerryClarke.SGU .......... etc., etc.
They don't play either.
However, I just threw 4 chords into my reinstalled BiaB, picked a style, saved; picked another style, saved that. Both files play normally when I load them (whew). So it looks like I'm OK moving forward.
I guess I'll just delete the 9,000 corrupted files. They are on a different drive from my reinstalled BiaB.
Always back up your important files, guys. But you didn't need me to tell you that.
Do you have any idea why/how your drive crashed? Did you have software running to prevent malware? If not, be careful trying to recover any old files; scan them first.
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