Mac OSX Finder files Not Showing Up/Disappearing

[dbbubba]

I am having a problem where once I render audio files only four or five files will show up at a time on my drive when looking in the finder.
If I try to import the rendered files in iTune only a few will show up at a time.

The last files I render show up, but only the latest four or five are visible.
I can see the drive filling up, but no matter what I can't see the rendered files!

THE DRIVE IS NOT FULL.
I have trashed a lot of rendered files and captured files.
Sill, it shouldn't have filled the drive.

I am rendering a bunch of audio files in Final Cut Studio and I have rendered hundreds in the last few weeks.
Now only four or five will show up.
The new ones rendered make the old files disappear in the finder.

I am running OSX 10.4.11
My external drive is a Maxtor One Touch III 750 GB

This system has worked fine for two weeks, but this week something changed.
I am not doing anything different.

Any ideas?

[Irritator]

I would suspect the directory on the problem disk. Here's a couple of ideas for how to troubleshoot it:

o empty the trash first

o find out if those files got renamed or moved somehow, or maybe hidden. I'd use the terminal, navigate to the directory in question, and use "ls -ai". That will show you all files (due to -a) and the inode numbers (due to -i), which will normally stay constant even if the files is renamed or moved. Another useful command might be "find /Volumes/<volume_name>", which will list all files on that disk.

o find out if this happens to all files. I'd use the terminal again, and first try creating some empty files using "touch <filename>", and see if they appear correctly. If so, I'd then try to create some non-empty, still small files, using say "ls > 1.txt". If they appear correctly, I'd try to copy some of the big files you have there.

o find out if this happens to other disks. If you have another external drive, try using it and see if it has the same problem. (I wouldn't expect that.)

o find out if there's something wrong with the disk structures. First, try "Verify Disk" with Disk Utility. If that doesn't show anything, I would try Disk Warrior, which has helped me resolve really sticky things in the past. (While not as likely, I'd also try "Verify Permissions" in Disk Utility, just to be thorough.)

o if there's something wrong with the disk, I'd take backups of all the files first, then try to fix the disk (using Disk Warrior if available), then take a second set of backups, and finally reformat the disk before restoring the second set of backups.

Hope this helps. Sorry if you already knew all of that.

[manthe]

Is the drive formatted as Mac Journaled, or is it FAT32/NTFS? I've always had issues with FAT tables on FAT32 drives on OS X...same types of issues as you're having.

[FFTT]

Make sure you save all your files "SAVE AS" (something you can remember)

While saving, you'll be given an option of where to save them.

To find files use your spotlight search in the upper right corner.

to the right of the listing the circled (i) will tell you were the file is.

Pretty much everything will be somewhere in your Home folder.

It really helps to keep your Home folder organized and simple.

I save all my work to a SONGFILES folder within my Home folder.

[dbbubba]

These are Final Cut Pro audio render files

They are appearing and disappearing at random.
In the past (last week) they worked fine.
This week only four OR five will show up at a time.
If you render twelve files you'll only be able to see four or five in the finder.

Thanks to Final Cut, you can't see what the files are actually named.

I am going to stop using Final Cut because I am really only needing the audio.
The audio portion of Final Cut is a total joke.
I have used DAWs since 1992 and the audio portion of FCP is the worst I have EVER encountered!

I am doing the work in Digital Performer.

[joelpatterson]

I hear the new version will be called Final Straw.

[3rd world order]

sounds like a disk problem for sure.

install and run applejack

once it's installed you restart while holding down "cmd-S" and a black screen will appear

at the prompt type: applejack auto restart

it will repair the disk and any permissions which have gone astray. i do this more or less weekly

[Sigma]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

I hear the new version will be called Final Straw.

bawhahahah


..to an earlier poster i have spotlight disabled..i heard it runs in the backgound and took it out to get every oz of dedicated power to my pt sessions

[joelpatterson]

You know... when you say "disabled," that might be offensive to people who actually are disabled.

[Sigma]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

You know... when you say "disabled," that might be offensive to people who actually are disabled.

i dated a girl once with cerbral palsy...she was pissed because she was called "differently abled" she said... WTF can i breath underwater or fly?... i liked that

we emasculate language

********, imbecile, moron and idiot were all scientific terms dealing with specific IQ levels..

Moron (IQ 50-69)
Imbecile (IQ 20-49)
Idiot (below 20)

hmmm this covers most of us here on gearslutz

and now they are UN PC

[dbbubba]

WEll, I talked to the enthusiastic, knowledgeable and EXTREMELY patient young man at Apple who is an expert.

He couldn't explain what was going on.
He DID explain a better way to export the files purely as .aiiffs which is what I would do with a program like PT or DP5.
Because I like the way that Final Straw Pro captures stuff and allows you to name a bunch of files... I am going to use it for one more weekend.

Final Straw Pro allows you to "name" a captured "clip" and it applies that name to all of the video and sound files you record in that capture.
It makes it VERY easy for me to keep track of everything.

People have a hard time grasping that I am capturing up to 200 three minute performances (230 last weekend.) This is all in one or two seven hour sessions.
I then break those 200 or more files into three versions.... do the math....
That is 600 files to manipulate and burn to CDs.

If you hear a loud scream coming from the area of Greenville, SC this weekend you'll know that it is me.
If you were in San Francisco last weekend you could have heard me yell, "F U C K THIS!"