Treasured's Movie Repair Guide -- Evaluate the situation and take the first action

After you have taken first aid actions, you will determine what the first action should be, based on your current situation.


What is your starting point?



Note to Windows PC users:

Some actions listed below are only available to Mac users (Treasured is a Mac application).

As an alternative, please also visit: Windows, Expected contents.


- UNREADABLE Disk or Card

A memory card or Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is considered unreadable if, despite being connected to the computer, the disk icon doesn't show up in the Finder.

If the icon is present, see the other choice "Damaged HDD". Even if the disk seems empty or its content is not what you expect, the fact that the disk "mounts" on the Finder means that it is readable.


Unreadable disks cannot be examined by Treasured. You will have to use a data recovery service, either software or hardware, to bring your disk back to "readable" state. In the worst cases, it is not possible.


Action >> Try to make the disk readable again, using a third-party tool or service

See also Repair after storage failure.


- DAMAGED Disk or Card

The disk has experienced a failure. Files and even entire folders may have been lost or corrupted.


First of all, the disk must be readable: Its icon shows up in the Finder. Otherwise, see the other choice "Unreadable Disk or Card".

It is not necessary to use a data recovery utility, because Treasured now includes a data recovery tool called DeepMediaScan.


While Treasured can operate on data from a damaged disk extracted by such third-party services or tools, the best results are achieved when Treasured scans directly the damaged disk or card.


Action >> Do a DeepMediaScan with Treasured and check expected contents

See also Repair after storage failure and Methods to read a damaged disk.


- UNPLAYABLE file

A file that you expect to contain footage is considered unplayable if it cannot be opened by QuickTime Player. 

We take QuickTime Player as the reference software because it's the gateway to most audio and video workflows: a file that is playable in QuickTime can be used in Final Cut Pro, can be edited, exported, ...

Other playback applications, like VLC for example, are more tolerant. You can find that a file can be seen with VLC but not with QuickTime Player. This is of little help, since such file cannot be used in FCP, cannot be edited or exported anyway.


Note that the file name and its extension has no importance.

Assuming that your system has the software components (codecs, plug-ins) required to read this type of footage,


Action >> Use Treasured for diagnostic and preview of the file and check expected contents

See also Repair after recording failure


- READABLE file but with defects

Your "movie file with problems" can be opened by QuickTime Player. Unfortunately, movie playback doesn't work as expected. There is a variety of possible pathologies:  


Having a readable file with defects is not better than having an unplayable file: Unplayable files often correspond to "clean failures" that can be repaired, just as bone fractures, whereas files with defects are often "dirty failures", more like cancers.


Action >> Use Treasured for diagnostic and preview of the file and check expected contents

See also Repair after recording failure, Bitstream corruption


- NO FILE!

You have been recording audio and video, for example with QuickTime Pro, with Photo Booth or with iMovie, but something went wrong. Now you don't know where the movie file can be, and if it's playable or not. 


Action >> Look in common places for corrupt movies