Delete from disk

kohaiut1

Newbie Joined: Jul 05, 2020 23:56 Messages: 5 Offline

Solved by

Oct 03, 2020 21:01

Warning to anyone that hasn't @%$@$ themselves yet with this right click "Delete From Disk" option in the library. It WILL delete the file from the system and it will NOT be retrievable. Recycle Bin will know nothing about it. Professional unerase tools will only finad a fragment of it. Why in the #$!@# this option is there with no safety net is beyond me.

I just lost 2-3 days worth of work. Before everyone says "you're an idiot, it's your own fault", here is how easy it is to cause the problem.

Project is done, you want to produce a render to check it out. You produce an MP4 from the source and it uses a name in the same directly but with an .mp4 extension.

2. You review it, decide you want to make a couple tweaks and produce again.

3. Ahhh, you can't overwrite a file from produce!! (programming problem #1)

4. Go to Windows Explorer, find the file, try to delete it. You can't delete it because PowerDirector is holding the file open or at least a link to the file so the OS cannot delete the file. (programming problem #2)

5. Go to PowerDirectory, go to the library, find the file and right click it. (Remember, the only difference between the two files is the file extension itself.) See the option "remove from disk" and think, that will save me a step from removing it from the library and then deleting it in Windows Explorer. (programming problem #3)

6. Go to Produce and for some odd reason it says the file still exists. Shrug. Let it use its _0 name tag and start rendering. (back to problem #1)

7. Notice the render it going reaaaaaaally fast and then it finishes.

8. Go back to EDIT and realize your entire source .AVI (40gb) is GONE from the project video track.

9. Try to find a way to unerase. No undo in PowerDirector. File isn't in the recycle bin. Download EaseUS unerase tool to scan the hard drive, find the file, but discover it is only the first 25 seconds of the file.

10. Google for help and see many people crying in the forum about their lost work starting 10 years ago.

(If you read this and you're going to respond that it's my fault or to be more careful, just save yourself the effort.)

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Oct 04. 2020 05:43

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Oct 03, 2020 21:38

They had safety guards in place previously that the user could configure to prevent this, see attached pic. When PD18 lost this and went to a strange "Reset" I had a lengthy discussion with CL during a session share because PD18 was crashing during certain edit events, I took the opportunity to state just how poor the new approach was. In the end I was told they had too many config settings for a single page, hence the change, I about lost it with the shared session during a typing exchange. That's the most non logical program layout and programing choice I have ever heard.

Jeff


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kohaiut1

Newbie Joined: Jul 05, 2020 23:56 Messages: 5 Offline

Oct 03, 2020 21:48

Quote They had safety guards in place previously that the user could configure to prevent this, see attached pic. When PD18 lost this and went to a strange "Reset" I had a lengthy discussion with CL during a session share because PD18 was crashing during certain edit events, I took the opportunity to state just how poor the new approach was. In the end I was told they had too many config settings for a single page, hence the change, I about lost it with the shared session during a typing exchange. That's the most non logical program layout and programing choice I have ever heard.

Jeff

I noticed some topics on this subject with previous versions of PD did mention an option to enable/disable this feature. You are right, it definitely isn't there in PD 365.

The problems #1 and #2 funneled me down to seeing #3 and using it to my chagrin.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Oct 03, 2020 23:12

kohaiut1 I'm sorry to hear about your very stressful experience. It's clear from the outside what happened, but that in no way makes up for what you went through.

Last year I secure erased the wrong internal 250GB SSD and lost dozens of mostly and partially finished client projects, which I then had to either recreate from scratch or make the finishing edits and changes to previously produced clips without access to the original timelines.

You might be able to do the same thing here, and you're actually in better shape because you still have the project and timeline intact.

Place the produced clip on track 1 instead of the individual sections of the original source, and disable or remove all content that's already in the finished video. As long as you don't need any new content from the original AVI clip, you should be able to proceed.

kohaiut1

Newbie Joined: Jul 05, 2020 23:56 Messages: 5 Offline

Oct 03, 2020 23:46

Quote kohaiut1 I'm sorry to hear about your very stressful experience. It's clear from the outside what happened, but that in no way makes up for what you went through.

Last year I secure erased the wrong internal 250GB SSD and lost dozens of mostly and partially finished client projects, which I then had to either recreate from scratch or make the finishing edits and changes to previously produced clips without access to the original timelines.

You might be able to do the same thing here, and you're actually in better shape because you still have the project and timeline intact.

Place the produced clip on track 1 instead of the individual sections of the original source, and disable or remove all content that's already in the finished video. As long as you don't need any new content from the original AVI clip, you should be able to proceed.

Great idea. I do have a pretty high quality encoded mp4 of the project (the one I meant to delete, haha). There's a couple of spelling mistakes in it... I could possibly overlay corrections on the already produced version. I won't be able to tweak everything.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Oct 03. 2020 23:47

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Oct 04, 2020 00:34

Spelling corrections are easy if the background is stationary or is available elsewhere in the produced clip. You can mask out a section big enough to cover the mispelled word from the matching section of the produced clip placed on a lower track, then use the revised title from the timeline.

Oliverz

Member Joined: Jul 01, 2020 07:32 Messages: 136 Offline

Oct 04, 2020 04:39

A tip for the future, so that such a problem cannot arise (I've always worked like this in all programs)!
The source files are on an external HDD AND on an internal NVRAM SSD (because write / read speed is many times higher). ONLY from the SSD the files are imported into the library for the current project. When I change a project, it is saved under a different file name. So I always have access to previous versions! Likewise when I produce a video - ALWAYS enter a new file name! This gives me access to all versions during the current production. Only when everything has been finally finished are all files no longer needed deleted and the rest of them go back to the external HDD.

kohaiut1

Newbie Joined: Jul 05, 2020 23:56 Messages: 5 Offline

Oct 04, 2020 11:08

Quote A tip for the future, so that such a problem cannot arise (I've always worked like this in all programs)!
The source files are on an external HDD AND on an internal NVRAM SSD (because write / read speed is many times higher). ONLY from the SSD the files are imported into the library for the current project. When I change a project, it is saved under a different file name. So I always have access to previous versions! Likewise when I produce a video - ALWAYS enter a new file name! This gives me access to all versions during the current production. Only when everything has been finally finished are all files no longer needed deleted and the rest of them go back to the external HDD.

I do need to use a more formal approach. I have an interlaced raw versio of the source on my NAS but my deinterlaced version was on my local SSD. I've kind of split my files across both when doing a project putting the big files locally and the small files remotely. Then at the end packing the project into a directory on the NAS. I could probably save several steps doing it as you suggest and create some redundancy.