Alert 4GB Windows file size limit -seamless linking of large files

[Worldlife]

This is a provisional alert concerning- Arcsoft "ShowBiz" video editing suite retailed by Serif UK. I'm not sure how this program overcomes the 4Gb Windows file size limit particularly for files within a file.. would appreciate an explanation. Suspect a problem here might be the cause of the havoc on my system yesterday.. could I be correct?

What other reasons might there be for "wiping" a drive in this way?

Spent yesterday afternoon and most of the evening assembling and editing a video featuring not too much of ourselves intermingled with location shots and excellent professional entertainment. Was careful to "save" the video after every clip loaded and edited. All was lost as my slave Drive D on which the program was installed together with everything on that drive has been wiped.

Do you think the following might be valid reasons for thinking that the villain is indeed "ShowBiz" that was running at the time of the problem?

4Gb represents about 20 minutes assembled video running time in the format I was using (.avi). Just prior to the system failure a five minute clip had been seamlessly broken into two files suggesting that the 4Gb maximum file size for the co-ordinating system had been exceeded. Hmmm thinking this one through the captured avi.files are the only big ones it must have been that one of my "saves" was to a partially finished movie... the production file is otherwise mere assembly links to each of the smaller edited clips.

My current editing suite (Ulead Video Studio 5) was running well on Drive D and to avoid conflict was uninstalled before putting ShowBiz on the system.

I finished capturing ofr editing the last clip before closing a day's work. Things happened rapidly but I think I had trouble stopping the job using the on screen software and I then used the camcorder stop buttons. Almost immediately I saw red unavailable signals going over all the thumbnail file links in my library of edited clips.

As far as I can recall I was able to close Windows normally although Showbiz had failed. On restarting Windows I received a reprimand from Scandisk.....it proceeded to check drive "D" and at 95% completion dropped back to 85% and there it stayed.

WinRescue advised that there was not enough conventional memory for Scandisk. Suggested REM of device drivers and using Emm 386.exe to load drivers high. (Is this still a valid procedure for W98/ME etc?) Good thing what little DOS procedures I knew had been forgotten. Now need the "i"'s dotted for this

This gave me the idea of trying Windows Safe mode but again unable to move beyond the 85% scandisk completion.

I had a CD boot disk for Ontrack SystemSuite (although the program is not installed as I prefer Zone Alarm and IPE realtime). This did seem to give a useful explanation...

"Drive D - severe file allocation table errors found. No repair attempted"

I gave up here but decided to give "Safe Mode" and overnigh chance. Got up at about 1.00 am this morning to prepare a handwritten note for my wife to fax to Serif from her office. After about an hour (Scandisk had already been running 3 hrs) the indicator moved to 87% and then onwards to 100% and then a very, very long wait with a blank "Safe Mode" screen. Wow the program icons then appeared. I had Drive C back in operation!!!!

Should one expect this sort of thing from quality professional software - this for me is the equivalent of losing one's virginity. I've always been able to pin a need to reinstall directly on my own action and never before installed software with such drastic adverse results.

It could have happened to someone operating a single large Drive. Total and absolute disaster!!!

At least I have now been able to email Serif and await their reply.

[Onslo]

A similar thing happened to me once.....except I could not place the balme squarely on the shoulders of any one program in particular.

Essentially what has happened, and as is described by yourself, is that the FAT (file allocation table) has fallen apart. Not having enough memeory would suggest that you would need to do the scandisk through DOS. However, you seem to have managed to scandisk the drive without using DOS?

From the sounds of it you may well have suffered a "head crash" of some sort. This is the only explanation that I could find for the problems that I encountered. Like you the scandisk didn't seem like it would ever complete, and there was not way I was going to leave it running for days on end. I just foramtted and started again, however, after the format had completed I noticed that he drive capacity was down by about 300 megs, evidence of bad sectors caused by the head crash?

Sorry Worldlife, I don't know what to suggest.....I could be wrong but I am not sure that the software caused the problem, more like just a freak hardware incident.

'Slo

[silver]

Hi WL,

The problem with s/w and computers is it could be a lot of things

I don't believe there is a 'hard limit' on file size under windows98 (I could be wrong) winzip (the app) can't make / use zip files over 4 gigs - thats a limitation in the way winzip is written, not as OS problem (as far as Im aware) some zip software will let you have terabyte zip files

Did the 'showbiz' app give any clues as to why it crashed?

At a guess it might be due to lack memory - but perhaps thats not likely as showbiz should warn of that b4 trying to do something..

Sil

[Behemoth]

I've had something similar happen to me only by the looks of tings Word Life was very lucky, I lost the whole 18 gig drive 12 months ago after reloading it with my image from Norton Ghost.

I'd say like Onslo you'd had a very lucky escape from a freak hardwrae incident, and you were certainly more lucky than I was, I lost a whole 5 gig worth of downloads, work the whole lot went down the pan when my old drive packed up.

I actually think the problem laid with Norton Ghost, I;'m sure thats what took my drive out, bit it's hard to tell really World Life, although I'm putting my money safely on hardware rather than software.

Behemoth - No stranger to hard drive failure.

[Worldlife]

Thanks everyone for your contributions.

The scandisk sequence that reached completion was effected through the Windows Safe Mode. Maybe the reduced drivers in this mode overcome any possible memory problems.

One of my wife's colleagues suggested that the 'lost' files might still be capable of retrieval but I guess you would have suggested ways and means if this were remotely possible

Before finalising the possible blame on either software or hardware it will be interesting to have Serif's observations...they're a good Company and would be concerned to prevent other customers suffering similar experience.

On the operational front the memory MaxMem icon was running at about one/third of capacity

[silver]

yep - file recovery is possible - you need an 'undelete' app, not sure it'll help much but thread Deleted Files....Help

They work by looking for deleted files, Im not sure that it will help in your case since the file became corrupted - it wasn't simple deleted ? Worth a try perhaps tho

Sil

[Worldlife]

Thanks for your suggestions. Progress report.

Looked through the thread mentioned by Silver and also what products were available at Tucows. Ended up, via Google, at Allen's Winappslist and looking at:-

Final Data Enterprise v1.0

It took about two hours to process the apparantly empty 60Gb slave Drive D and now lists all the missing files.

It is an expensive program and I've now got to sort out what it can do within the terms of the licence. Files are identified by #numbers but are categorised by type.

Sorting out how to copy and rename the files ...not certain whether the program will do this on the original drive and I'm limited on the 10Gb master drive.

Would be worth the price I think for the licensed version if you had lost lots of valuable material.