Hi Paul--
Sorry to hear of your lost recordings. I appreciate that you are
forward-looking and want to know what you can do to avoid such issues
in the future. Shows that you are serious about your recording
efforts.
I taught Hi-MD in classes for several years and compiled likely
problems and suggestions in this handbook:
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/116/Hi-MD-Handbook/06116-HiMD-Hndbk.htm
which is also on pdf:
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/116/Hi-MD-Handbook/06116-HiMD-Hndbk.pdf
And there's a HiMD tips page that linked on this page:
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/audio-reports/HiMD/index.htm
The number one cause of disc reading problems, which seems to be
consistent with your experience, is lost or low power during
recording. The recorders do not seem to reserve enough power to
close-out the disc directory under some conditions before going into
shut-down mode. I suggest using a battery sled like John Hartog's
mentioned and linked on the Tips page. You want to provide it with
surplus power.
There are quite a few other precautions that seem to pay off that are
mentioned in the manual. And, if these are not enough :-X, there are
many in the Hi-MD forum:
http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showforum=3D34
Its painfully ironic that a recorder with good electronics at a good
price comes with so many "gotchas." You can avoid most of them most
of the time, but it will take some reading and practice. Try out the
battery pack and the other tips at home a few times recording nothing
of importance before heading out for more survey work. I can tell by
the thoroughness of your report that you have the required patience,
you just need the benefit of knowing the work-arounds. Rob D.
At 3:06 AM +0000 5/6/09, Paul Willison wrote:
>Hey folks.
>Two nights ago, I was doing an overnight recording using a HI-MD
>recorder, recording directly into the unit via standard(read,
>cheap), condenser mics(I'd guess unbalanced if that makes any
>difference).
>Anyway...it was quite cold and the battery appeared to die about 3
>hours into the recording. This has happened before, and when the
>battery gave out early, the recorder has in the past always
>auto-saved the recording just prior to shutting down.
>This night though things went a bit differently. I was using a disc
>I had also used the night before, so there was already a full nights
>recording on it(I have to use lp mode, I know it sacrifices quality,
>but this is simply used for survey work..so total quality is
>secondary to a degree to simply getting the targeted wildlife).
>Anyway, when I went to check the recorder just before heading into
>my tent, I realised it was off completely. I turned it on, and while
>it came on, it would only playback for 1:41 seconds. Oddly...this
>was all it could pull up.
>I tried two or three times, put in new batteries..no difference.
>Then...I suddenly got a messages saying "cannot record or play".
>This continued on into the next day(yesterday), I was unable to
>access ANY of the recording files, even the ones saved from the
>previous night.
>When I got home and opened Sony's software to work with the
>recording, I got the same issue, but it stated that "the disc has
>been formatted using an unknown process. Please reformat using your
>Sony recorder to allow use of this disc". OF course...reformatting
>wipes the disc clean. In the end, I had no choice if I wanted to use
>the disc...so given that nothing of great importance had been
>recorded, I opted to do so.
>So...any ideas on what happened? I did NOT reformat before the
>error, and indeed, had used the disc the previous night with no
>issues.
>A recording that I had already in part listened to(and was thus
>saved) was ALSO caught up in the odd "reformat" issues.
>Any idea what happened? I'm just trying to avoid the same issue
>again down the road.
>Thanks, Paul
>
>
>
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